A Break in the Winter Weather
It’s February 1st and there’s been a break in the cold weather for a few days. Most of the snow is gone for now in the lower elevations but a big storm is expected next week. Now was our chance to get a little rockhounding in before it gets cold and snowy again.
We decided to take a quick trip to explore some of the areas between Glenwood, Utah, and Sigurd, Utah.
Past Excursions
We have read reports of beautiful plume agate coming from the Glenwood, Utah area but in the past, we have always come up empty-handed. At most, we’ve seen lots of igneous rock in the area.
Around Sigurd, Utah we’ve found lots of Selenite, white Gypsum, green Gypsum, and what we believe to be red Gypsum. The red Gypsum is found in somewhat fluffy, lightweight pieces that can be as large as a bowling ball. There are also some specimens that seem to be more sedimentary and come in thin hard layers. They are usually around 1/4″ inch thick and smaller than a quarter.
We’ve tried cutting cabochons with the material and it is relatively hard and takes a nice polish.
Todays Rockhounding Trip
This time we decided to hunt in a new location that looked like it might be promising. We didn’t find any real treasures however we did find some minerals that were promising.
At first, we found the usual small pieces of red Gypsum and lots of Selenite. The red Gypsum at this location is thicker than most of the red Gypsum we have found in the past. There was a lot of igneous rock in the area as well.
After only a few minutes of walking, we started to notice signs of dull-colored agate and some jasper. As we hunted further we found some promising minerals. Most of the minerals we found today were quite small, however, we will definitely be back again this spring.
Here are some examples of what we found on our short trip.
