Winter Beaches

Banded Jasper or...?

The beach below my house is primarily sand, esp. during the quiet months of summer, when the surf is at a minimum. But in winter, storming winds and tides throw rocks up onto the beaches, and right now there is a thick layer of pebbles at the tideline. This is perfect for sampling the extraordinary diversity of rocks that characterizes this ancient glacial landscape.

This good-sized cobble attracted my attention today. It was heavy and glass-smooth,  typically a sign of a hard rock like agate or jasper, but with some lovely green and brown banding.  I haven't seen anything like it here before - but that is almost always the case here : rocks deposited on my beach are likely remnants of boulders dropped by glaciers here 10, 000 years ago.

In any case, I popped it into the tumbler - and in a week or so, I'll be able to get a clear look at it. Then it will either go into polishing - or get tossed back onto the beach.

Alki Beach,  New Year's Eve Eve, 2013

Out of the Tumbler

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, California, on my way up the coast. Why was it so great?  Because nearly every rock on the beaches there is of something interesting, whether a brecciated jasper, or an interesting agate, or some things that I don't even know the names for. But whatever they are, they have loads of color and striking patterns and polish beautifully in the tumbler.

They do especially well in the tumbler since they are already well-rounded by the wave action. In fact, I usually skip the first coarse grit step in the polishing process and go directly to the finer 120/220 silicon carbide.

I'm still processing rocks I found months ago, and by the time I'm done, it'll be time to head South again to find some more!

Peacock Rock

Peacock Rock, Puget Sound

The water along the shores of Puget Sound was almost dead calm today, and the sun was shining: both relatively rare events here in Seattle.  It seemed a perfect day to prowl the shoreline looking for rocks, esp. where the rising tide washed over the beach, revealing the stones' true colors and patterns.

Along the shore of Lincoln Park is a favorite spot since the strong currents make for good-sized rocks, mostly free of barnacles and other marine life (I prefer to avoid killing things that live on the rocks, and for that reason avoid low tides).

I walked for half a mile along the beach, and my best find was this multi-colored, thinly layered cobble. I brought it home and cut through it.  It has a handsome patterning and wonderful, subtle colors. I haven't tested it for hardness yet, but I'm hoping its hard enough to take a polish. Either way, it's not like anything I've ever seen here before.

Cayucos Jasper

Brecciated Jasper

I'm still poring over the 100 lbs of stones I brought back from California last week (the back of my car riding very low). I had a chance to cut open some of the larger pieces, many of which are of a  brecciated jasper that is common in this part of the Coast range (and several other parts of California).  This one is about 8" inches across and shows a fractured yellow-red jasper with a milky quartz filling.

Not a great picture, I admit, but you get the idea. Not sure how the quartz will polish, but we'll give it a try.  The diversity of the rocks along this coast is truly remarkable.  I suggest walking up Toro Creek near Cayucos, or for the best material, head straight to San Simeon Beach. Wow.

Going Crazy in California

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.

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.

Beach Surprise : "Plume Agate?"

Beach agate, West Seattle

It's been a while since I was out on the beaches near home - blame it on cold weather and too many buckets already full of rocks, waiting for the polisher.

But on a handsome sunny winter day, I hit the beaches near Alki Point. I am always attracted by color and design, but especially if there is any sense of transparency, e.g. that glass-like quality that suggests "agate."

Here's one I found yesterday, an already well-rounded, naturally polished agate. My first thought was that it was what is known as a plume agate, in which impurities grow into the quartz often in lovely, lacy patterns. But when I took a close look at this, it does not have the typical "plume" patterns, but instead appears to be some sort of brecciated rock into which quartz has filled the gaps. Hard to tell what the green stuff is, but it's clearly fractured and shattered. Now, of course, it is suspended in the quartz matrix. Not sure what to call it, but it's handsome nonetheless.

I'm Back...with a Mystery

Mysterious Rock, Puget Sound

I have not posted for quite sometime, not having had much time - or weather - for rockhounding. But every chance I get to walk on the beaches below my house, I typically find something. In this case, a few weeks ago, I spotted this interesting cobble (about 2" long) and threw it in the tumbler. The polish revealed a fascinating pattern which I can't identify or explain.  Any ideas? A kind of agate?

(Click on photo to see a little bigger)

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

Out of the Tumbler

Cayucos Jasper - Revealed

Tumbling stones, esp. hard jaspers and agate, takes patience.... and I am not a patient man. So when a batch's time in the grit is up (and maybe a few hours early) I open it with all the enthusiasm of a kid on Christmas morning.

This batch was one I particularly looked forward to since recent months have generated some exceptional collecting opportunities. A sharp reader will recognize these, for example, as polished Cayucos jasper : I posted some of the rough in this blog on May 2. All are of red jasper, with quartz/agate intrusions. Handsome stuff.

Also included in this batch were some pieces of Idaho Japer-Agate I collected in late June (see my July 4 post). One of them came out of the tumbler today with some lovely patterns and colors.

Idaho Jasp-agate

Surprises

By now, you will realize that my idea of heaven is to wander along local beaches picking up interesting stones and trying to piece together the stories behind them. I often fill a bag within an hour or so, and only weeks, if not months, later get to polishing them. So I can maybe be forgiven for not exactly remembering where I found this one, which emerged from the tumbler today. It is of a free-form yellow jasper together with what looks like a pinkish agate. Pink agate?  Never heard of it before - and as always, I have no idea where this rock originated, thousands of years before it landed on the beach where I found it. Yes, it would be nice to know: I'm guessing there are more like it...

California Treasures

Cayucos Jasper, California

In a post a few weeks ago, I reported that I spent a wonderful few hours exploring the beaches near Cayucos, California, in what turned out to be a mother lode of jasper of every pattern and description. Many were so beautifully rounded that they needed little tumbling, and just the addition of a polish to make them stand out. Well, I finished a batch today - and they are beauties.

There are brecciated jaspers (apparently common along in coast range in this area) and a variety of other colors and patterns. It was probably the single most productive few hours I've ever spent chasing rocks.

Having said that, the beach is NOT the best place for collectors looking for slab-worthy chunks of the stuff - these are all small, and really only fit for those who are content with tumblers. I am one of those, and I am delighted with what I found.  Too bad it's a thousand miles south of here!

Discovery Bay, Olympic Peninsula

I've been in the office a lot lately, or visiting with family - always wonderful - so I haven't been out much looking for rocks. But on a drive back from Port Angeles yesterday I spent a happy hour along the western shore of Discovery Bay. This is one of my favorite shorelines for rocks, since there are rarely any waves, and the diversity is as great as anywhere in the northwest. The site is near the Gardiner boat ramp - a little tricky to find but worth looking for on a falling tide, when the cobble beach is still wet. This makes identifying interesting specimens that much easier. (Best of all is a rainy day, when EVERYTHING is wet and shiny...)

This may not look like much, but as a geologist, I find it tells a pretty interesting story, with bits of green stone in a speckled matrix. I'll know more when I polish it.

Polisher Preview

Cayucos Jasper, CA

Here are two early pieces of the Cayucos Jasper from the Central California coast I found earlier this month (see below) An astonishing diversity of color and pattern, found within just a few yards of the beach. Definitely a place worth going back to.

Right off the Beach

Many of the stones I gather are truly "diamonds in the rough," rocks whose pattern and color you can really only guess at until the tumbler has scoured off the weathering crust, the scars, cracks and staining.  Then there are the stones that appear, at first glance, as if they have already been polished and shaped.
That was the case with this one, a reddish-purple stone that looks like a translucent jasper/agate. It has a glassy character, but also a granular texture, along with random black dots and faint stripes.

If you have any ideas what this might be, I'd love to know. In the meantime, it is simply a lovely stone of an unusual color.

California Discoveries

Cayucos Jasper, California

I drove to California last week for work, but along the way poked around some new rockhounding areas, specifically the Central California coast near San Luis Obispo. Several good locations were listed on the websites of local rock and gem clubs, so I thought I'd give them a try. In the end, I came away with a lot of terrific material like this red and green jasper,  from one of the beaches around Cayucos.

Really, there was agate and jasper scattered all along the shoreline in this area, and given more time, I would have wanted to scour the surrounding hills for outcrops and exposures. Maybe on another trip.
I also didn't have time to make it up to San Simeon Creek, which is supposed to be pretty productive as well. Still, I was delighted with what I found in just a short time, and look forward to a chance to go back at some point.

Finding Jade...?

For some time, I have wondered how to identify jade in the field, especially because the literature suggests it comes in many colors and forms. There is plenty of jade in the Pacific Northwest, so there are almost certainly pieces of it on the Puget Sound beaches I normally patrol.  I found this one a few days ago, and the brilliant color jumped out at me, even in the drizzling rain.  It has the translucence associated with jade, and does not scratch with a steel knife - but how do you know?  More importantly, does it matter?  This will eventually polish into a handsome specimen, jade or not. Still, it would be nice to know.  Any suggestions?

Just Before Dark

The sun was shining today - a rarity in March! - which makes beachcombing difficult.  Everything is more reflective, and although glassy rocks like agates show up well, others do not. So after the sun went down I took a short walk on a nearby beach, and brought home just a pocket full: a couple of nice petrified wood and jasper pieces - and a spotted thing I can't identify.
I am heading away from familiar beaches tomorrow and looking for agates in the southwestern part of the state, which may involve a lot of probing and digging. We'll see how THAT goes...

Big Stories...in Miniature

Mini-faulted Jasper

I have just finishing polishing some recent finds from beaches along the Puget Sound shoreline that I've gathered over the past few months.  Two of my favorites are here.  The first, above, is one I like because it shows big ideas -- in miniature.  The rock is only 1.5 inches tall, but clearly shows the offset layers caused by movement along a very small, but obvious, fault. This phenomenon is common enough in nature, in scales both micro and macro, but it is not often displayed with such precision in a rock you can hold in your hand.

Petrified Wood

This is also a handsome miniature, an inch-long pebble of petrified wood. Not wildly colorful, but displaying the layers of both bark and what I can only assume is some darker heartwood. I knew I had a beauty when I found this one, but had to wait a month for it to go through the tumbling stages.

Both rocks beg the same question I mused about in a previous post: where could they have come from?  Found on a Seattle beach, both could very likely have been scraped off an outcrop in the BC coast range, or somewhere on Vancouver Island, by the massive glaciers of the Pleistocene. They could have been worn down to pebble size by ten thousand years of surf and tide. I'll probably never know.

The truth is, I just get a kick out of imagining the journey these rocks have taken to my desktop. Go figure.

Petite Poppies

Orbicular or "Poppy" Jasper, Olympic Peninsula, WA

I first stumbled onto this rock as an intriguing pebble on a beach along the shores of Puget Sound, covered with tiny red orbs against a dark matrix. Only later did I learn that they are referred to as Olympic "Poppy" Jasper, from Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Although some sources (like Jackson..see below) describe an outcrop of the stone just west of Lake Crescent, most people find this along the coastal beaches. These were all from a brief walk along Rialto Beach just north of the Quileute River near Forks, WA (Home of the "Twilight" stories)

Most are small and uncommon, but as you train your eyes for them along these cobble beaches, they start to jump out at you. I filled a bucket full of them, although many are badly cracked and pitted and will probably not take a good polish.  These were some of my favorites which have been tumbled for a month or so - yet still show some cracking and pitting - testimony to the brittle nature of the basalt they weathered out of.

Still, they are handsome little stones that I am happy to have found. Someday I may go look for the outcrop, but for now, these will do.

Mysteries on the Wild Coast

Seastacks, Olympic Peninsula

Good weather on the coast lured me out to one of my favorite rockhounding locations.  As in my "Conveyor Belt" post a few days ago, many of the rocks that end up on the beaches of the Olympic Peninsula have been dumped there by glaciers and the massive rivers that they spawned. Although most of the rocks that comprise the many dramatic seastacks on the coast are sedimentary, there are plenty of interesting rocks from somewhere else. Several areas on the Peninsula have thick strata of what could only be ancient river beds, with rounded water-transported rocks that are clearly not local.

I found some terrific rocks on this trip, the most intriguing is the one below, which displays a color pattern like nothing I have ever seen before. It is dense and hard, and should polish nicely. Jasper?

Colorful rock, Olympic coast

This is what rockhounding is for me : a constant treasure hunt, and a vehicle for discovery.