Petrified Wood - Utah Vacation Options

[Hawkewind]

Hello,

I got the rockhounding bug in the past 6 months, being very new to this hobby. I enjoyed rock collecting, on my own, at a very young age and remember one very specific instance that endeared me to rock/fossil collecting forever.....albeit latent in bubbling to the surface (late 30s now).

I was about 8 years old and found a huge (I would guess 2' long and 1' thick) full dinosaur print in a rock that I managed to loosen from the adjoining rock after a week. I showed everyone kid in my neighborhood and was extremely proud of the find and the attention it brought me, even the older kids. Well one day, later that same summer, I told my father about it who didn't believe in the magnificance of my find. I was determined to bring this 3-toed behemoth home to show my dad (I suspect now it was in shale). I carried this HUGE (I was only 8) footprint over a mile home in the middle of a hot summer day. About 80% of the way home, after many breaks and over 1 hour of total time, I dropped it directly onto the surface of a side road....it shattered. I did not cry. But I stared long and hard at what happened and thought deeply. My conclusion? I should have left it for all to see.....or got my dad to help me. Next time I had a find (never as grand), I got my dad.

My favorite past-time is archaeology and I take classes in my spare time at CU. I LOVE history and I LOVE cultures. And you know what, I LOVE geology....just took me longer to realize it. I have traveled the world and even spent a year in college in Australia (I got some raw boulder opal and a some black and green opal while there)....everywhere I went, my number one reminder of the adventure was rocks or gems I brought back in my pockets. In the last 10 years, along with my once a year larger adventure abroad, I go on Jeep trips with my buddies for extended times. We have gone to remote areas of Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, not seeing a sole in days off-roading. Agaian, my number one reminder of these great times away was...rocks.

Well here I am today. I have a brand new Wrangler Rubicon (that I know how to drive off-road well), live in the extrodinary state of Colorado, have experienced adventure all my life and hunger for rockhounding. Seems to me I found my "mistress", one my wife tolerates and even shares with me from time to time (Freud would be proud with that analogy).

Why all the jibber-jabber? I look forward to sharing and learning from others here. I have always found that a personal connection goes a long ways in life....

Without further ado, here is my recent trip (with my wife) to Utah....petrified wood found near Hanksville and agate at Yellow Cat;

The Jeep;





After 13 miles of following a (mostly) dry creek bed in the Wrangler....I found a field of petrified wood. Notice the stumps (whitish) and how it erodes into the gullies (easy to spot eh?);









After exploring a mile, as my wife slept in the Wrangler, I found this (I didn't take any, just too beautiful to disturb);






Pictures of the wood I found in the area;

[jim]

WOW! Very cool indeed! That jasper reminds me of imperial jasper. Unreal.

[Hawkewind]

Hello,

Thanks for the comments. We found a lot more pictographs (painted) and petroglyphs (chiseled)...slews of them and some 6' tall! I also have a lot more jasper like the smaller pieces here, one is about 100 lbs we dug up, that is under snow in the rock part of the yard. Will post more when I can if you like them (just learned how to use my SRL camera up close last night when I posted these). Finally, got a 100 lb+ piece of petrified wood in my yard also, like these smaller pieces......that makes my friend's young kids "oohhhhh" and "ahhhh"

Did you notice the toes on the one animal? They say these were created around 1 AD by the Archaic people (pre-cursors to the Chaco/Anasazi)