Up Field Trips » 2009 Montana Utah Field Trip Slideshow

No 01 Topaz Mt. Utah.
No 02 Topaz Mt. Utah, camp.
No 03 Topaz Mt. Donna, time for chow.
No 04 Topaz Mt. Rob Sankovich visiting with Donna.
No 05 Topaz Mt. Discussing collecting.
No 06 Topaz Mt. Happy campers. Joel, Rob, Cy and Kevin.
No 07 Topaz Mt. Joel and Larry, lets go dig topaz.
No 08 Topaz Mt. Joel and Larry, we're off.
No 09 Topaz Mt. Lots of collecting area. The area is called the cove due to its shape.
No 10 Topaz Mt. This looks like a good spot. Joel, Cy, Rob, Diane, Debbie, Kevin and Jeff checking it out.
No 11 Topaz Mt. Jeff checking out strange formations on the mountain.
No 12 Topaz Mt. I think there's topaz here Jeff.
No 13 Topaz Mt. Success.
No 14 Topaz Mt. Nice views from the Mt side.
No 15 Trilobite dig.. All dirt road, about 37 miles from Delta Utah
No 16 Trilobite dig. This is a fee dig.
No 17 Trilobite dig Richard and son, dont know name, Robert Sankovich, Larry Knapton, Joel, Steve and Diane
No 18 Trilobite dig. Larry Knapton splitting shale rock looking for the trilobites.
No 19 Trilobite dig. I think there's one in this rock as richards son checks it out.
No 20 Trilobite dig. Part of our group hunting for trilobite fossils.
No 21 Trilobite dig. We all took home numerous trilobite specimines
No 22 Trilobite dig. Here comes the rain! run for cover.
No 23 Trilobite dig. Hang out a few minutes and the rain passes and its back to digging.
No 24 Blue forrest petrified wood area 40 miles from Kemmerer Wyoming.
No 25 Blue forrest area. Those are some mad fire ants.
No 26 Blue forrest area. Some more of the local wildlife.
No 27 Blue Forrest Wyoming, camp at petrified wood location. Hey Richard happy hour is under the tent.
No 28 Blue forrest area. Richards camp rig.
No 29 Blue forrest Wyoming area, Rob and wife debby and Steve and wife Diane keeping dry.
No 30 Blue forrest camp life, happy hour. Diane, Jeff and Cy.
No 31 Kevin and wife Diane enjoying camp life.
No 32 Blue Forrest petrified wood collecting area, where's the forrest! Actually its buried just below the surface. Thats Joel in the hole at left.
No 33 Blue forrest. Kevin and Diane Just exposed a piece of petrified wood below her right hand.
No 34 Blue forrest. Richard showing some wood he found.
No 35 Blue Forrest wood. Kevin finding a nice limb of petrified wood.
No 36 Blue Forrest petrified wood area. We experienced thunder lightning wind and rain, even some hail.
No 37 Blue Forrest petrified wood area. View from inside the car while thunderstorm passes. There was lots of lightning.
No 38 Blue Forrest area. Yes its hail!
No 39 Blue Forrest wood Lightening started oil facility fire.
No 40 Blue Forrest wood. Debbie and Rob Sankovich enjoying camp life. Rob was our fearless trip leader and did a great job.
No 41 Blue Forrest wood. Some enthusiastic rockhounds, Rob, Larry and Joel.
No 42 Blue forrest wood. The wood here is fairly shallow. Joel, Rob and Larry.
No 43 Blue Forrest wood. We didn't have to go far from camp to dig the petrified wood.
No 44 Blue Forrest wood. Pieces of wood dug up by Larry. Much of the wood appears to be black and brown on the inside.
No 45 Blue Forrest wood. Some pieces of wood just found by Joel.
No 46 Blue Forrestwood. Joel with another exposed piece of wood.
No 47 Blue Forrest wood. Larry Giving a demonstration of how to remove outer rind from wood.
No 48 Blue Forrest Wood. Rockhounds taking a break, Kevin, Diane, Jeff, Steve in background, Larry, Cy, Rob and Joel.
No 49 Blue Forrest Wood. First you clear the dirt down to top of shale layer.
No 50 Blue Forrest Wood. After removing surface dirt begin breaking through the shale.
No 51 Blue Forrest Wood. Larry breaking up the shale layer to get at the wood just below.
No 52 Blue Forrest Wood. After digging through the shale the wood lies just beneith, however this spot was barren, Larry.
No 53 Blue Forrest Wood. However this spot produced a limb about ten feet long from an inch to five inches in diameter.
No 54 Blue Forrest Wood. This must be why they call it Blue Forrest Wood. This is a section of the ten foot piece I dug up, Larry.
No 55 Blue Forrest Wood. Another piece of the ten foot limb. This was found about two hundred yards from camp. and only four to six inches deep.
No 56 Blue Forrest Wood. Kevin digging while Jeff looks on.
No 57 Blue Forrest Wood. Theres one in every crowd! Old rockhounds never die they just slowly petrify. Hey Jeff wake up I think theres some wood in there!
No 58 Blue Forrest Wood. Looks like some rockhounds must have found something here.
No 59 Blue Forrest Wood. End of another perfect day in big sky country.
No 60 Blue Forrest Wood. End of the day, campfire comradery around a warm campfire.
No 61 Warfield Fish fossils. This fossil quarry is just a few miles from Kemmerer Wyoming.
No 62 Warfield Fossils Wyoming. This is how its done, split rock, split rock, split rock!
No 63 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Larry splitting the shale looking to find the fairly abundent fish fossils.
No 64 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Some of our group looking for fish fossils. This a fee dig quarry.
No 65 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Rob with a likley looking chunk of rock to split.
No 66 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Quarry foreman breaking loose large pieces of shale for our group to work on.
No 67 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Rob and Larry working some of the fossil containing shale.
No 68 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming, Success, as Larry shows here. Most of the fish are small and many are well defined.
No 69 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Jeff had great success at this dig. .
No 70 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Nothing there, as Kevin checks a freshly split piece of shale.
No 71 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Kevin splitting shale again in his search for that elusive fish.
No 72 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Jeff, Steve, Larry, Rob and Kevin happily searching as Debbie watches. Notice all the split piles of scrap.
No 73 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. This is some of Rob Sankovitch's fossil fish finds
No 74 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Larry checking a nice split Rob just made, but no fish in this split.
No 75 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Steve and Diane foreground with the fossil producing layer in the background. Notice the large rubble pile on the right.
No 76 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. A nice example of what can be found at the quarry displayed at the rock shop in nearby Kemmerer, Wyoming.
No 77 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. Another nice specimen at the local rock shop.
No 78 Warfield Fossils, Wyoming. A rare ray found at the fossil quarry displayed at the rock shop in Kemmerer Wyoming.
No 79 My rental van was quite full during the trip.
No 80 Following the leader, somewhere in Montana heading to our next campsite. It was so green on the trip, there had been about six weeks of rain before our arrival.
No 81 Debbie and Rob setting up camp in the Rock creek area of Montana.
No 82 Rock Creek area, Montana. Diane setting up camp at her and Kevin's site. This is bear country.
No 83 Rock Creek area, Montana. Joel and Cy's camp spot.
No 84 Rock Creek area, Montana. This is an open camp area- no facilities but sure is a beautiful area.
No 85 Rock Creek area, Montana. Our camp was right next to a streem with trout in it.
No 86 Rock Creek area, Montana. we had some rain here but it didnt last long.
No 87 Rock Creek area, Montana. Cy and Joel checking out whats for diner.
No 88 Rock Creek area, Montana. Rob at camp rustling up something to eat.
No 89 Rock Creek area, Montana. Some local flowers.
No 90 Rock Creek area, Montana.
No 91 Rock Creek area, Montana. Unusual looking flower, a single blossom on asingle stem.
No 92 Rock Creek area, Montana.
No 93 Rock Creek area, Montana. I found this wild garlic growing along the creekaide.
No 94 Rock Creek area, Montana. Careful Donna the water is very cold.
No 95 Rock Creek area, Montana. Diane testing her balance.
No 96 Rock Creek area, Montana. Section of the road coming into the area.
No 97 Rock Creek area, Montana. On the road again.
No 98 A quick stop to check out Great Falls Montana. Diane, Donna Debbie, Joel and rob on camera.
No 99 Great Falls Montana.
No 100 Great Falls Montana.
No 101 In back, Larry, Debbie, and Rob. In front, Cy, Kevin and wife Diane at Devils Elbow campground at Hauser Lake.
No 102 Helena Montana. Devils Elbow Campground at Hauser Lake on the Missouri River.
No 103 Helena Montana. Campground, Devils Elbow.
No 104 Helena Montana. Devils Elbow camp, Hauser Lake.
No 105 Helena Montana. Donna at information overlook above camp at Devils Elbow on Lake Hauser.
No 106 Helena Montana. View of Hauser Lake on the Missouri River from above camp.
No 107 Helena Montana. Hauser Lake from above campground. Lewis and Clark camped in this area on their journey.
No 108 Helena Montana. Hauser Lake view looking toward Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine where we looked for sapphires.
No 109 Helena Montana. Old abandoned homestead on York Rd.
No 110 Helena Montana. Receving instructions for diging and screening your own gravel at public dig site, Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine, fee dig.
No 111 Helena Montana. Cy, Diane, Kevin, Rob, Larry and Joel far right working the sapphire gravels at Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine.
No 112 Helena Montana. Larry and Rob doing their best to find sapphires.
No 113 Helena Montana. Cy checking the screen for sapphires.
No 114 Helena Montana. Diane, Kevin and Larry removing gravel for screening.
No 115 Helena Montana. Rob is screening gravel.
No 116 Helena Montana. Cy, Diane, Kevin, Larry. Rob and Joel all trying their luck digging sapphire gravel.
No 117 Helena Montana. Kevin sifting gravel down to half inch size for washing later.
No 118 Helena Montana. Rob sifting gravel to take to the wash trough.
No 119 Helena Montana. Larry doing the gravel sift while anxiously watching for those elusive sapphires.
No 120 Helena Montana. Larry, I think this is the lucky one.
No 121 Helena Montana. Larry, hey I think I just found my first sapphire.
No 122 Helena Montana. Sure enough I found a yellow sapphire that weighed 3.3 carats.
No 123 Helena Montana. Another view of my 3.3 carat stone.
No 124 Helena Montana. Rob, Larry and joel hard at it. The sapphires are found in these ancient river gravels
No 125 Helena Montana. Joel sifting the gravel before washing it.
No 126 Helena Montana. This is a view of the main Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine near the shore of Lake Hauser.
No 127 Helena Montana. How about this for the mine office. We purchased pre- screened concentrated sapphire gravel here for washing.
No 128 Helena Montana. This is where everyone brings their screened gravel for the washing and final search for the sapphires.
No 129 Helena Montana. Larry doing the final wash.
No 130 Helena Montana. Joel and Cy checking for sapphires after washing the gravel.
No 131 Helena Montana. Larry and Rob checking their washed gravel.
No 132 Helena Montana. Husband and wife team Diane and Kevin anxiously checking their gravel for sapphire gems.
No 133 Helena Montana. Rob Sankovich and Donna Knapton searching for those colorful gems.
No 135 Helena Montana. Rob back at camp preparing to repack his fish fossils for the long ride back to Calif. to collect obsidian.

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