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Recommended Field Trip: Hauser Geode Beds At Wiley Well And The Pebble Terrace ( So. Cal)


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We’re heading over to the Hauser beds (near Blythe, CA)  this week (11/25/20), has anyone been there recently? Any suggestions on good locations? 😁 I’ll post a collecting trip report with recommendations when we return. Thanks!

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  • 2 weeks later...

On 11/24/2020 at 4:44 PM, GotAU? said:

We’re heading over to the Hauser beds (near Blythe, CA)  this week (11/25/20), has anyone been there recently? Any suggestions on good locations? 😁 I’ll post a collecting trip report with recommendations when we return. Thanks!

Well we were there for three days and returned with a nice collection of small geodes and thundereggs I have yet to cut open.  It is a really interesting area with numerous extinct volcanic plugs and basalt flows.

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We also went closer to Blythe north of Palo Verde, where a deposit of rounded and polished river cobbles were left by a once untamed and ancient Colorado River as it meandered through the area. The river formed miles of benches and desert pavement terraces with these pebbles, of which were from many different sources along the river’s course. We found colorful jasper and quartzite pebbles, along with quartz, opalite and even petrified wood pebbles.  I swung a detector here only briefly, hoping to find a pebble with a hint of gold in it too... maybe one day!

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This trip would make a great outing weekend for anyone in So. Cal and SW Arizona.  The geode beds are remote, so bring the typical supplies. 2wd is good enough for both areas mentioned, and Hauser and the Wiley Well area does have some trails that also require 4wd, but you can get to almost all of the good places there to dig with just 2wd and even with standard clearance.  The pebble terrace has a new paved road through it not mentioned even in the most recent online guides, so access is now very easy. Just take the new road that leads north from the I-10 frontage road to the solar field a mile or so west of the Palo Verde airport.

Both the Wiley Well area and the more remote areas of the pebble terrace are on BLM land,  so remote camping is available. There are some private property parcels at both places, so use good judgment where you go to collect and camp there.

Feel free to PM me or post here if you want more details.

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  • The title was changed to Recommended: Hauser Geode Beds At Wiley Well (so. Cal)

Here’s a great site map of the Wiley Well collection area with the Hauser geode beds, and the old  Colorado River Pebble Terrace in the book Desert Gem Trails by Mary Frances Strong.  The 2nd edition of this book was published in 1971. If  you can find it, get it. This is an excellent reference for many  mineral collection sites in CA, NV and AZ.  A lot of the field and road conditions have changed since this book was published, but it’s still a good research tool.

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  • The title was changed to Recommended Field Trip: Hauser Geode Beds At Wiley Well And The Pebble Terrace ( So. Cal)

Back in the early 60's when I was just a kid. My friends dad was president of a rock club We went to pebble terrace to collect semi precious stones to cut and polish. Jack my friends dad came back to camp excited with a well worn fingernail size nugget he picked up on the terrace. He had it in a display case with some of his finds for many years. Always wanted to go back there and swing a detector.  When my wife and I camped by the Hauser geode beds back in the 70's we meet a couple of guys from Sweden that told us about them digging out 1 to 2 foot geodes  about 6 to 8 feet down. They were old and wanted to come back and see the area they had dug in years ago when they were young.,they shipped the geodes back to Sweden. We were heading out the next morning to hunt for fire agate so  never got to dig out that spot. On the trial to the beds you pass a outcrop or ledge of ash on the hillside. That is were they dug them out. Never told anyone about it until now,but I will probably never make it back to the ledge, time for someone younger to check it out. Good Luck!

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6 hours ago, Beeper Bob said:

Back in the early 60's when I was just a kid. My friends dad was president of a rock club We went to pebble terrace to collect semi precious stones to cut and polish. Jack my friends dad came back to camp excited with a well worn fingernail size nugget he picked up on the terrace. He had it in a display case with some of his finds for many years. Always wanted to go back there and swing a detector.  When my wife and I camped by the Hauser geode beds back in the 70's we meet a couple of guys from Sweden that told us about them digging out 1 to 2 foot geodes  about 6 to 8 feet down. They were old and wanted to come back and see the area they had dug in years ago when they were young.,they shipped the geodes back to Sweden. We were heading out the next morning to hunt for fire agate so  never got to dig out that spot. On the trial to the beds you pass a outcrop or ledge of ash on the hillside. That is were they dug them out. Never told anyone about it until now,but I will probably never make it back to the ledge, time for someone younger to check it out. Good Luck!

My first time out there was back in the 70’s with my mom and dad also.  We were in the area called the potato patch and they dug out a hole in the ash beds and collected quite a few geodes.  I went hiking while they worked and saw my first chuckwallas up in the rocks, they were huge!  I kind of got in trouble though after we got home because I broke open most of the geodes with a sledge that my father wanted to cut.

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1 hour ago, Beeper Bob said:

Yes that was the same area, The big ones came out off the trail to the potato patch, they showed me some photos, big beautiful crystal filled geodes. If I remember right the ash layer they dug in had a lava cap over it.

I saw the area where you are referring to, I spoke with a geologist friend a while back about the area, and he said people had been digging out deep coyote holes under the basalt cap and it wasn’t safe to do that there without shoring, too many places to get slabbed. So BLM had a contractor pull down the overburden over the deepest holes, but it looks like the holes are coming back.  There are lots of broken neat little specimens to look for in the dumps through, much safer too!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have almost zero experience rockhounding or prospecting so I can’t help much, but I took my 5 yr old son exploring there back in April. We drove up Milpitas Wash Road and camped very close to where Houser Geode Beds is labeled on Google maps. We did lots of digging and exploring the nearby hills, resulting in a handful of small geodes. After setting up camp we discovered a lot of rusty nails in the road - I have no idea how we didn’t get a flat. We also saw a western diamondback rattlesnake. Fun place to explore.

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4 hours ago, Swingbatta said:

I have almost zero experience rockhounding or prospecting so I can’t help much, but I took my 5 yr old son exploring there back in April. We drove up Milpitas Wash Road and camped very close to where Houser Geode Beds is labeled on Google maps. We did lots of digging and exploring the nearby hills, resulting in a handful of small geodes. After setting up camp we discovered a lot of rusty nails in the road - I have no idea how we didn’t get a flat. We also saw a western diamondback rattlesnake. Fun place to explore.

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That’s awesome, beautiful photo of the sunset and the local resident also! I think your son is going to remember the trip, it’s one of those types of lifetime memories that will mean a lot to him as an adult. Those early trips my family took us on when I was a kid sure got me hooked, and I’m sure he’ll pass it on and share similar adventures with his family as well.

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Some nice shots!!!!!!!!,the little boy is going for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Snake remind me a similiar situation in the Amazon but that for another day...

 

RR

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