I hope your summer is off to an exciting start. As the summer temperatures rise here in the desert, we seek higher elevations in search of cooler temperatures. A good rule of thumb is a 4 degree drop in temperature per 1000 foot elevation gain.
This makes Northern Arizona a perfect summer vacation destination. There are so many things to do in Northern Arizona that when your doing nothing, it's because that's what you want to do.
First of all we'll talk about the National Parks, and Monuments. The Grand Canyon is an hours drive from Flagstaff, and well worth the drive. Then there is Walnut Creek, Wapatki, and Sunset Crater National Monuments all within a half hour from Flagstaff. These locations are easy enough to google for additional information, so I won't talk about them anymore in this blog. Instead I want to talk about a few of the lesser known natural attractions.
If your interested in volcanos, this area is a hands on text book. Our first stop is Ashfork, Az.. Ashfork is about 60 miles west of Flagstaff, just off the I-40. This area has some very unique volcanic bombs, don't worry they can't explode. Volcanic bombs are balls of molten rock bigger than 2 1/2" diameter, formed on eruption, and thrown for many miles. They are in the air so long, while still molten that by the time they hit the earth again they have turned more of a football shape than the circle they started out as. To get to this area exit I-40 at the Ashfork exit ( county road 142 ), go north 3.7 miles to a fork in the road. Take the right fork for another mile where you will come to a cattleguard, and a sign that reads Kaibab National Forest, go over the cattleguard, and turn right about 50 feet later, follow this road another 1 1/2 miles to an area on the right with primitive campsites, park here the quarry is on the left. You may have to dig a little in the quarry to unearth a few, if the monsoon rain storms haven't started yet.
Our next stops include exploring a real lava tube, and a collecting site with awesome obsidian. Now when my family, and I visit this area the lava tube is the first stop, our kids love it there. Take the Bellemont exit off the I-40, head west, on the frontage road that runs on the north side of I-40 about a mile, or so to Forest Road 171, turn right, or north, and follow for 7 1/2 miles to FR 171A, turn right on 171A, and the parking area is about 2/10 of a mile up. If you are going to visit the lava tube, bring what you will need to explore it, and you will want to explore it. Basic gear needed are flashlights, warm clothes, gloves, and a helmet helps. The temperatures in the lava tube range from 33-36 degrees at the entrance to 40-44 degrees in the back of the tube year round, no matter what the weather is like outside. You can't get lost in the tube, the only branch leads back into the main tube, just be careful it can be slippery in spots, but this is one awesome hike, when your done exploring this geologic wonder head back out to FR 171, turn right, and continue towards Kendrick Peak at over 10,400 ft. high.It's a great landmark, as well as a challenging hike. If you are going to attempt the hike make sure you have all day, and are in the type of shape needed to tackle a hike like this. Continue past the Kendrick Peak parking area bear left onto FR 100, and follow to Government Mountain, stop from time to time to check out the sides of the road for obsidian. You will know when you are in the right spots, the obsidian will be everywhere.
While in the Flagstaff area don't get so busy that you forget to drop a fishing line in one of the local lakes. These lakes are stocked regularly, and are great spots to find out what's going on in your kids lives.
Ashurst Lake is always full of stockers, and has many campsites ready for your tent. Upper, and Lower Lake Marys are always well stocked with trout, but is a day use area with no lakeside camping. Connecting Upper, and Lower Lake Mary is an area known as the narrows, this area has walleye, northern pike, and catfish. Last, but not least is Lake Kinnikinick this lake has great fishing, and very private camping, this is the most remote lake in the area as not many people drive the almost 20 mile bumpy, dirt road. Keep an eye to the ground in this area, arrowheads are somewhat common in this area.
As always I hope to see you on the trail, Thanks Craig Wiita
This weeks blog is a great camping vacation idea, if your still wondering what to do for this years summer break. If you, and your family like camping, fossils, and crystals this place is for you. Lets talk about camping first. This is more a tent camping location, than a RV destination. There are plenty of great RV sites for you RVer's in the town of Payson, Arizona. Back to the tent campers, anyone who has ever camped in the Western United States knows that the two greatest dangers we face in the summer months are forest fires, and the monsoon storms that roll in during the latter part of the summer. This usually breaks down into two separate seasons with a small overlap period of both.
Unless the area that your camping in had an unusually high snow fall the previous winter, May, and June camping may include fire restrictions, which could be as simple as needing a water bucket, and a shovel if the restrictions are not to extreme, if the restrictions are a little more extreme you may only be able to use charcoal for cooking, if the restrictions are very extreme you may only be able to use gas grills. Now it's not alot of fun sitting around the gas grill telling ghost stories, and the gas grill was not designed to roast marshmallows, so you may want to check with the National Forest Rangers Office of the area that you are planning to visit, and see what restrictions are in place at your destination. If there are restrictions in place OBEY THEM, you are financially responsible for the cost of putting out the fire, as well as the property destroyed by the fire.
The month of July is where that overlap period happens that I mentioned earlier. When monsoon season begins alot of the storms start out as dry storms, meaning lots of thunder, and lightning, but not alot of rain. Dry storms start another round of forest fires through lightning strikes. Always keep an eye to the sky, and get out of these storms when possible. Your car is the safest place to be if your caught in the forest when one of these storms strikes. Towards the end of July the storms produce more, and more rain, and then usually the end of the summers fire restrictions. Monsoon storms bring heavy rain, flash flooding, lightning, high winds, and even hail. Keep this in mind when you pick, and set up your campsite. Pick a high spot to set your tent up on, NEVER pitch a tent in a dry wash, dig a trench around your tent site, hang a tarp over the tent, and store your firewood in a dry place.
Now that we've covered the major dangers, lets talk about this weeks treasure site. Our adventure begins in Payson, Arizona along the bottom of the Mogollon Rim ( pronounced mug-ee-on rim ) at an elevation of 5200 ft.. Heading east out of Payson on Highway 260 for about 14 miles to Forest Road 64 locally known as the Control Road. Turn left, or north on F.R. 64 for 4 miles to F.R. 65 ( Diamond Point Lookout Road ) turn left, or west, follow this road for about a mile, and a half, and you will see a Forest Service sign telling you about this collecting site. Although they only talk about the quartz crystals this is also an awesome fossil site. Drive past the sign, and start looking for cleared areas on the other side of the road. These are great areas to set up your campsite.
Quartz crystals are everywhere, but the best fossil hunting is in the wash on the south side of this road, also check the washes that empty into this wash, always stay alert washes can fill quickly even if it's not raining where your at. Make sure your looking down at the ground, sit down move some leaves around, your looking for small shells, pieces of coral, and crinoid stems. These fossils are 300 million years old, and it's pretty cool collecting fossilized sea shells 6000 ft above current sea level.
This areas most popular collectable is the double terminated ( point at each end ) quartz crystals, and the occasional purple amethyst crystal like the one in the photo gallery that my wife Jennifer found. To find these crystals keep the sun at your back, your eyes to the ground, and look for the sparkle, search areas with signs of erosion. Before the monsoon rains fall it takes a little more searching for these crystals, but for those adventurous at heart the best time to collect is right after a thunder storm. The heavy rain uncovers thousands of new crystals. From March thru October only surface collecting is permitted, no hand tools allowed.
This area offers days in the 90's, and nights in the 60's, lots of wildlife, good fishing nearby, and lots of fun rocks, and minerals to collect. There are a dozen other collecting sites in this area, I'll talk about some of them soon.
Well that's all for this week, as always have fun, be safe, and I'll see you on the trail!
This week I want to talk about the Hauser Geode Beds. The Hauser Geode Beds are located in Imperial County, California. First I want to talk a little on the history of The Hauser Geode Beds. I'm sure Native Americans used material from this area for tools, and weapons, but we're going to start with the earliest modern day history. The Hauser Geode Beds was discovered through stories told by a stage driver who worked for the Butterfield Stage Company which serviced from San Bernadino to the La Paz gold fields in SW Arizona. This driver spoke of hollow rocks filled with crystals of different colors.
Years later in 1937 his son Joel Hauser went in search of these hollow rocks that his father spoke of, and found the present day Hauser Geode Beds Joel Hauser dug these hills for more than twenty years, and this is where my first helpful tip comes in. When exploring this area for your best chance of finding geodes stay to the proven areas. You will see alot of hills that look like they would be full of geodes, what your actually looking at are sixty year old tailings piles left by Hauser, which are just full of broken pieces of geodes. The Hauser Geode Beds are now under BLM ( Bureau of Land Management ) jurisdiction, and not open to new claims, this also means commercial collecting is not permitted, and collecting is limited to 25 pounds of geodes per day.
Before we get to where the good beds are, we need to talk about safety. This is a very remote area, and should NEVER be visited during the summer months. Your over 15 miles to anywhere, over 20 miles from civilization. Summer temperatures can exceed 125 degrees. The roads leading to the geode beds are rough at best, and should only be attempted in a high clearance vehicle, or 4X4, both is the best idea these washes get really sandy, and is not the place to bring your family car, or mini van, remember you still have to go to work on Monday. Another benefit of staying out of this area in the summer time is that you won't step on a rattlesnake, although if it's early fall, or late spring keep an eye out. As always with off road travel tell someone where you are going, and when you expect to return, and then stay with that trip plan don't deviate. If you don't return on time search groups will know where to look for you. If you break down stay with your vehicle, it's much easier to spot a vehicle from the air than a person. No matter what time of year it is, always carry 1 gallon of water per person, per day of planned excursion. I not talking sports drinks, sodas, or even beer, I'm talking WATER.
The only real geode safety is don't burrow so deep into to side hill that you need a flashlight. This is very unstable ground, because of the fractured rhyolite you shouldn't dig in to the side of the hill more than a foot, and children even less. The top of your hole will cave in just with someone walking by. Don't get buried alive, use common sense, and keep cleaning out your hole which includes knocking the roof down every 12 inches.
All right, the first area of the Hauser Beds that I will discuss is the actual area that Joel Hauser mined. This area is best accessed from Hwy. 78 about 8 miles south of Palo Verde, California. Turn west when you get to Milipitas Wash follow about 10 miles, or so, and there will be a BLM sign on your left at your turn. Just follow the tracks to a big wash, and your there. Here is a GPS reading to help you out N33 22' 47.58" / W114 59' 33.92". This area rarely produces really large geodes, but the awesome blue centers make up for the size. These geodes range from golf ball size to softball size, the centers are blue, or lavender, and you can find a dozen or so pretty easy if you are willing to dig for a couple hours. If you would like to see a Hauser blue geode look in my photo gallery named treasures found.
The second beds I'm going to tell you about are the Cinnamon Beds. N33 23' 28.94" / W114 59' 3.83" This area offers lots of different colors in the centers, even centers that have quartz, and calcite together, known as SC type geodes. These beds get their name from the orangish / brown color that you can find here, but I've found black centers, calcite cubes, and splashes, even tubular shaped geodes here. It's almost always windy on this hill, so bring your beanie hat in the winter.
Last, but not least are the Potato Patch Beds, which gets its name from the shape of the geodes you can find there. Some are round, but most are oval, the centers are pinks to white. The beds are on the top of the hill on your right as you drive up to this GPS reading N33 23' 17.99" / W114 58' 39.54" , and yes it's worth the climb.
Well I hope you enjoy the Hauser Geode Beds, remember all the safety stuff, and have fun.
Hi my name is Craig Wiita, and this is my first blog. I did an episode of Gold Fever with Tom a couple years ago at the Hauser Geode Beds, and the Opal Hill Mine, GF105.
So for my first blog I would like to talk about the Opal Hill Mine, located in Palo Verde, CA.
The Opal Hill Mine is the only fire agate mine open to the public in the United States. For a fee of $25.00 a day, per person you can mine right at the source, not in the tailings, or in a bucket of dirt that someone else chose for you. You can keep everything you find, no matter what it's value, and with a little hard work, you will find some really beautiful stuff. The Opal Hill Mine is open from Oct. thru the end of April. From May thru Sept. this area is very dangerous, the day time temperature can reach 125 degrees, or more. Every summer this desert takes a couple lives of people thinking they can beat the elements. There is not anything in this desert worth giving your life for, and it will all still be here in the fall when our weather is beautiful. Mining at the Opal Hill Mine is hard rock gem mining, and let me tell you, this stuff doesn't just jump into your bucket. There is an art to following the agate seams, and an even finer art to removing your finds in tact. Some of the finer points of hard rock fire agate mining, and also cleaning pointers are shown on a video following this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdBaiGJpOnM
They have been pulling out gem quality fire agate at the Opal Hill Mine since the 1940's. Prospectors looking for the next great geode beds ran across this vein of fire agate in the early 1940's, and the Opal Hill Mine was born. It has been in continuous operation ever since.
The fire agate is only one of the treasures to be found at the Opal Hill Mine. There are museum quality matrix pieces of fire agate, quartz, and calcite that are all one of a kinds.
If you would like to see some of the museum quality pieces that I've found at the Opal Hill Mine check out www.wiitaminingandexploration.com
I also helped out on the Cash, and Treasures crew on their fire agate show airing on the Travel Channel
If you have any questions please contact me at wiitas@aol.com
