Skokomish Obsession

Orbicular Jasper, Skokomish River

Somebody stop me. I have made two trips now to the Skokomish River looking for orbicular jasper. Today was a beauty, sunny and warm, and the river was running gin clear (see photo below). Good conditions for looking for jasper. As before, there are loads of interesting jaspers on this river, but very few have well-defined red orbs, so you spend a lot of time picking up stones, and then discarding them.

This one was high and dry on the gravel bar, and jumped out because of its vivid color.

I found others in the water, as in the photo below. The only trouble is...you can't see the water. Believe it or not, these rocks are under a smooth sheet of water, e.g. just about perfect for scanning for rocks. And surrounded by drably colored rocks, the red jasper almost jumps out at you!

The Skokomish Runs clear in August

Rialto Beach Redux

Poppy Jasper, Agate, and....? , Rialto Beach

Last year I made a pilgrimage to Rialto Beach, not far from Forks, Washington (aka "Twilight" Town) to beach comb for orbicular "poppy" jasper. This has been a well-known location for jasper beach cobbles for decades, and every time I'm in the neighborhood, I make a point of stopping by.

I spent a happy hour or two looking for jasper, but also stumbled onto some other nice things as well - some petrified wood, and at least one piece of yellow plume agate. It takes a while to train your eye here: the weather was uncharacteristically dry, so all the beach stones had that pale, scuffed look, making them very hard to identify. I did carry a water spray bottle to test stones -and licked a few - but after a while, I began to see the characteristic smoothness of the harder rocks (mixed in with a lot of rough-surfaced sedimentary rocks, the most common thing on our outer coast).

In the end, I got a nice stash of poppies, and some other things I'll look forward to polishing. Always a great place - and the best part is,  after next winter's storms (profound on this wild coast) there will be a whole new crop of rocks thrown up onto the beach.

Gravel Galore, Rialto Beach

Skokomish Jasper

Skokomish River Gravel Bars

I set out this morning on the trail of poppy/orbicular jasper on the South fork of the Skokomish River.  It is only about a two-hour drive for me, and an easy day out. I used to go salmon fishing on the Skoko many years ago, and not been back in several decades. I was tempted this time by posts made by a fellow NW Rockhound Charley Price on his blog : Compass Mentus.  Charley recently posted about finding orbicular jasper on the Skoko, so I thought I would give it a try.

I hiked in about 1.5 miles on the Skokomish River Trail which begins at Brown Creek Campground, some 16 miles upriver (mostly paved).  It is a steep up and down (and VERY steep at the end with whatever you have collected on your back!) but eventually you get access to the river, which runs very clear, and has lots of interesting rock to look through. I kept my eye out for really bright orange-red rocks which is usually a tip-off for jasper.

Orbicular Jasper (on left) and another type

I came out with a backpack of about 35-40 pounds - most of it without clear orbs, but a few nice pieces.
I would say it's definitely worth another trip sometime and exploring further upstream.  However, I have to say that the cougar warning sign at the trailhead had me looking over my shoulder!  ("Never Hike Alone" it says...)

Another thing Charley tipped me off to was the presence of some truly weird pieces of mudstone, eroding out of a cliff at the water's edge. For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, these pieces are in some pretty wacky shapes, but are hard enough to make it home intact.  Something for the grandchildren at the very least...

Mudstone animal : Platypus?

All in all, a nice day out in bright overcast 75 degree weather. Pretty much perfect!