Tecopa/Kingston Mountain Run

[JLeonhardy]

Many years ago a friend of mine, Corbin Harney (wiki him up, it's a good read) invited me to camp at this ol' concrete warm spring tub off Furnace Creek Road. About thirty miles uphill from there is a hole on the west side of the blown out caldera that is Kingston Mountain that I started digging in '88 or '89. Pulled some serious poundage of deepdeep purple over the years. My first trip back there in almost 15 years.

That hole? It's a forty foot trench now, back filled five feet deep from the folks that came in behind me. The deep purple is still there, but it would take 10 to 12 hours of labor to get the overburden off, so I just sifted some buckets, wandered for ground scores and scouted for new holes in the future.

One shard of gem quality, two (very) rare citrines -- the naturally cooked king, not the naturally grown dioxide -- and out of nowhere, laying on flat high ground with no apparent host rock ANYwhere, a flake of poppy jasper.

And lots of eye candy...

 

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[curious kat]

What an interesting post! How unexpected....a hot spring pool/tub & a "couch". lol I've never heard of "poppy" jasper, very different...wonder why/how it's that way? Will have to look that one up....thanks for posting all this.

 

[JLeonhardy]

Yeah, the locals have turned it into a Desert Rat Riviera, Kat. I hit that spot after 496.7 miles, ten hours of driving at ten o' clock at night on the first try! Gotta tell you, that was one comfortable NOT smelly couch to crash on -- and save me a *lot* of late night unpacking to set up a camp!

 

[curious kat]

..."Desert Rat Riviera"....would make a good book or song title! Wow...that's a lot of driving, so nice it was there for ya!

 

[rodoconnor]

Desert Rat Riviera. That would make a great Guy Clark or John Prine song !

 

[Eu_citzen]

Very nice finds J!

 

[Josephinedark]

Hey guys. Couldnt resist.. I am the one that drug that couch there.. Lol
Would interested to know more about the place 30 miles up..

 

[gold tramp]

Many moons ago I redug that ledge that is pictured got alot of stuff, started white crystals at the south end of the ledge then light purple midway and finally at the north end of my trench deep purple Kingston mnt amethyst.
There were a couple hikers up there when we were diggin the purp we invited them up to dig with us.
Great day on the big mnt.
Gt......

 

[IAMZIM]

Awesome material! A few years ago I spent three days working an amethyst pocket that was at about 15 feet below the surface. The last night I got to work it, I stayed up until midnight working it, and It was starting to open up more, with bigger and better crystals, I had to work the next morning, so I left because I still had an hour and a half to drive home. Two days later I came back, and the Forrest Service had back-filled my pocket. I tried to dig it back out, but could not find the pocket again. It's still there, somewhere.......ugg.