Rock Hunting on the Little Naches

We went rock hunting yesterday in the Little Naches River about 40 miles from Yakima up the Chinook Pass.  This winter and spring had brought a ton of flooding to our area.  For rock hunters,  flooding can actually have a positive outcome:  new material to search through!!  I had high hopes that we would find some beautiful agates,  perhaps some jasper,  definitely some gorgeous green stones.

Oh,  boy!  The water was COLD!  My sandy beach was obliterated by torrents of water that tore through new channels cut through the immense gravel bar!  In order to find stones,  we had to make our ways knee deep in frigid run off to the dry gravel bed in the middle of the river.  It's difficult to look for agates in dry gravel.  Agates (at least these agates) have a naturally milky appearance that looks icy blue underwater,  but are difficult to see amongst other white and grey stones on dry ground.  At least that's what I thought until Tony came to me with a gorgeous palm-sized agate,  replete with a couple of well-placed veins.  It was the most extraordinary find of the day!!!  This was Tony's first real rock hunting trip with me - it seems as though the beginners have all the luck!!!

I found a nice piece of agatized would though,  a couple piddly little agates compared to Tony's.  I promise to get back into the river later on this summer.  It was just too cold and too deep!!!!  I know there are hundreds of beautiful stones under that ice cold water!!!

All was not lost.  We came back to town with several gorgeous slabs of shale,  a newfound calmness that I haven't felt since my last spelunking expedition...and some beautiful pictures of the Nile Valley.  I maintain,  there is nothing like the natural beauty of Washington state.  I sure do love it here.