Rock Hounding

Yep, we all have the rock bug. How many have bad necks from looking down all the time? LOL
Everyone you all have nice pictures of some great finds.

My rock garden (some of it) the second is the actual rock I walked over 3 times before grabbing it. Sure glad I did. I think we even got an elk that day.
So what is the green one? Can’t say I’ve ever seen something like that. Pretty color.
 
I resurfaced my driveway with some washed rock from a pit in Livingston from alongside the Yellowstone River last year. Now, I can’t walk out my driveway after it rains without seeing some chunk of chalcedony, agate, adventurine, jasper or petrified wood in the gravel. I had to stop bringing them inside. Now I just pitch them beside my trash can.
 
HW- green agate. What ever is in the soil or minerals colored it. There is a big area on one mountain we were hunting on. Have hiked back in and have found other green rocks but nothing close to the first one. There is even suppose to be blue rock out around that area. Haven't found any of those yet.
 
I grew up near Nyssa, Oregon - the thunderegg capital of the world, at least that's what the sign in town said (maybe that's like all the restaurants serving the best steak in the state). My grandparents house was full of thundereggs and other rocks. Their yard had a cement curb around it that they stuck big chunks of obsidian, petrified wood and other rocks in the fresh cement. Made for great obstacles and a few injuries horsing around in their yard with cousins. I always enjoyed looking at their rock collections, but haven't been much of a collector myself.
 
fishing4sanity, I wish I'd a got the rock bug harder when I lived in the Emmett area. Nyssa wasn't that far away. Never got over there to look around. Also didn't have the time to hunt always working.
 
Some of the rocks my better half had me pack out of the hills. The log is 15 inches long and 8 inches in diameter. I packed that rock way too far. I was young and dumb.
The cut rock is a piece of agatized petrified wood.
Golden rock is some of the better amber we found. The shinny pieces are ones my aunt who works in a jewelry store buffed up. DSCN5371.JPGDSCN5375.JPGDSCN5374.JPG
 
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Found these in a massive pile of similar rocks while deer hunting Wyoming this year.

I think I have an idea but I’m curious if what everyone else says.

That top left one in particular looks sheet like, flaky. Seems like nice big muscovite.

The bottom two less so, but I think I see sheet like structure on the bottom right one. Silica is always hard as shit. So that’s the first clue. Muscovite you can scratch with your fingernail.
 
All I know is you can't collect rocks in Yellowstone, costs too much money:(

Rocks in NPs are called Leverrites, "leave er right there".

I have been collecting rocks for years and take pictures of them with something in the picture for scale if they are too large to pack home. My sister is a retired FS geologist and I test her knowledge.
 
My mother's brother earned a Master's in Geological Engineering and rock-hounded around the globe while on projects for the very large international engineering employer. He gathered specimens then eventually got a retail table at the big mineral show in Tucson, AZ. His focus was on "thumbnail" specimens which fit in a 1" display cube.

I picked up a few heavy chunks of quartz on a Coues Deer hunt in southern AZ but generally if does not fit in my pocket then I admire and move on down the trail when hunting.

I found this in a gully in WY while sneaking up on a pronghorn buck. At first glance thought was a chunk of a rubber sole from a boot littering the prairie so I paused my stalk to pick this up to pack out with plastic trash I had already encountered. Realized was not rubber. Cleaned up after the hunt and scale comparison with the handle of a razor.

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Found these in a massive pile of similar rocks while deer hunting Wyoming this year.

I think I have an idea but I’m curious if what everyone else says.


Kinda look like calcite. Here's an easy experiment that will help find out:

Draw a line on a piece of paper and set one of the clearer samples over it. If it looks like 2 lines when viewed through the stone it is strongly bi-refringent indicating that it is probably calcite.
 
I found my first Fairburn agate last weekend out archery deer hunting in western SD. It's a little junky one, but I was still super excited.
I'll try to remember to add a picture later. Didn't even take one yet.
 

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