Rockhounding the wash

Today was my day to decide what we would do.

I wanted to find things..

I wanted to go rockhounding..

We were told that we could walk the dirt road near the campground to the wash and collect rocks in the wash.

The road takes us past trash and things left in the desert to die..

It was kind of sad to see this part of the desert so full of trash..

It was also kind of cool..

Trucks laid to rest..

After perusing the trash we continued to follow the road south to the wash..

I stopped to take a photo of these two arched Ocotillo

I gave Jeff my Canon SX20 and he was also taking photos..

I LOVE how things grow out of this rock and dirt..

Such determined plants..

We arrive at the wash..

On the sides of the wash I start to find Calcite..

Do you see the greenish stone below?

We walk the wash….this is not sandy,it is one large rock tiled pathway….

On the side walls and on the path we see veins of crystals..

We were able to find a few small crystal rocks..

Most were too large to take with us.

The wash becomes sandy with loose rocks..

Steep sandstone walls line the path..

Crystals everywhere..

The wash ends and meets another wash..

We follow the second wash north..

Our plan is to

loop back to the campground..

We are hoping this wash brings us in the right direction..

We walk up large rock steps

A poor little lost baby doll..

Swallow nests..

Shell fossils..

We found our way out of the wash..

and back to the campground..

where we washed our calcite and crystal finds.

Tomorrow is Jeff's day..I wonder what he has planned?