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

[Swingbatta]

On 12/22/2020 at 6:44 PM, GotAU? said:

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.

Thanks for the kind words.

Doh, it wasn’t until after I posted that I realized you’d already taken your trip. Those petrified wood pebbles are so cool! We’ll have to get back before it gets hot. My son loved “looking for treasure” out there.

[Kerm55]

On 12/6/2020 at 9:55 AM, GotAU? said:

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.

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!

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.

Hi I've been there several times over the past 5 years and have yet to find an intact geode...my grandkids luv them and so do I. Would u be willing to share specific location. I'll try to go mid April. Thank you very much

Kevin

[GotAU?]

Hi Kevin, geodes are where you find them! 😉

No, really- the best locations are where you see the ash deposits capped by basalt. The contact zone between those have crystals in vugs (gas holes in the basalt).  Some of those are thunder eggs which are pretty nice if you can break them out with a gad and hammer. Less common and just below the hard stuff is where you find loose geodes.  The ash is soft dusky brown color to very light, I guess depending on how much decomposition the basalt went through.  The map I posted above describes some of the popular and picked over places like potato patch, etc.  But strike out from them after looking at the area’s characteristics, and look for similar places nearby.  The locations we found the most geodes were not pin pointed on the map, they were between the named areas where the old abandoned claims are there where people used heavy machinery to dig for precious stones and geodes one time or another and we picked them up from the dump piles.

And don’t dig near overhangs!

[Kerm55]

Thank you that's helpful. We will try again. I've got plenty of maps and the general gps for the different beds....just hoping we can find those areas of prior activity.