Hauser Geode Beds - Jan. 17th

Jared is our family Geologist. He loves rocks and minerals! One of our new hobbies is Rockhounding. A couple Saturdays ago we (Me, Jared and Serenity) decided to head out to the Hauser Geode Beds (it's near the Arizona border - a 3 hour drive into the middle of no where). Our trusty book, "Gem trails of California" said that there would be about 15 miles of dirt roads, but that no 4x4 was needed. The book was right, no 4x4 was needed. We made it through 14 miles of the dirt road then stopped at the turn off. There was a small shack with some crazy hippies living there. They looked at my car and laughed. Basically they said there was no way my car would make it the last mile to the geode beds. What a bummer! But they said we should be able to find pieces of geode if we walk around a bit. We drove back down the road about a mile and I let the kids out. We hiked across the riverbed and they had a great time "getting dirty".

Of course we brought Paris too.

Here is Serenity with her prize find.

We ended up finding some good pieces of geode and we found lots of Jasper too.

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.

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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.
Here are some links about Gems of Pala.
http://www.mmmgems.com/stewart/index.htm
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/51878/hunting_for_tourmaline_gemstones_the.html

Prices have changed from what is listed on the websites. Call for Reservations: 1-760-742-1356