Walker Valley, Washington

In our quest to break into crystal hunting, we talked with some friends who had experience here in Washington State. In addition to lending us their rock hammers, they pointed us in the direction of Walker Valley, Washington - about 2 hours north of Seattle. It has long been a popular rock-hounding site, and to-date is one of the few we've visited that allow you to drive right up to the site with minimal hiking.
Before we embarked, I did some research and learned that grapefruit-sized amethyst geodes had been found at this location in the past. That got us so excited, we were giddy the whole drive up. With little trouble, we found the site, which happens to be within the bounds of an active ORV park. We knew we were in the right place when we pulled into the parking area and noted the sparkling, crystal encrusted boulders that line the upper edge of the dig site.

Following the road down into the pit, you can still see the remnants of the veins, running through solid black basalt. These veins may once have been the point of interest for this site, however years of mining and exposure have left little to pursue. Basalt is so incredibly hard that even a pick-axe makes hardly a mark. Determined to enjoy our first real mining experience, however, we gladly searched through the pile of basalt rubble that makes up most of the bottom of the pit. Sure enough, there was evidence of mineralization. Within the basalt, we were finding small geodes that resembled crystalline eggs - though they were next to impossible to extract from the rock without destroying the formations.

Giving up on the basalt, I decided to have a look around the outskirts of the pit. Around a weathered out-cropping of bedrock, I found a large sedimentary boulder that contained another egg-like geode - this one with the distinct cleavage lines of Calcite. I worked on trying to extract the egg as a whole, but before I could cry out with success, my impact on the surrounding rock shattered the calcite. Dan helped me retrieve the fragments and took over trying to remove the mineral from its surrounding rock. Unfortunately, our tools were less than ideal for the task and we decided to move on. 

On the way back to the car, I noticed a familiar pattern in the dust at my feet and reached down to discover a lovely little plate of druzy with a hazy lavender coloration (amethyst!). It was my first find of this type and the rush of excitement I got when I realized what I had found, was enough to make the whole 4 hour drive worth every minute!

I later turned the druzy into a necklace that I have listed on our Etsy shop: HoundsofApollo

We returned to this site a few times, though access has since been limited and the hike in has become intensely treacherous. What we're realizing is that the vein has been exhausted. As no one is allowed to use heavy machinery or explosives, and the hardness of the basalt is beyond the capacity of hand-tools to manage, one's greatest hope for finding treasure is to scrounge through the heavy black tailings in the bottom of the pit. In addition to the calcite and random druzy we found there, we also gathered an interesting specimen of botryoidal chalcedony, and an unknown mineral that forms a habit very similar to desert rose gypsum.

Despite the low-yeild, I can't help but miss the site dearly. Perhaps because it was our first, or perhaps because of the lure of what once was found in that location, I look forward to returning every year, when the snow has melted and the trees are budding for a new summer.