ROCKHUNTER NORTHWEST

Beach Cobbles, San Simeon, CA As I posted back in March, I spent a pretty mind-blowing day collecting on the beaches near San Simeon, Ca...

Owyhee Jaspers revealed One great advantage of a rock saw is that you can non-destructively look inside a weathered rock whose outward a...

Orbicular Jasper, Skokomish River Somebody stop me. I have made two trips now to the Skokomish River looking for orbicular jasper. To...

Cherry Creek Red Jasper No, I haven't discovered a new type of jasper - the title of this post refers to how I spent most of my day...

Over the past year or two, I have been collecting rocks from a variety of sources - from the deserts of Idaho, to the Pacific coast, to th...

A few months ago, a reader was kind enough to share with me his location for Olympic Poppy Jasper. He  generously took time out of his da...

Cayucos Jasper, CA Here are two early pieces of the Cayucos Jasper from the Central California coast I found earlier this month (see bel...

I was photographing birds along the shore this morning (see below) but out of the corner of my eye noticed a shiny, rounded pebble with ...

For some time, I have wondered how to identify jade in the field, especially because the literature suggests it comes in many colors and fo...

I found this fist-sized rock along the shoreline yesterday, and immediately noticed some unusual things about it.  It is very heavy, and f...

Jasper with graceful seam, Discovery Bay, WA Sometimes, when walking the shoreline looking for rocks,  you stumble onto complete oddballs...

Petrified Wood, Alki Point When I patrol the beaches near my home, looking for colorful or unusual rocks, I try to keep a mental image of...

I didn't know until recently that petrified wood is Washington State's official gemstone.  It makes sense: we have some wonder...

Black jasper/agate, Puget Sound I thought I would post one more local stone (from a Puget Sound beach) before I leave this weekend for In...

Patterned Quartzite (?) and Petrified Wood, Olympic Peninsula I set out this morning to look for a source of variolites, the polka-dotted...

Owyhee Picture Jasper I had big plans to head back to the Owyhee country in eastern Oregon this fall to search for more jasper. I had bee...

Unknown Rock, Puget Sound beach By now you will understand that patrolling the beaches of Puget Sound for unusual stones is one of my fav...

Unknown Jasper, Amazonian Gravels As I mentioned in my previous post, I found some extraordinary rocks in the gravels used to line trails...

Just back from a month in Brazil where, among other things, I was photographing rare giant armadillos (see here ) in the Pantanal. But, as...

Agate/Jasper, Puget Sound Another pebble from the beaches near my home, this one reminds me of a slightly wobbly planet with golden cont...