Over the Memorial Day Weekend the lapidary group had a trip out to the Kramer Junction area between Mojave and Barstow. On the collecting list were dendritic agate, opalite, bits of petrified bog, onyx, and more agates like last time. In the middle of the day we stopped to view petroglyphs in a little canyon in I don't even know where - the last town we passed through before hitting back country was Hinkley, and hours and hours of driving up and down boulder-covered hills, dry lake beds and dusty, scrubby desert made me lose all sense of time and urgency.
Our first stop was Opal Mountain, to look for common opal in a range of milky-white to amber, to a dark honey color. Here I got to get extensive use out of my rock hammer for the first time, and I had a lot of fun looking for veins of opal and smashing at the surrounding rhyolite to free my finds. But after a while I slowed down to explore the rest of my surroundings. I noticed gem-like hues of lichen coating small rock/dirt outcroppings and regarded them as vast, microscopic alien worlds. I saw a cute little fishhook cactus with a bunch of pups and got pricked a few times admiring the bunch! I got lazy about taking pictures for most of this trip... When your center of balance is always slightly compromised by a rock bag/camera bag on pebbly surfaces that essentially act like a ball bearings-strewn landscape you really just want to be careful while having fun exploring, and then the camera kind of gets pushed to the side...!
We hit another agate field, viewed petroglyphs, and made the long dusty trek back to camp, where I parted ways with the other members and floored it back to LA, to see a good old friend I haven't seen in about a year and a half. The drive home was beautiful - there's a spot on the I-15 S that cuts through some mountains, and as the sun goes down, the mountains are dark and silhouetted; as you turn the curve and breeze downhill you get blasted with light, and I get this strange feeling of contentment at having had a full day of adventure that is then backed with an immediate desire to drive off and go on to the next adventure. I think of Bilbo Baggins saying "I want to see mountains again, mountains, Gandalf!" and I feel the same way, but I want to see mountains, forests, canyons, and other cities!
My haul this time was modest, but no complaints. Above, you see big chunks of agate that I would like to throw into the rock tumbler the next time I have a chance, as well as a few chips of honey opal. I found two dendritic agates, nothing impressive, but was happy to find more greenish specimens of agate, striped, translucent, milky and all. I only made it for 1/3 of the trip, but it was a great way to start the long weekend.
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