A weekend of fossil and rock hunting

[DirtyDog]

I arranged a weekend to take Alex and his parental units on a weekend rock hunting trip in the Ochoco Mountains and John Day Fossil Beds area in Central Oregon.

My little science buddy Alex:

Painted Hills:

 

[DirtyDog]

Painted Hills:

Painted Hills Visitors Center:

 

[DirtyDog]

Hunting for rocks outside the park:

Rare sighting of a Painted Hills Purple-backed Jackalope:

 

[DirtyDog]

Camping at the Ochoco Divide Campground. This is a nice campground on highway 26 at Ochoco Summit - about 10 or 15 miles west of Mitchel:

The main objective of the trip was to visit the Lucky Strike Thunderegg mine in the Ochoco mountains:

Ryan getting serious:

 

[DirtyDog]

One of the mines owners:

 

[DirtyDog]

The Lucky Strike HQ:

This is really a neat place to visit. The owner is a very nice older man (WW2 veteran!) and his wife. I want to say their names are Cop and Cindy if I remember correctly. These are some of the nicest thundereggs (and largest) you will find anywhere. You pay 1 dollar per pound on what you want to keep.

Cop cleaning our eggs:

 

[DirtyDog]

The weigh in:

Overall a great weekender close to home. We are finally getting some nice weather up here so look out for more Oregon reports in the near future!

 

[Ted]

Hey DD,

Nice report and good to see little ones interested in something besides video games. Just one thing, not all of your members have a geology background. WTH is a thunderegg?

 

[Alaskan Snowbirds]

Hey DD,

Nice report and good to see little ones interested in something besides video games...

Ditto. Good job getting that budding young rockologist out there.

If you two cut and polish those eggs it would be fun to see pics of Alex with the end product!

Happy Trails,
'birds

 

[DirtyDog]

Ted these are thundereggs: http://yurila.com/8.html

birds I'll post some pics when I get these things polished. Could be a while - still looking for a used saw.

 

[Alaskan Snowbirds]

...looking for a used saw.

Maybe one of our honored members has one they would like to part with for a worthy cause?...or knows someone who does??

Meantime I'll keep an eye open!

Happy Trails!
'birds

 

[SunMan]

El Capitan,
Pretty cool. Love the pic of the guy rockin la pistola!

 

[DirtyDog]

El Capitan,
Pretty cool. Love the pic of the guy rockin la pistola!

Is it even more hardcore that its not a guy?

 

[DirtyDog]

They don't mess around out here:

 

[SunMan]

Is it even more hardcore that its not a guy?

Yikes!

 

[highz]

Vaguely reminds me of a picture of Calamity Jane we have in our control room (our "matron saint"). I don't think I'd want to cross her.