Rockhounding & Fire Lookouts

[CurrentlyRockhoundin]

We didn't really chose to be into car camping / overlanding, really it has been out necessity. My wife and I spend all of our free time rockhounding which continues to push us into ever increasingly remote locations that are further and further away from anyone or anything.

We also volunteer as fire lookout attendants which also often puts us in very remote locations.

Loving these activities means you have to be 100% self sufficient, and your vehicle needs to be an all contained spaceship for you which is pretty much overlanding in many ways.

Here are a few photos from our trips both rockhounding and working in a fire lookout.

Digging in a pit looking for petrified wood which is between 23 and 5 million years old.


It took a lot of time and effort in the hot desert sun but I managed to extract a pretty good sample of petrified wood.


Thundereggs that we mined


The lovely Red Top Fire Lookout that we sometimes get to be care takers for.


The Osborne Firefinder map that we use to locate fires.




Epic sunsets!


An almost alien landscape of a diatomaceous earth mining operations that also produces common opal.


The very top of a North Idaho Mt that produces Mica Books and Black Tourmaline


Any other rockhounds here?

 

[MMc]

I am a fossil and arrowhead guy. I surf and started looking around, Baja has a lot of both, I don't take anything as it's against law. I have f ound sharks teeth, petrified bones, clams and shell fossils Lots of arrowhead and napping tools. It lots of fun.
Your stuff is very cool, there is a lot of work getting those sample out.

 

[grubworm]

No, but I do a lot of wood hunting. I turn on a lathe so going out and finding weird pieces of wood is part of our overlanding trips. Like when you find a geode...looks like a plain rock and you crack it open and its beautiful inside...some wood looks like junk until you cut it and see some beautiful wood grain. So yeah, I TOTALLY get the thrill of the hunt!

Great pics! I used to live in Waterville, WA...BEAUTIFUL state!

 

[CurrentlyRockhoundin]

I am a fossil and arrowhead guy. I surf and started looking around, Baja has a lot of both, I don't take anything as it's against law. I have f ound sharks teeth, petrified bones, clams and shell fossils Lots of arrowhead and napping tools. It lots of fun.
Your stuff is very cool, there is a lot of work getting those sample out.

Very cool! We have only recently started to dip our toes into the world of gathering fossils. In my area we have a good amount of locations where you can find Miocene Epoch leafs, trilobites and brachiopods.

Sometimes for big stuff ill work for hours and hours to get it out.

 

[CurrentlyRockhoundin]

No, but I do a lot of wood hunting. I turn on a lathe so going out and finding weird pieces of wood is part of our overlanding trips. Like when you find a geode...looks like a plain rock and you crack it open and its beautiful inside...some wood looks like junk until you cut it and see some beautiful wood grain. So yeah, I TOTALLY get the thrill of the hunt!

Great pics! I used to live in Waterville, WA...BEAUTIFUL state!

I never really thought about getting wood when out, what do you often make?

Also Waterville is perfectly located right next to Okanogan Forest, I assume you spent a bunch of time there?

 

[grubworm]

I never really thought about getting wood when out, what do you often make?

Also Waterville is perfectly located right next to Okanogan Forest, I assume you spent a bunch of time there?

depending on the size of wood, i'll turn bowls and vases and if its a little piece, i will do a small vase called twig pots that will hold a single small flower or turn handles for coffee scoops, etc.

i lived in waterville in the early 70's as a kid in grade school. i was a rock hound back then and remember my father taking me to a place called silica pit where there were a ton of rocks to dig thru, because of the volcanic activity in the area, there are some super cool rocks to be found. i had an old camera bag with a hammer and some screw drivers for prying and digging and a giant soup spoon i snagged from mom's kitchen and i'd spend all day digging. i was indiana jones years before the movie came out!

 

[Downs]

I'm jealous of the Fire Tower attending. It's something I would really like to do if I could wrangle enough time off for it.

 

[CurrentlyRockhoundin]

I'm jealous of the Fire Tower attending. It's something I would really like to do if I could wrangle enough time off for it.

It's worth it. A big part of the job is also just showing off the fire lookout to those willing to make the trek in.

 

[Sparksalot]

Where were y’all prospecting for the petrified wood? I did a trip a million years ago with my grandparents and found similar wood in similar terrain. I still have a pen base and bookends made as a result of that trip.

 

[Dilldog]

Where were y’all prospecting for the petrified wood? I did a trip a million years ago with my grandparents and found similar wood in similar terrain. I still have a pen base and bookends made as a result of that trip.

Im guessing the Columbia River Basin in Washington...

 

[CurrentlyRockhoundin]

Where were y’all prospecting for the petrified wood? I did a trip a million years ago with my grandparents and found similar wood in similar terrain. I still have a pen base and bookends made as a result of that trip.

Im guessing the Columbia River Basin in Washington...

Saddle Mountain near Vantage, WA is the place to go!

 

[Jaytperry89]

Everywhere my wife and I go we collect a rock or two. I've got rocks from Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, and Oregon. My favorite to collect is actually obsidian. Something that in my part of Oregon isnt very common.

 

[Sparksalot]

Saddle Mountain near Vantage, WA is the place to go!

We were in southern Idaho when collected the wood we found.