Rockhounding Adventures

@Scribblingramma, @Generikat, the latter's husband T, and I all went on an excursion to the Emerald Creek Garnet Area to prospect for garnets. My fellow bloggers have their own tales to tell, I'm sure, so I will limit my post to the location for now.

We turned off the highway at the sign for the park. The first stretch of this side road was paved, but the road soon turned to gravel with occasional cattle guards and stretches of washboard as it twisted and turned and climbed into the mountains. We eventually found ourselves at a small but well-maintained parking area where we gathered some supplies from the car. Then we set off on a half-mile uphill hike to reach the site proper.

At the top of this trail was the site where the park service has set up a garnet prospecting area. The hut is the HQ for the forest service employees who maintain and monitor the site. To begin, you must pay for a permit. It costs $10 per adult and $5 per kid to collect up to 5 lbs. of garnets per day.

To begin, garnet hunters grab a pair of buckets from the stash by the hut and head over to the heap of garnet-rich sand and gravel that is piled in its little clearing. The recommended procedure is to fill both buckets half-way.

Then, the eager prospectors hike over to the sifting station. Pour one bucket's contents into the other bucket here. This area is equipped with seating, shelter from the sun, and sieves so they can sift the sand our of the ore, leaving dirty gravel to be transferred into the other now-empty bucket.

Once all the ore is sifted, the bucket of gravel and garnets is carried over to a pair of sluice boxes that bear an array of waiting screened sieves for the final wash that reveals the garnet trove that was hopefully in your bucket!

Garnets stand out as a deep burgundy or purple. The waste left over from sorting several trays of gravel for garnets is called the "tailings," and is then dumped into a marked area for disposal before you begin again.

My haul was 17.7 oz. of small garnets and fragments plus a number of interesting quartz stones. Not too bad! @generikat found the big gemstones in one lucky spot though. I need to photograph my finds after trying to clean them off better. Maybe tomorrow.

I plan to use the quartz to experiment with wire wrapping and gem cutting before serious experimentation on the garnets proper. Posts will follow as events develop. Don't hold your breath. More likely in the near term will be a series of photos from the drive!