Panamint Valley Field Trip

Four of us left the southern Sierras and dropped down into Inyokern, Ridgecrest, Trona, and finally Panamint Springs.  The weather was crisp and clear, a perfect day for being just outside of Death Valley National Monument.  At the resort at Panamint Springs we met up with members of the Indian Wells and Lone Pine clubs, and checked out the agates and other material trip leader Jonathan had previously found.  Jonathan is a jeweler with items in the gift shop at the resort. Very fascinating designs on this material, some smokey quartz, chalcedony, and jasper.  There are also spheres, losse and in the matrix.

   Off we headed to Minietta Road, south of Panamint Road (north puts you in the National Monument, where it is illegal to collect).  We collected on both sides of the road in the pan, and the first place we stopped ended up having the best material.  We explored further south, and off Panamint Road, but found no better.  We also travelled into the hills and explored three mine tailings.  While we were doing that some of the group went to an onyx location nearby.

We wished we had known they were going to the onyx site, but we'll have to save that for another trip. One of found a small landscape with a perfect tiny fat quartz crystal sticking up in the front center, along with the spheres pictured above.  There was a great deal of naturally polished rocks. We didn't leave until 4:30, and hit rain in Inyokern, a thick snowstorm over Walker Pass, and more rain at the house, but a safe return.