Retired a year ago after 4 years in the USAF, 2 years of college and 38 years with the same employer. Now it's time to pick up where I left off in 1975. Rockhounding! And Saddle Mountain is only an hour away from home. Thanks for a great video! Btw, at 4:28, that's Wanapum Dam.
Thank you, I’ve tried to get out there but I have a sedan and can only go until my gut tells me no more, also I’m a complete novice, I don’t know what I’m picking at but if it’s pretty or unique, later I try to find out what I have but there’s so many variations of minerals and deposits and when you don’t know, you could be sitting on a pretty piece and not know it, love bring out there in the middle of nowhere💖🙏💯
Saddle Mountain is in no short of supply... There are hundreds of acres and you can find it throughout it. Most people don't even explore very far... It's everywhere for a good distance... I don't believe it'll run out any time soon. I left behind plenty😉
@@MarlainaAtkins my head would have drifted too after seeing the log ends in the basalt. be careful of those little scorpions in shady places. shine your uv flashlight around to check. nice finds. do you cab any of the wood?
@@billdlyaegra9394 hahahaha yeah the guys I went with failed to mention that. So I'm digging away and all of a sudden I see something crawling up my leg... It's the tiniest scorpion I've ever seen... Nonetheless I freaked a little. Found a couple more throughout the dig but the worst part was when my friend hit an ant nest next to me and let's just say... They were not happy. I'm still learning to cab. I have a Covington but only have two wheels. Once I can purchase a full set I'll be cabbing up a storm! I DO have a 10in Covington super maxi flat lap that I just got 3 days ago... It's a total game changer for me... I should be able to make some beautiful cabs with that soon. Thanks for watching and thanks for tip! I'll be bringing a uv with me next time. Theres a field trip coming soon. Cheers✨
Git’ yer buckets out! It’s a dig’n adventure!!!!! Yeeehawwww! Absolutely loving this and I’m only 8 mins in. GET IT GIRL!!!!! Im’a keep watchin but man I’m lovin this Marlaina! So rad!
I’m at half way, (been editing tonight and about to head in for tacos) but I’ve saved the second half for tomorrow night. I can’t wait! Honestly wish I was there. Some serious pet wood goodness! I even reckon I could watch this twice it’s so much fun! Thanks mar!
They are gorgeous! I’ve never found pet wood like this! So so sooooo much going on inside them. And the limb casts are stunning! Now THATS Agatized Wood. Just woah. Loved it Mar!
Okay thought I was done replying but the opal sheen is one of my favourite things to see. No polish but probably more shiny than I could ever make it. Glassy goodness!
Take I-90 heading East towards Saddle Mt... Windmills will be on the left of you on the other side of highway... RIGHT after the windtowers there's another tower that's not a windmill... Slow down when you see the pillow basalts on the side of the road to your right... That's where it's at. All I ask is to please be careful and respectful of that area so many more people can come enjoy the awesomeness... Cheers!✨
Oh Marlaina!!! I think this is my favourite video of yours so far!! The scenery and the pet wood!!! That first spot you show with the big logs is awesome!! I see pillow basalt features at 1:35. It appears all those logs are lying horizontal within the pillow basalt. Pillow basalt forms at the bottom of lava flows and it’s likely that those trees traveled a bit of distance at the bottom of the lava flow before coming to their final resting place. That’s sooooo cool to see in a crosscut like that! I’m geeking out over here!!! Thanks for sharing this!! Great video!!!!🤙🤙🤙
You seriously nailed it dude! The great ol Missoula flood is what brought them in. I was totally geeking out the whole way there and when I saw this I just tripped! This was one of the best trips I've ever been on. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. There was so much that I edited out haha! But it was such an epic trip that I had to share as much as possible. Anyone who loves pet wood would be in heaven here. Will definitely be going back someday. Thanks for coming along as always. And you'll be seeing some of this up close soon! Cheers my friend🐺🐾
Well sending a Hell Yeah! What a dream place! Awesome beauties!...good onya! What a fun time you had there....winner winner! 😆😄 Cheers Kath Down Under!🙃 👍
One of the nice things about that location is you can fill a bucket without putting in much effort and I know there's hidden spots up there just waiting to reward the person that is willing walk or the person that wants to drive off road.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding you are totally correct... thousands of acres to explore... And if you venture further you WILL find great stuff. The Pres of the club likes to go way farther where less people have been... He says there's big pieces, logs even, laying on the surface the farther you go. But figuring out how to get some of them out of those the hard part haha
If you're talking about the logs in the sidebank... I'm not sure what milepost... But here's the GPS... 46°56´21.0"N 120°07´33.6"W 46.939178 -120.125996 Hope that helps✨
That’s pretty cool you found those petrified trees along the freeway! I’ve always wondered where those were at. So glad I finally got to see what they look like.
Oh wow Marlaina nice haul haha. I found your video especially useful because I found a bunch of petrified wood recently and wasn't sure if it was opalized or agatized so your tip about that at the end really helps out. I now know the difference and looks like I mostly found myself some opalized wood. I love that natural shine it has! Thanks for the awesome footage and information!
Oh thanks that's awesome! I will say that I have found many to be a mix of both... It's some pretty cool material. I just love the pet wood there. You pretty well can't go wrong with anything you find. But I sure do like the opalized wood😎
The drusy definitely will tumble away in a tumbler. Any that I don't want to loose the drusy on will get polished a different way or stay just the way they are✨ Some are too pretty to mess with
Holy smokes Marlaina! Now your on an adventure!! Those limb casts are beautiful! Its a whole forest buried in volcanic ash and silicated!!! Now thats a geologic treasure trove! :) Thanks for taking me on your awesome trip, this was really amazing! Looks like you found enough material to tumble etc, I cant wait to see what you do with some of it.
Thanks Mitch! Trip of a lifetime. I just picked out a bunch to throw in the tumbler. I will definitely show you the results when done. I think they are going to be amazing!
Right on! I wish I knew how to drop a pin for ya or I would... My best advice is to surface look... A lot of the time remnants of what people dug up or left behind will be on the surface. If you see a lot of green material you're most likely in a good spot for opal. Plus you should be able to tell by what you find off of the surface. Currently rockhounding has a video of Saddle Mountain as well. And I know the big huge hole that they were digging in has opalized wood. You can find opalized wood throughout all of Saddle Mountain but there are certain spots that have more accumulation. Hope this helps somewhat. Sorry I couldn't help more. But good luck and have fun! Cheers🐺🐾
What a great weekend you had !! So much every where you look. Just amazing ! The scenery is to die for also. I really enjoyed this one Marlaina. It must of been hard to leave. Congrats on all your finds !! They are Awesome !!
This place is AMAZING! I did not want to leave. I was in the back seat with my face and hands pressed up against the window crying "No...i don't want to leave!😭" lol Such good times. Thanks for coming along!🤗💕
You must have been digging up a storm because my power went out right in the middle of your video. Had to wait until today to finish. Lots of fun up there digging
Haha! I was uploading this video and my lights were flickering and was like "no!" Lol. It went out 20min later. Roast in the oven... Tumblers not tumbling... It was a day I tell ya... But boy did I have a fun time on Saddle Mt. Would definitely go again. Thanks for watching Kris!😎🏞
OMG that's so cool!!!..I didn't know there were 2 saddle mountain locations that produces quality rocks!..the other is in Arizona,fire agate is the stone,...but this area you are at is amazing!!..what a view!!.and what a load you hauled in!!!..soooo jealous!!.. great video!!..I expect to see some finished pet wood down the road!!!
Isn't it fun when you find yourself being selective?! I loved the whispering to the rocks, I do the same thing all the time! Good call keeping the botryoidal one, that was a sweet score! I mean, it's all sweet, but that one stuck out to me! Are the opalized beds higher or lower than the agatized beds? Ooohhh those chunkies at the end!!! Very nice!!
Hey TF hope you are well sir....not sure what Marlaina's experience there was and sorry to jump in here but will say from my own experiences there that the millions years old swamp/bog produced mixes of both and the hill is just lifted at one point and dropped at others creating 30-60 degree slopes. At the top of the hill what I found is that there is around a two foot thick layer of topsoil on top of a three foot thick layer of rotted basalt then at around the 5 1/2-6 1/2 feet deep level we found two logs laying flat sideways to vertical crossed over each other that were around 2-3 feet in diameter each (we exposed around 10-12 feet of total length in the hole we dug) there were sections of both of the logs that were purely agatized and other parts of the same log opalized and in between mixed. 🤷♂️ We dug under where the one log laid over the top of the other and found nice intact limbs.👀 Had one piece that must've been sticking out of the swamp water as the moss had been covered in ash then agatized on the outside of one end of the log into this beautiful super delicate golden colored calcedony. I polished up the ends of that and gave it to mom for a display piece on mothers day~🎁 Farther down the hill, dug sideways around 3-4 feet deep creating a shelf and found much smaller broken up chunks of material but actually the agatized parts had more colors like reds, greens and yellows where at the top of the hill the stumps and limbs I pulled out were all completely wood toned or where opalized wood tones, white, black and orange were the predominant colors I found myself. Another nice feature, some of the limbs fluoresce green on the outside and some of the limbs fluoresce orange inside the cores. (probably just radioactive waste from Hanford downstream on the Columbia-doh!) And there you have it~ Hope that answers most of your questions, take care my friend!
Ok first... Hi Shaughn! Second... I won't even say a word... I'm way outta my league to comment on that... I think your knowledge way surpasses mine. So I believe everything you say haha! The reason I said there were different beds was because the people I went up there with said to dig here for opal and here for the agatized wood leading me to assume there were different areas for the different material. Most of what we were pulling out of the hole I was in was all agatized. I found no opal in any of the material at that spot. But like I said your knowledge is way better than mine and I will believe what you say 100%. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I wasn't sure what I was going to tell thirst haha! Cheers Shaughn🐺🐾
Thirst! Now I know just the right piece to send you haha! But that won't be the only one. Thanks for watching. I know this was a long one. Now I have to finish watching yours! I'm halfway through it but I will finish it soon I swear haha Cheers🐺🐾
@@BackcountrywithShaughn Hey Shaughn! Not sure how I missed this! Thank you, I'm doing well! That did more or less answer my questions. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the process of silica solution maturing into opal, then agate. I know this doesn't happen all the time, but was curious if there might be some temporal correlation demonstrated in the individual layers at this location. That was why I was curious about which beds were higher up. Of course, you're right, in mountains you expect significant folding, so there wouldn't be a natural "higher and lower", but was curious if there was some obvious distinctions. Thanks for clearing it up! I bet your mom loved that odd specimen! Fluorescence of greens and oranges sounds like maybe calcite to me. Though I still crusade for people to make themselves aware if there is substantial uranium content in any pet wood they plan on cutting or especially wearing. Dangerous levels aren't common, but they do occur. Thanks for your input Shaughn! I really appreciate it! Hope everything is going good in your neck of the woods!
@@MarlainaAtkins Hey M! Oh wow! Thank you in advance for that funky chunk! Don't send too much, I don't want it to cost you an arm and leg! I appreciate it all, even if it's small! Haha, yeah, sorry that last one was a full hour. I'm going to try to just talk about one topic for maybe 20min at a time in future videos like that. I think I'll be able to convey more clearly what I want to say, and hopefully won't get lost as much, and forget to finish a thought. That happened a couple times in that last one. Cheers!
Beyond gold Beyond crystal gems Beyond agates I loooove exposures that contain ANCIENT LIFE! My all time favorite digging will always involve old critters who died millions of years ago! My most cherished pieces are fossils! One day I'll have a museum that contains the largest collection of plant and ocean fossils ever "cene" Haha like "pleistocene" sorry bad joke XD
Hahaha... You would love it here. Make sure to leave me a reply address when you send that gift and I will be sure to send you some of this in return! I still need to get back to your email sorry I've been so busy. I will get back to that soon. Have a great week! Cheers
@@MarlainaAtkins no worries everyone has different schedules! We had a bit of a mishap with the coins but I got it figured out now I have more coins than I anticipated so yeah it'll be fun when everyone gets the card!
So I am a beginner rock hound/rock polisher and I came across your videos. They are so helpful! Thank you for sharing. I do have a couple questions for you. Is there a place I can pm you or email you? I requested a follow on your Instagram too. Anyways I hope to talk to you soon.
Grand Coulee Dam is almost 100 miles from there .. the dam upstream from Matawan is Wanapum Dam .. there are 5 more dams upstream before you get to Grand Coulee. ( Do your homework , learn to read a map ! )
Love your enthusiastic rock collecting, thanks.
Thank you! I love rocks😄✨
Retired a year ago after 4 years in the USAF, 2 years of college and 38 years with the same employer. Now it's time to pick up where I left off in 1975. Rockhounding! And Saddle Mountain is only an hour away from home. Thanks for a great video! Btw, at 4:28, that's Wanapum Dam.
Thank you, I’ve tried to get out there but I have a sedan and can only go until my gut tells me no more, also I’m a complete novice, I don’t know what I’m picking at but if it’s pretty or unique, later I try to find out what I have but there’s so many variations of minerals and deposits and when you don’t know, you could be sitting on a pretty piece and not know it, love bring out there in the middle of nowhere💖🙏💯
your so awesome !! thank you for everything over the years !! you rock !!
Aw thanks Nate! Id have to say the same about you😉 Rock on rock brotha🙏✨
Like my sweater? Hehe😁
CHEERS ALL STAY LIFTED
Well-manicured fingernails like that and you are able to dig ....ooh sparkles!! good digging and video
Hahaha😂 I don't how I got so blessed with these fingernails lol Thanks Jeff!✨ Happy New Year!🎆
It's amazing there's anything left there. People are crawling all over the place taking everything they can find
Saddle Mountain is in no short of supply... There are hundreds of acres and you can find it throughout it. Most people don't even explore very far... It's everywhere for a good distance... I don't believe it'll run out any time soon. I left behind plenty😉
At 4:28 that is not Grand Coulee Dam
I know right... I messed that up🤦
It's all good.
@@1sec2midnight Thanks Douglas... I felt a little sheepish. I should have known better haha. But you made me feel better now... Thank you☺
grand coulee dam! wow must have drifted a bit.
I know right.... My head definitely drifted while editing this. HUGE mistake!🤦
@@MarlainaAtkins my head would have drifted too after seeing the log ends in the basalt. be careful of those little scorpions in shady places. shine your uv flashlight around to check. nice finds. do you cab any of the wood?
@@billdlyaegra9394 hahahaha yeah the guys I went with failed to mention that. So I'm digging away and all of a sudden I see something crawling up my leg... It's the tiniest scorpion I've ever seen... Nonetheless I freaked a little. Found a couple more throughout the dig but the worst part was when my friend hit an ant nest next to me and let's just say... They were not happy.
I'm still learning to cab. I have a Covington but only have two wheels. Once I can purchase a full set I'll be cabbing up a storm! I DO have a 10in Covington super maxi flat lap that I just got 3 days ago... It's a total game changer for me... I should be able to make some beautiful cabs with that soon.
Thanks for watching and thanks for tip! I'll be bringing a uv with me next time. Theres a field trip coming soon. Cheers✨
I’m so planning on making a trip there soon awesome 😊
How exciting! I wish you the very best! You can't go wrong on Saddle Mt. Happy happy hunting!😎✨
Thank you ☺️ we are excited
Git’ yer buckets out! It’s a dig’n adventure!!!!! Yeeehawwww! Absolutely loving this and I’m only 8 mins in. GET IT GIRL!!!!! Im’a keep watchin but man I’m lovin this Marlaina! So rad!
I’m just watching thinking, “dude... I wish I were there” I swear one day I am gonna dig with ya Mar. I can’t bloody wait!
I’m at half way, (been editing tonight and about to head in for tacos) but I’ve saved the second half for tomorrow night. I can’t wait! Honestly wish I was there. Some serious pet wood goodness!
I even reckon I could watch this twice it’s so much fun! Thanks mar!
I’m back! Man I can’t believe how translucent they are the bit at 18:12 is such a pretty colour!
They are gorgeous! I’ve never found pet wood like this! So so sooooo much going on inside them. And the limb casts are stunning! Now THATS Agatized Wood. Just woah.
Loved it Mar!
Okay thought I was done replying but the opal sheen is one of my favourite things to see. No polish but probably more shiny than I could ever make it. Glassy goodness!
What a beautiful view !
It is spectacular... Happy to share. Cheers😎
Great video! But, that's not Grand Coulee at 4:29.😔 That's Wanapum dam. Grand Coulee is much bigger. Just thought you're like to know.
Doh! Thanks for the correction. I wish I could edit that out! Haha Appreciate you watching. Best wishes
Thanks from me too. It's cool Marlaina, I knew you weren't that far north. ❤
Marlaina, can you tell me how to get the the stop on the way before you got to Saddle Mountain? great videos, thanks!
Take I-90 heading East towards Saddle Mt... Windmills will be on the left of you on the other side of highway... RIGHT after the windtowers there's another tower that's not a windmill... Slow down when you see the pillow basalts on the side of the road to your right... That's where it's at. All I ask is to please be careful and respectful of that area so many more people can come enjoy the awesomeness... Cheers!✨
Oh Marlaina!!! I think this is my favourite video of yours so far!! The scenery and the pet wood!!!
That first spot you show with the big logs is awesome!! I see pillow basalt features at 1:35. It appears all those logs are lying horizontal within the pillow basalt. Pillow basalt forms at the bottom of lava flows and it’s likely that those trees traveled a bit of distance at the bottom of the lava flow before coming to their final resting place. That’s sooooo cool to see in a crosscut like that! I’m geeking out over here!!! Thanks for sharing this!! Great video!!!!🤙🤙🤙
You seriously nailed it dude! The great ol Missoula flood is what brought them in. I was totally geeking out the whole way there and when I saw this I just tripped! This was one of the best trips I've ever been on. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. There was so much that I edited out haha! But it was such an epic trip that I had to share as much as possible. Anyone who loves pet wood would be in heaven here. Will definitely be going back someday. Thanks for coming along as always. And you'll be seeing some of this up close soon! Cheers my friend🐺🐾
Well sending a Hell Yeah!
What a dream place! Awesome beauties!...good onya! What a fun time you had there....winner winner!
😆😄 Cheers Kath
Down Under!🙃 👍
Hells yeah Katherine! It was an epic day... So much fun. I wish I could take you there in person! Cheers🐺🐾
You are a riot and I love it great video and very very cool . I’m so jealous great location
Haha thank you!🐺🐾
Amazing! Thanks for posting the video and sharing your experiences.
Thanks Douglas! Appreciate you coming along. This was one of my favorite trips. Best wishes
This is so cool. You KNOW I want to go there! Petrified wood FTW! :)
Katydid, please do! Our Pet wood is so different from yours!
This place is a dream... Pet wood HEAVEN!!! I actually was thinking while I was there... Kate would love this. Thanks for coming along💕
The Eastside is the best side : ) The material up there is awesome and the view is worth it alone. Its hard to go wrong up there.
One of the nice things about that location is you can fill a bucket without putting in much effort and I know there's hidden spots up there just waiting to reward the person that is willing walk or the person that wants to drive off road.
@@CurrentlyRockhounding you are totally correct... thousands of acres to explore... And if you venture further you WILL find great stuff. The Pres of the club likes to go way farther where less people have been... He says there's big pieces, logs even, laying on the surface the farther you go. But figuring out how to get some of them out of those the hard part haha
What club are you apart of
Love Saddle Mt! My fav. piece was a small knot that I tumbled. Great vid! You found some beauties!!
Those are the coolest! Thanks for coming along🐺🐾
What milepost off of eastbound I-90 is that by???
If you're talking about the logs in the sidebank... I'm not sure what milepost... But here's the GPS...
46°56´21.0"N
120°07´33.6"W
46.939178
-120.125996
Hope that helps✨
That’s pretty cool you found those petrified trees along the freeway! I’ve always wondered where those were at. So glad I finally got to see what they look like.
If your coming from the westside and eastbound on the 90 they will be after the rest area as you come down the hill into vantage.
Bring a hard hat! Haha
What a great video I enjoyed the whole very interesting my friends 👍
Thanks John! 👊😎
I bet that ash is good for a garden,it probably has tons of nutrients in it !
🤔hmmm... I never thought of that. I bet you're right!✨
Oh wow Marlaina nice haul haha. I found your video especially useful because I found a bunch of petrified wood recently and wasn't sure if it was opalized or agatized so your tip about that at the end really helps out. I now know the difference and looks like I mostly found myself some opalized wood. I love that natural shine it has! Thanks for the awesome footage and information!
Oh thanks that's awesome! I will say that I have found many to be a mix of both... It's some pretty cool material. I just love the pet wood there. You pretty well can't go wrong with anything you find. But I sure do like the opalized wood😎
That looks like a lot off fun petrified wood is so nice but so hard to cut and polish enjoy have fun
what a giant load! I love going to places where you step out of the car and you're already standing on goods!
Seriously!🐺🐾
Looks like you had a great trip! One of my favorite spots to go to. And I agree, I like the small pieces and limb/root casts too!
Saves so much on the blade! Haha
This was so much fun.
Doesn’t the druzy come off when tumbled? Or do you skip some of those specimens?
The drusy definitely will tumble away in a tumbler. Any that I don't want to loose the drusy on will get polished a different way or stay just the way they are✨ Some are too pretty to mess with
@@MarlainaAtkins Yes makes sense thanks for responding
What a rocking paradise for agatized petrified wood, thanks for taking us along!
Holy smokes Marlaina! Now your on an adventure!! Those limb casts are beautiful! Its a whole forest buried in volcanic ash and silicated!!! Now thats a geologic treasure trove! :)
Thanks for taking me on your awesome trip, this was really amazing! Looks like you found enough material to tumble etc, I cant wait to see what you do with some of it.
Thanks Mitch! Trip of a lifetime. I just picked out a bunch to throw in the tumbler. I will definitely show you the results when done. I think they are going to be amazing!
@@MarlainaAtkins For sure! Cant wait to see them!
Hey, I'm going to saddle on Saturday, despite the possible shitty weather. Can you give me a the location pin drop for the opal area of the saddle mt?
Right on! I wish I knew how to drop a pin for ya or I would... My best advice is to surface look... A lot of the time remnants of what people dug up or left behind will be on the surface. If you see a lot of green material you're most likely in a good spot for opal. Plus you should be able to tell by what you find off of the surface. Currently rockhounding has a video of Saddle Mountain as well. And I know the big huge hole that they were digging in has opalized wood. You can find opalized wood throughout all of Saddle Mountain but there are certain spots that have more accumulation. Hope this helps somewhat. Sorry I couldn't help more. But good luck and have fun! Cheers🐺🐾
What a great weekend you had !! So much every where you look. Just amazing ! The scenery is to die for also. I really enjoyed this one Marlaina. It must of been hard to leave. Congrats on all your finds !! They are Awesome !!
This place is AMAZING! I did not want to leave. I was in the back seat with my face and hands pressed up against the window crying "No...i don't want to leave!😭" lol
Such good times. Thanks for coming along!🤗💕
You must have been digging up a storm because my power went out right in the middle of your video. Had to wait until today to finish. Lots of fun up there digging
Haha! I was uploading this video and my lights were flickering and was like "no!" Lol. It went out 20min later. Roast in the oven... Tumblers not tumbling... It was a day I tell ya... But boy did I have a fun time on Saddle Mt. Would definitely go again. Thanks for watching Kris!😎🏞
OMG that's so cool!!!..I didn't know there were 2 saddle mountain locations that produces quality rocks!..the other is in Arizona,fire agate is the stone,...but this area you are at is amazing!!..what a view!!.and what a load you hauled in!!!..soooo jealous!!.. great video!!..I expect to see some finished pet wood down the road!!!
Got some thats about to fill the tumblers now...
@@MarlainaAtkins I knew you would
Just freaking beautiful!!! And oh my lord the size of that pet wood, could you imagine getting the whole log out in mostly one piece!?
Thanks Dawg. I tried talking the boys into it but it wouldn't fit in the tiny vehicle we were driving smh
Isn't it fun when you find yourself being selective?! I loved the whispering to the rocks, I do the same thing all the time!
Good call keeping the botryoidal one, that was a sweet score! I mean, it's all sweet, but that one stuck out to me!
Are the opalized beds higher or lower than the agatized beds?
Ooohhh those chunkies at the end!!! Very nice!!
Hey TF hope you are well sir....not sure what Marlaina's experience there was and sorry to jump in here but will say from my own experiences there that the millions years old swamp/bog produced mixes of both and the hill is just lifted at one point and dropped at others creating 30-60 degree slopes. At the top of the hill what I found is that there is around a two foot thick layer of topsoil on top of a three foot thick layer of rotted basalt then at around the 5 1/2-6 1/2 feet deep level we found two logs laying flat sideways to vertical crossed over each other that were around 2-3 feet in diameter each (we exposed around 10-12 feet of total length in the hole we dug) there were sections of both of the logs that were purely agatized and other parts of the same log opalized and in between mixed. 🤷♂️ We dug under where the one log laid over the top of the other and found nice intact limbs.👀 Had one piece that must've been sticking out of the swamp water as the moss had been covered in ash then agatized on the outside of one end of the log into this beautiful super delicate golden colored calcedony. I polished up the ends of that and gave it to mom for a display piece on mothers day~🎁 Farther down the hill, dug sideways around 3-4 feet deep creating a shelf and found much smaller broken up chunks of material but actually the agatized parts had more colors like reds, greens and yellows where at the top of the hill the stumps and limbs I pulled out were all completely wood toned or where opalized wood tones, white, black and orange were the predominant colors I found myself. Another nice feature, some of the limbs fluoresce green on the outside and some of the limbs fluoresce orange inside the cores. (probably just radioactive waste from Hanford downstream on the Columbia-doh!) And there you have it~ Hope that answers most of your questions, take care my friend!
Ok first... Hi Shaughn!
Second... I won't even say a word... I'm way outta my league to comment on that... I think your knowledge way surpasses mine. So I believe everything you say haha! The reason I said there were different beds was because the people I went up there with said to dig here for opal and here for the agatized wood leading me to assume there were different areas for the different material. Most of what we were pulling out of the hole I was in was all agatized. I found no opal in any of the material at that spot. But like I said your knowledge is way better than mine and I will believe what you say 100%. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I wasn't sure what I was going to tell thirst haha! Cheers Shaughn🐺🐾
Thirst! Now I know just the right piece to send you haha! But that won't be the only one. Thanks for watching. I know this was a long one. Now I have to finish watching yours! I'm halfway through it but I will finish it soon I swear haha
Cheers🐺🐾
@@BackcountrywithShaughn Hey Shaughn! Not sure how I missed this! Thank you, I'm doing well! That did more or less answer my questions. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the process of silica solution maturing into opal, then agate. I know this doesn't happen all the time, but was curious if there might be some temporal correlation demonstrated in the individual layers at this location. That was why I was curious about which beds were higher up. Of course, you're right, in mountains you expect significant folding, so there wouldn't be a natural "higher and lower", but was curious if there was some obvious distinctions. Thanks for clearing it up! I bet your mom loved that odd specimen! Fluorescence of greens and oranges sounds like maybe calcite to me. Though I still crusade for people to make themselves aware if there is substantial uranium content in any pet wood they plan on cutting or especially wearing. Dangerous levels aren't common, but they do occur.
Thanks for your input Shaughn! I really appreciate it! Hope everything is going good in your neck of the woods!
@@MarlainaAtkins Hey M! Oh wow! Thank you in advance for that funky chunk! Don't send too much, I don't want it to cost you an arm and leg! I appreciate it all, even if it's small!
Haha, yeah, sorry that last one was a full hour. I'm going to try to just talk about one topic for maybe 20min at a time in future videos like that. I think I'll be able to convey more clearly what I want to say, and hopefully won't get lost as much, and forget to finish a thought. That happened a couple times in that last one.
Cheers!
Beyond gold Beyond crystal gems Beyond agates I loooove exposures that contain ANCIENT LIFE! My all time favorite digging will always involve old critters who died millions of years ago! My most cherished pieces are fossils! One day I'll have a museum that contains the largest collection of plant and ocean fossils ever "cene" Haha like "pleistocene" sorry bad joke XD
Hahaha... You would love it here. Make sure to leave me a reply address when you send that gift and I will be sure to send you some of this in return! I still need to get back to your email sorry I've been so busy. I will get back to that soon. Have a great week! Cheers
@@MarlainaAtkins no worries everyone has different schedules! We had a bit of a mishap with the coins but I got it figured out now I have more coins than I anticipated so yeah it'll be fun when everyone gets the card!
I've never actually dug for rocks. I pick though. Lol
Even that is a blast! I spent my last hour just picking the surface...
I love how everyone apologizes for the wind! Like it's your fault. Its all good, thanks for the long vid!
So I am a beginner rock hound/rock polisher and I came across your videos. They are so helpful! Thank you for sharing. I do have a couple questions for you. Is there a place I can pm you or email you? I requested a follow on your Instagram too. Anyways I hope to talk to you soon.
Grand Coulee Dam is almost 100 miles from there .. the dam upstream from Matawan is Wanapum Dam .. there are 5 more dams upstream before you get to Grand Coulee. ( Do your homework , learn to read a map ! )
.. Mattawa
Everyone makes mistakes... Thanks for the friendly criticism
@@bowenzhou5264 see...