Ryan and I awoke to a stark white winter wonderland (in mid-May!) with a surprising accumulation of snow. Relatedly we hung out with a slow start and made plans to head south past St George to the Arizona Strip to check out a few more things. This area was initially not on my radar so we improvised when Ryan mentioned there was some private quarry down that way called Glitter Mountain that had an abundance of selenite that could be collected. I noticed nearby there was an area of petroglyphs called Little Black Mountain and another labeled as Warner Valley dinosaur tracks. Stringing those together, it sounded like we had ourselves a day.
Only a half hour outside of St George, Glitter Mountain seemed to be fairly well known to locals as a place to take kids to collect shiny rocks. Gypsum was everywhere, glittering in the sun. When we arrived there was only one other rockhound that pulled up when we did and then later a couple girls casually stopped to check it out. The mine consisted of a modest sized pit set into Moenkopi Formation sediments. Unlike the usual occurrences of selenite I see as vein hosted or bedding hosted, the selenite here was best described as sizable clots or blobs at least a meter wide that crosscut the sediments. The selenite occurs in grapefruit-sized intergrown crystals. We found great samples on a wall of the pit (bonus, in the shade). I would have never guessed selenite was so challenging to collect! The hardness of 2 on the Mohs scale meant that it absorbed the blow of tools and any attempt to pry resulted in the tool just powdering its way through the specimen. Eventually we made some progress in calibrating and adapting, and managed to collect some nice fist-sized pieces despite trying for much larger masses. We packed them as gently as we could, knowing that without caution the bumpy road back would turn the glasslike crystals into scratched and powdered masses. We buckled the bucket into the backseat like a precious baby and Ryan drove with extra care. All in all it was fascinating collecting worth a brief visit.
We then navigated some semi-washed out roads to Little Black Mountain to check out petroglyphs. This was an interesting area where large sandstone blocks had rolled down from the rim of a mesa forming a boulder garden of sorts to walk around. The petroglyphs were surprisingly selective, with some ideal patina-ed boulders completely bare while others were coated. In all there were probably around 40 boulders with different glyphs on them, but about 6 with standout patterns and dense arrays. There were clearly multiple generations of petroglyphs based on the degree of re-weathering, different styles (pecked vs chipped vs scratched), and varying abstraction. Among many particularly crisp glyphs were quintessential rams, a standout sun pattern, spirals, and a neat rug pattern I had not seen before. Graffiti and shotgun blasts were unavoidable but the best boulders were mostly preserved. It was toasty warm already and hard to believe we started the day with snow!
We drove on around and through a new sprawling cookiecutter development of pristinely manicured homes built right up to the literal border with Arizona, and then drove down a graded dirt road back into the strip to check out the Warner Valley dinosaur trackways. A short stroll through wide open canyon country led us to the small wash where bedding planes exposed ancient trackways. Kudos to the BLM, there was a small wall installed to divert flash flood flows away from the best of the trackways and a very well done interpretative sign with a detailed map of the tracks and an explanation of the dinosaurs, track styles, and paleoenvironment. Several species of dinosaur have been identified here (and others unidentified). For my purposes, there were trackways of small 2-6 inch-across "Grallator" tracks belonging to a 3 ft-high 50 lbs dinosaur (possibly Megapnosaurus) crossing with monster 10-16 inch-across " Eubrontes" tracks belonging to a 7 ft-high 1000 lbs dinosaur (possibly Dilophosaurus).
We wrapped up the day with a visit to the just-opened second St George Costco (that city is growing too quick for its own good!), but I have to say it was the most pleasant experience ever as it was nearly empty. We got back to Ryan's place at a reasonable time for a change, giving us a chance to get organized for a bigger adventure the following day.
No comments:
Post a Comment