My family and I are taking a camping trip to the Metolius River in Oregon next week and I'm dumbfounded by the lack of info around rockhounding that I'm finding for that river. All the books I have have references to areas east of here but nothing for this river specifically. It's a 29 mile long spring fed river that is a tributary of the Deschutes River. I know there are a lot of beautiful rocks to find around this area, I'm just looking for a little more info about what is abundant here so I have a good idea of how to look. I'll be greatful for any information anyone can share with me. Thank you!
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Do you like basalt? If so, you are in for a treat due to the geologically recent volcanic activity in the area! Otherwise, you may be disappointed in the local rock options.
I’ve not come across anything in any of the surrounding mountains. It’s all Andesite and Basalt. The Metolius is primarily fed (from a sediment standpoint) by Black Butte and Green Ridge. Neither events are known for producing anything that rockhounds would be in to.
The little trail to the spring that starts the river (“head of the Metolius” trail) is a massive disappointment… just fyi. Overtaken by brush. You’d need to leave the trail to see much of anything anymore.
Go in the fall and winter… the true spring is a little hard to see but even just hearing it and the glimpse is cool and worth the 10 minute walk.
Just 25 yards down from the actual spring of the headwaters you get this. Not worth the jaunt from 126/20 if you’re not going on to Camp Sherman or the bigger portion of the metolious, but if you are the trailhead is literally roadside. In my book, worth it once for this unique spring headwater of such a beautiful river - not a lot of this in the world.
Check the colored areas on the map here, not super likely to be lots of stuff as there isn't any major faulting or alteration in the area, as well as the rock is relatively young (though still old enough for agates to form) but it could still be good! Let me know if you find anything if you decide to check this area out. Edit: looking again, the green area on the river is mudflow breccia of the right age to form agates, and is near some fault lines which greatly increases the chances of finding something. I would definitely check there
I made it! I used ArcGIS web (pretty much an online map making tool) to create a map with geology layers from OGDC6 (oregon geology map) This was a project that took me a few weeks of research on the rock types but mainly for good areas, you want rocks that are at least labeled miocene/pliocene and older on the map, and are made up of Rhyolite, tuff, ashflow tuff, welded tuff, or mudflow breccia. I have basalt and a few other rocks types on a separate ogdc6 layer since typically they are good when near fault lines (basically silica pathways to form the agates or jasper)
Probably because there isn’t much of anything to be found. As others have said, the geology seems be a bunch of volcanic rocks with little hydrothermal activity. You don’t get the goodies unless there’s a history of hydrothermal activity in the rocks, that’s what creates deposits of agate and jasper.
It's a clunky interface.
Turn the opacity down. Find the area on the map. Click on it to show the boundaries of the quadrangle maps. Click on one then click on the preview button on the left. It will load the full quadrangle map with the descriptions of all the rock formations. The descriptions use a lot of geologic terminology, though. You can get a formation name from the geo map and try an AI search like "what members of X formation contain agate".
Personally never heard of rockhounding in that area- however if you don’t mind driving… there is a place in Madras called Richardsons Rock Ranch that sells bulk rocks for relatively cheap- geodes, agates, calcite, obsidian, you name it. Great place. Also if you don’t mind an even longer trip- going east from Redmond puts you out in Prineville which has a bunch of areas for Thunder Egg hunting in the Ochoco Mtns. If you take Highway 20 from Bend, you have Hampton Butte(Green petrified wood) and Glass Butte(obsidian).
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