We stopped at Ochoco Reservoir and climbed the mountain behind it, to the jasper cliffs. The hike was rough, but I held in there. It's a quick, hard hike that only takes half an hour, but the rock on the trail makes it a bit dangerous. The grade is also extremely steep. But it was worth it. We found red, yellow, and green jasper as well as some mixed.
We then drove to Whistler Spring, hoping to dig for thundereggs, but at 5500 feet+, we got stuck in the snow and had to turn back. We tried it, but we realized even if we made it in, the thundereggs would be buried under two feet of snow. So we backed down and flipped around and Robert looked at the map some more.
We tried White Fir but my Subaru couldn't make it through the 2 feet of snow there either. We decided to drive towards Prineville and turn south on 27. There are a ton of campsites along the Prineville reservoir in a gorgeous canyon headed towards Fischer Canyon, which is known for agates. So we drove past the gorgeous canyon to a rockhounding site in Fischer Canyon, planning to go back to the camping in the deep canyon before dark.
The rock site we found was on top of a desert mesa covered in sagebrush and free range cows. I'm not sure why it's called Fischer Canyon, since it's really more of a Mesa area. We found some gorgeous grape chalcedony and calcite, only after hiking up the Mesa. I filled a small bag with agates, calcite, and quartz that we found just laying on the surface of the thick, soil like duff.
We trekked back down the hill and drove back to the canyon to camp. Our 12 person tent is roomy, so we bundled all our stuff inside and then set up chairs by the doorway, facing the raging Crooked River. We ate crackers, cheese, and Genoa salami, along with veggies and then brownies for desert. We also promised ourselves we would come better prepared next time!
After a good nights sleep in freezing, 34 degree weather, we got up, packed up camp, and drove towards the chalcedony site again. It was 7 am. This time, I turned on a random dirt road and we drove as far as we could, then hiked straight up the hill at the base of a small mountain.
Robert found a gully where some huge rocks had tumbled down the mountain, and lo and behold, the rocks were all opalized! It was incredible. We took only as much as 2 people are allowed in a day, but I sure wanted to take some of those boulders home. They were white and red with blue, green, purple and yellow. Some were jasper and some were chalcedony. My favorites have some color play and are translucent like an opal.
When we were coming down off the mountain, Robert spotted a gorgeous bluebird sitting on a tree. It wasn't a blue Jay. It looked like a chubby Eastern Bluebird. It was incredibly bright and when we scared him, he and another bluebird chased one another away from us. I've never seen a bird so electric blue, in 49 years in the Pacific Northwest, but I was tickled to see them on this trip.
We drove south after that, straight to highway 20, and then just drove straight into Bend. With a quick stop at Peterson's Rock Garden, we were on our way home. Fyi, yes there was a blizzard at HooDoo, over the pass! It was a gorgeous weekend and Robert is now sleeping on the couch. I don't know why he's so tired. I did all the driving!
2 comments:
Amazing rocks, love the story and the photos are wonderful.
We sure had fun. That canyon was great, and so relaxing. Although I was originally confused into thinking it was Fischer Canyon, when in reality Fischer Canyon is the Mesa. Too funny. Btw, do you know if there are opals in the desert out there that just haven't been located yet?
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