Brunson Family Adventures: Rockhounding @ Gems of Pala

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Rockhounding @ Gems of Pala

Jared and I have been wanting to start rockhounding (for those unfamiliar with the sport it is the activity of searching for and collecting rocks, fossils, or minerals). Jared and I LOVE watching the show "Cash and Treasures" on discovery channel and we saw an episode on searching for pink tourmaline at the Gems of Pala (near Escondito, CA). We did some research and found out that you have to have a reservation (which ended up being over a month away). Saturday was the big day. We didn't get to go into the mine, but they bring the tailings (the leftover rubble) up out of the mine for people to search through. You pay per bucket and they supply all the equipment. Jared and I were very anxious to find something great. (Gem quality pink tourmaline are five times as rare as gem diamonds and over ten times more valuable than pure gold...supposedly)
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Shane and Jared filling a bucket from the tailings pile.

Jared searching for the "big one". (Sadly...we didn't find it)

There were about 30 people there and quite a few found some really great pieces. Everything we found was very, very small. Here were are best finds. The blue and green and rare. Pink and black are the most common. Shane found the pink and the teal. I found the blue and Jared found the little green one.
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We found alot of tiny pink and even more of the black (I forgot to take a picture of the black). Here are the best of the pink.

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On the way home we stopped at the "old town root beer company" in Temecula...its become tradition to stop when ever we pass that way. The shop offers close to 200 types of root beer and 335 nostalgic sodas. Jared made me laugh when he tried opening his bottle. (21st century kids, these days!) He couldn't figure out how to work the bottle cap opener.