Rockhounds

Rylan has been facinated with rocks since his class did a unit on them at the begining of the school year. He has been begging to go out to the Dugway geode beds. Last week his teacher finally convinced me it would be a good idea.

We started out going through Tooele, and on to Vernon were there is a collection site for stuff called banded rhyolite, or wonderstone. This site was pretty easy to find and get to, just super windy. The hardest part was convincing the kids they couldn't bring all of it home.

Then we went on to the geode beds. This involves 50 miles on "improved"dirt roads. Part of the way it follows the old Pony Express Highway, so we got a history lesson too.

The geode beds were a little farther off the road and harder to get to. The only sign was at the turn off from the main road, then there were a million little dirt paths. We finally figured out the path most of the vehicles were following and wound our way back there. Once you find the main site where they use big machines to dig out pits in the hillside it is easy to find geodes. Alyssa got out of the car and instantly started picking up sparkly fragments.

This was a fun trip, and well worth your time if you are interested in rocks. Just do your research online to find directions becase there really are tons of dirt roads that go off into nowhere.