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We spent the last two nights up in Lake Havasu with Justin’s brother’s family, so we could collect at a few of our favorite locations and to get our things together in preperation for the West Coast Gem and Mineral Show, in Costa Mesa, CA this coming weekend. We had originally planned to film the Wiley’s Well area, but once the thermometer reached 103 today (even though it maxed out at 107), we decided that it wasn’t worth catching heat stroke for some agates. So instead we took our time, and tried to film a few locations outside Blythe, CA off the 10.

Our first stop was for psilomelane, from the long closed Arlington Mine. However due to all the work we had to catch up on, we didn’t even get on the road untill after 3pm, putting us at our location at 5:30. Lucky for us, the road was pretty well maintained the whole way up to the old quarry.

As soon as we stepped out of the truck, you could find low-medium quality psilomelane pretty much everywhere. I picked up this piece on the dump pile after only looking for about 1 minute. But to find the better stuff, you have to dig around put in a little bit of hard work. (of course, this is pretty much how it always is.)

Justin took the camera and walked to the top of the tailing pile before I even had my shoes on. (I wear flip flops in the summer, which are no good for collecting, so I make sure to put my sneakers on before I even start to look around.

Once I finally climed to the top, I saw this memorial… It had no information on it, but we just love the randomness that you will find in the middle of nowhere, so I had to get a picture.

After loosing interest in the tailings piles, I decided it was time to join Justin, who by this time had made it into the old quarry.

On the way out we have to always remember to stop and film the road markers.

We were rushing to beat the sun, and trying to make it to one more location before dark. But we weren’t that optimistic.

We passed some old mine structures and some rusted out old cars on the way in, so we decided to take a second to get some photos.

It was a good thing too. Once we got out of the truck we discovered that our tire had sprung a leak, and in a few mintues all the air had leaked out.

Too bad it just so happend that their were massive amounts of yellow jackets EVERYWHERE, and I am allergic to yellow jakcets. I decided it would be in my best interest to stay away, while Justin took care of the flat.

At this point it became apparent that we were not going to make it to the next location today, however, with so much time I did get a lot of neat shots of random desert trash.

Too bad this old medicine bottle wasn’t complete, it looks like it would have been nifty looking. You sure aren’t going to get your Boniva in a bottle like this.

After a weekend of fun (“Smitten” Opening at thinkspace gallery Friday & visiting the Rose Bowl Flea market on Sunday), and some much needed sleep, we set off in the afternoon to begin filming “Mineral Collecting in Imperial County, California”. Our first two locations were in the Salton Sea Vincinity, so we picked up the rental truck, and headed on down the 10.

We travel this way quite alot, and one of the sights that we find really interesting is the wind mills outside Palm Springs. Justin has heard people say that they are no fun living near, but they are diffinately a spectacle; jutting out of the stark desert landscape.

Jusitn & I kind of see them as the dividing point between the LA Sprawl and the California Desert beyond.

We traveled on the northern rim of the Salton Sea, on route 111. This stretch is desolate with the exception of a few small farming communities and abandoned tourist towns.

One such example is the once vibrant resort town of Salton City.

One thing this area has plenty of is trains. Living in Tucson has made me pay more attention to freight trains, but there is always something really nostalgic about a train blasting down through the vast expanses of the desert.

Our first location was outside the “town” (we saw no town, only 3 or 4 dirt farms) of Bertram at the abandoned Bertram Mine. This location had a never ending amount of nice glauberite crystals, very similar to the ones collected at the Camp Verde, Arizona location. Of course, these were their natural color; translucent to white. We drove back a couple dirt roads to what looked like piles of dirt sprinkled with snow.

Some very old buckets of paint right nearby the first collecting sight.

If you look far out in the distance you can see the Salton Sea.

Then back on down the road to “Obsidian Butte”.

It just so happens that to get to “Obsidian Butte” one has to drive through a weird industrial farming area down “Servere Rd” until it ends, and then out to the butte on a road running on a ridge right through the marshy edge of the Salton Sea.

This area while beautiful, was very humid and rather stinky due to the brackish water. And don’t even get me started on the bugs. We did however see tons of water fowl.

When we finally got to “Obsidian Butte”, we found that it certainly did not disappoint. Both glassy black and “snowflake” obsidian was all over the ground.

One could easily collect a heaping five gallon bucket full in 30 minutes without a problem.

This monster boulder of glassy black obsidian is bigger than me, and these are everywhere. Flint-Knappers, eat your heart out!

As we finsihed getting the truck packed up, the sun started to set, and it was just beautiful.

Look how far we drove a day and half. New Mexico is our favorite state, too bad we seem like we are always rushing through it. On the way to Texas, we saw this Recycled Roadrunner at the Las Cruces, New Mexico Rest Area. On the way home we made sure to stop and get pictures.

Las Cruces was actually a petty good rest area for New Mexico, but the Lordsburg one, well let’s just say it’s seen better days.

Now we are kicking it in Pasadena, California with our buddy Tweedy.