CyberRockhound Adventures!

This summer (June 2002) we were able to take a shortened trip to South Dakota again. Our favorite stops included Kadoka, South Dakota (Exit 121) with bubble gum agates, Fairburn agates and prairie agates. A great place to stop close to the interstate and a wonderful place for the kids to pick rocks. Our second favorite stop was Westlake Rock Shop in Okaton, South Dakota (Exit 183). This unique rock shop features and old ghost town and a wonderful scenic view! Mr. and Mrs. Westlake were wonderful rock hounds to visit and host a multitude of rocks, agates and fossils to check out. We particularly enjoyed the rough yard across from the rock shop. A must see!

This last weekend (July 2002) we made it to Moose Lake, Minnesota's Agate Days. What a great show! For the Lake Superior (Laker) fanatic, the best part was the tailgaters in the parking of Moose Lake School. Lakers were everywhere! Inside there were many other things to checkout. An entire gymnasium of jewelry, pottery, polished rocks, specimens, minerals, and more! What can we say, the 33rd annual Agate Days was well worth the trip north.
 
Summer 2001 - This summer we planned a two-week vacation to Wyoming. We hit many rockhounding areas such as the Blue Forest, Eden Valley Forest, Antwares Quarry (we split open rock in hunt of fossilized fish) and many rock shops along the way. At Evanston we stopped at a rock shop to learn how to prepare our fossilized fish for sale and/or show. We also took time to drive through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. We were lucky enough to have great weather and find lots of moss agate, learned about the infamous Sweetwater agate and petrified wood. 

Summer 2000 - We visited the Black Hills as two of our boys had not been there. This renewed the Rock Hound in Brian! We christened our kids as official Rock Hounds in Buffalo Gap (an area where rock picking is allowed) in the Badlands. The weather was extremely hot and sunny but everyone had a blast! We found agates and various other rocks and brought home buckets full.

Every summer and any weekend we get the chance, we visit quarries in the LeSueur, Minnesota area. Our guide, Don, had them picked out and we returned numerous times. Our best finds included agates, an elk bone and various other keepers. Again from the quarries, we brought home buckets. Our summer was full of picking up rocks! We must be getting better at this as we have even found some smaller sized lakers, a few wonderfully unique jelly agates and petrified wood and sponge.

One of our adventures took us to Duluth, Minnesota's Lake Superior in search of the famous Lake Superior Agate. Again we had a blast even though we were soaked by the "ocean" waves coming in. The wind was strong and wet. We picked up lots of pudding stone and did manage to find some pieces of Lake Superior. Perfect for tumbling! We would like to go back to Duluth as they also have a wonderful rock shop there.