Sunday, March 3, 2019, Rock Hunting Adventure in the Desert

As soon as we settled in at North Ranch Joani was ready to start rock hunting. Our friend Loren was more than willing to indulge her in her quest. He offered to take her into the desert where he had previously spotted some colorful rocks. Of course, the route to the rocks included a few other interesting features along the way. 

Loren told me it was up for debate why this was called suicide hill. It might be because you can't see if someone is coming up the backside or it might be because it was such a steep climb that smaller ATVs tended to flip over backward.

The area had so much rain the desert had exploded with green.

Bessy was keeping a close eye on us.

Loren took me to a spot that was covered with interesting colorful rocks.

What a cool crested saguaro. I loved the rippled sides.

My research tells me most of this is quartzite.

This rock remained a mystery. It was abundant. The colorful surface was just that, only on the surface but also the surfaces between layers. The layers broke apart fairly easily, like slate.
I FOUND IT!!!  Manganese Dendrites

These are small samples, about 1 inch by 1.5 inches and 1/4 inch thick. My hour of online research did nothing to shed light on my find.  While researching unidentified stone slabs that I purchased in Quartzsite (Silver Lace Dendritic Onyx) I discovered what Dendrite is. Now I want to find more ;)

I think Joani added another 20 pounds of ballast to our rolling home. I know she had a great time and I'm sure some of her finds will be exceptional when they can be evaluated. That will have to wait until we return to the lapidary lab in Mesa where they can be sliced and polished. It will be nice to unload some of our collection after we determine which are keepers and which ones we can be left behind in the gravel parking lot.