Any rockhounds in the WA HTF?
Never been into it but it does look interesting and a good excuse to get and do some exploring.

I have gotten into it in the past few years, and been into gold panning for quite a while.

The wife and I head up to red top mtn. east of the mountains, found a few nice pieces of agate and chalcedony, and supposedly there are grapefruit size geodes on the tree'd side of the hill. Last year I found a nice hunk of Ellensburg blue with geode crystals. My favorite piece. There is a place called the rockin' tomahawk ranch out there where many people search, and many find squat.

Lately I've been heading up to greenwater though, and finding black and red agates in the old highway 70 landslide area. (then I go shooting!) Got a few fist sized pieces, and even a piece of botryoidal chalcedony. It's a bubbly textured piece. It's an easy 1 mile walk up there, but my last two trips, a buddy helped me haul out two 70 pound agate boulders! I sweat my ass off getting those back!

And now that the rain has come, I wait until spring to rockhound. I like it, but not freezing my butt off for it.

I did hear there is a spot on the carbon river that has petrified wood too, I'll have to ask my buddy where.

Sounds cool! Thanks for the info! I'd love to get some Ellensburg Blue's. Love the color of them.

As far as the petrified trees on the Carbon, it's very likely. Mt Rainier has filled that entire valley in and eroded it countless times.

I read one time that the coal mine outside Chehalis was a good place to go looking but it's all locked up now and hard to get access.

I have a claim up in the Cascades.  Quartz crystals.  There are some decent spots out there, but like fishing, most are kept secret.

You can drive along Chuckanut Drive and if you know where to look you can find all sorts of fossils.

There's a Rockhound Pit up at Walker Valley.

Speaking of fossils, I used to go to the Duwamish hill in Tukwila, before it was a park. It's right past the Seattle Police range. I would find mollusks and shark teeth.

Now that it is a "Preserve" I'm not sure if you can collect anything though.

Where in Washington are you central to?

Central Pierce County but know the Greenwater area really well and am planning on getting a Hancock pass to the White River Tree Farm (stomping ground of my youth LOL)

I dont do much rock hounding but I do spend a lot of time on the rivers and creeks with my sluice and dredge.

 

Your avatar.....I like it.

It's hard not to be a fan of MFP.  

 

Gah I need to break out my pan and sluice!!

Right now there isnt much to get at with the water levels the way they are.  Not to mention the temps outside make for frozen ground and thats no fun to dig.

We used to find geodes outside of Wenatchee back in the 70's. Can't remember if that was in the national forest or just along the river. Now that the wife just had her second and hopefully last back surgery, we are looking at getting back into rock hounding.

If you're looking for obsidian, the drive to Glass Butte in central Oregon is well worth it.

You'll want a 4x4 to get there, the road up the butte is pretty rough in places. I generally make an overnight trip of it.

It's possible to find goodies like this there...note, not mine, I wish it was.

it might be cold as hell but I think the water may be down far enough to be safe on a couple rivers, might have to go take a gander and see what got flushed down

That whole area is to the south of me.  Lots of petrified wood in places, agates, etc.  Found what I'm pretty sure is a petrified clam.  Another interesting find was 2"x1.5"ish piece of green rock with light and darker stripes.  Had a couple people at a local rock show tell me what the name is, but I forget.  Jasper and various interesting pieces of quartz.  Another neat one was a piece that had broken, exposing the inside that was half layers of petrified sediment from water leaking in over the years, and half crystalized quartz I guess.



I found a small stream that ends in a waterfall into a sinkhole going into one of the old tunnels.  The water flow above it has scoured the bed down to sandstone, exposing lots of petrified wood, agates, etc, and the sinkhole is the collection point for all the gravel and such.  Fun place to look for stuff.



 

that sounds like an awesome little place to go visit

It will be interesting to see what kind and quantity of new rocks will get flushed downriver with all these floods..