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| San Simeon Jaspers - Naturally tumbled |
I do a lot of beach-walking around the Northwest where I live, and often find intriguing and worthwhile rocks mixed in with a lot of junk. So you can imagine what a kick it is to stumble on to a place where nearly
every stone is colorful, and beautifully patterned. I had heard about the brecciated jaspers of San Simeon Creek, near Cambria, California and seen some beautiful examples (see Hans Gamma's
mouth-watering collection ) but nothing prepared me for a walk along the surf-line yesterday. It was like walking through a kaleidoscope... In less than an hour I had filled up two cloth bags, and I could have spent days there, seeking out the perfect specimens.
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| an iPhone sample |
The location is the small beach area just south of the San Simeon State Park campground. It's only a quick scramble down the slope and out to the beach. Most of the rocks on the beach itself were tumbler-sized. I'm guessing the big specimens must be somewhere up in the Coast Range headwaters of San Simeon Creek and others. But there are also loads of medium-sized rocks (e.g. 1-4 pounds) up high on the beach, but I didn't have time to carefully go through them. I'll bet there are some winners there.
But for anyone whose idea of a perfect day is to walk along a wild Pacific beach picking up beautiful stones, you would have a hard time finding anything better than San Simeon.
when you say naturally tumbled do you mean not tumbled at all? great lookin stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe rocks in the top picture are just wet - and tumbled by the surf. They have been put in the tumbler yet. When rocks are wet, however, you can see their color and pattern better. I sometimes carry a hand-sprayer to get a better look at interesting dry rocks, or else, I just carry them down to the water and get 'em wet!
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