Rockhound Sunday

John and I love to hunt for agate rocks because they are so pretty. Today we went to Brown Springs about 18 miles down a dirt road outside of Camp Verde.

Rockhounding for us isn’t just about the rocks, it is about getting out and exploring and enjoying nature.

At the first collecting site we found a huge rock face along side the Verde River. The river was roaring thank goodness or John would have wanted to cross it to get to the big rocks.

As we made our way up the spring away from the river and back towards the jeep, the trees got thicker and bigger.

Kinda reminded us of the terrain back home in PA. Check out those bright green leaves and buds. Spring is coming to the desert.

We love rockhounding around water. When rocks are wet they brighten to what they will look like after they are polished. That let’s us decide right on the spot if we want to bring it home.

Here is our haul. We found some nice specimens that John wants to make into wine bottle stoppers.

In addition to the cool rocks we found that we could carry there were a lot that were to be enjoyed right where they lay. This rock looks like shimmering water.

This rock John wanted to climb.

After about 3 hours of hiking and picking we arrived back at the jeep and decided to check out one more spot that we noticed on the way to Brown Springs.

This place was fun!!!!

We didn’t find any good rocks to bring home but it was a cool canyon-type water way. It was obvious that the stream did the work carving the rock.

One of the biggest Prickly Pair cacti that we have seen so far was nestled in among the rocks along the bank. Unlike most of the large Prickly Pairs we have been seeing, it was in excellent health.

There was a spot along the way where we had a chance to pretend we were Bear Grills. We each had our own technique, neither of which was very graceful, but we had fun!