15 replies to this topic

[DirtyDog]

I arranged a weekend to take Alex and his parental units on a weekend rock hunting trip in the Ochoco Mountains and John Day Fossil Beds area in Central Oregon.

My little science buddy Alex:


Painted Hills:

[DirtyDog]

Painted Hills:


Painted Hills Visitors Center:

[DirtyDog]

Hunting for rocks outside the park:


Rare sighting of a Painted Hills Purple-backed Jackalope:

[DirtyDog]

Camping at the Ochoco Divide Campground. This is a nice campground on highway 26 at Ochoco Summit - about 10 or 15 miles west of Mitchel:


The main objective of the trip was to visit the Lucky Strike Thunderegg mine in the Ochoco mountains:


Ryan getting serious:

[DirtyDog]

One of the mines owners:

[DirtyDog]

The Lucky Strike HQ:


This is really a neat place to visit. The owner is a very nice older man (WW2 veteran!) and his wife. I want to say their names are Cop and Cindy if I remember correctly. These are some of the nicest thundereggs (and largest) you will find anywhere. You pay 1 dollar per pound on what you want to keep.

Cop cleaning our eggs:

[DirtyDog]

The weigh in:




Overall a great weekender close to home. We are finally getting some nice weather up here so look out for more Oregon reports in the near future!

[Ted]

Hey DD,

Nice report and good to see little ones interested in something besides video games. Just one thing, not all of your members have a geology background. WTH is a thunderegg?

[Alaskan Snowbirds]

Hey DD,

Nice report and good to see little ones interested in something besides video games...

Ditto. Good job getting that budding young rockologist out there.:thumb:

If you two cut and polish those eggs it would be fun to see pics of Alex with the end product!

Happy Trails,
'birds

[DirtyDog]

Ted these are thundereggs: http://yurila.com/8.html

birds I'll post some pics when I get these things polished. Could be a while - still looking for a used saw.