Saturday I wanted to go to Thunder Egg Days in Nyssa, Oregon but due to another obligation I had to stay home and finish an art project that was to be presented that evening.

I was able to break away from the art project for a little bit to go buy grits and belts for my rock tumbler. This was kind of a disappointment since I purchased the tumbler and a grit kit a week earlier. As soon as I got the tumbler home I started my first batch of rocks. Right away I discovered that the grit kit barely had enough materials to do one batch of rocks (two 3 pound barrels). This was a Thumlers’s #300 kit which cost me $10. Buying grit in bulk from your local rock shop is a much better deal. As the first step in the tumbling process came to an end the tumbler’s belt broke. The tumbler I purchased was a cheapo from Harbor Freight. I had heard that their tumblers had problems with belts breaking and motors burning out, however I would expect to get at least one complete cycle before a belt broke. The belt was so cheaply made that instead of buying another one from Harbor Freight I went a bought a Lortone belt. Hopefully this belt will last longer.

Saturday evening I told my wife that we needed to do a trip Sunday. I had asked her if she wanted to go to Idaho City or Silver City. She didn’t answer so the next morning I asked again. Finally she said Idaho City. We had a late start; by 10:30 we had the kid, the dog and gear in the car.

We first went to Boise where we stopped and ate lunch. Around noon we made it to our first stop. I thought that the place we stopped at might be the road to Thorn Creek where I had read that topaz could be found. I figured out that road was another mile down the highway after we left this first stop. While we were stopped we did a little hiking and searching for rocks. We didn’t find any good rocks but did manage to take some nice nature pictures.

Next we went through Idaho City to a place where we walked along some dried creek beds. I did find a small piece of milky quartz with metallic sparkles in it. It was nice to find something even though it most likely will just be added to the flower beds.After our brief stop at the dry creek bed we returned to Idaho City. Here I took some picture of a few of the old buildings and visited an antique store while the family took a nap in the car. Afterwards we went to the Sarsaparilla Ice Cream Shop and had waffle cones. This was a nice break since the temperature was getting quite hot by this time. It was also fun to watch my 18 month old son mash strawberry ice cream in his face.

As we headed out of Idaho City we decide to just take a road and see where it leads us. We found one that took us high up in the mountains. We stopped a few times and looked for rocks but didn’t find anything good. At one point the road started to get a little rough for my small car and we could see ahead far enough to see debris from a logging operation littered the road ahead. We decided to turn around and head back to Idaho City.
On our way back out of the mountains we ran into a group of people that had metal detectors and rock picks. I stopped and talked with them for a bit and found out that they were looking for remnants of old railroads that were in the area in the early 1900 for logging operations. I explained that I was a rock hound and that I thought I might be able to find quartz in the area. The gentleman leading this group said he knew of some good places to look but most of them were not accessible by car. He suggested a couple of location that I could access and we head to the closest spot.At the first location near the Rabbit Creek picnic grounds we stopped and played in the creek to cool off then hiked around looking for quartz. We did find a few pieces but they were not that good. As we were getting ready to leave I did find some interesting rocks that lead me to believe that there might be something there but it was getting late and my wife wanted to start going home. I will have to wait for another time to search some more. As we drove home we also located some other roads that lead to some other locations suggested by the gentleman we met on the mountain. I am already thinking of the next trip to this area.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Field Trips, Interesting Places, Rock Tumbling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.