Rockhounding near the Colorado River near Palo Verde, CA

One of my favorite winter rocking spots is the Wiley Well's District out in our Southern California Desert.  There are numerous areas and many different kinds of rocks to pick up in the area, with the added bonus of a rock shop close by.   If you haven't been to Palo Verde before, you must stop at Kinney's Rock Shop on Highway 78, right in the heart of the little town.  Dale Schutte is the affable proprietor, willing to swap stories and share his knowledge of the area.  His grandfather, father and uncles were the collectors who built up the great rock piles there at the shop, making it rather unique---almost all of the rock for sale is local.  The petrified wood is stacked up like cord wood, keeping company with some nice large sections that lean against the store near the highway. The old green bus at the back of the property is the lapidary shop, where many a slab has been sawn over the years.

One of the things that really caught my eye was the handsomely decorated entrance into the shop---a stoop of concrete with many colored slabs of rock inset into the concrete steps.  It was a pleasure to visit with Dale and browse through the large inventories of the outdoor area plus the shop itself.  Here you can find what must be the largest collection of local Fire Agate around, with material from Coon Hollow and the Opal Hill Mine, from rough to polished to set in jewelry.  I really recommend a stop here before you go out to do some collecting--it will give you a much better idea of what you will be looking to collect.

We made a stop at Pebble Terrace, which begins about four miles west of Kinney's Rock Shop on the trail to the Opal Hill Fire Agate Mine.  This area is very extensive, and consists of miles of desert pavement containing material carried here by the Colorado River over the eons, long before man put up the dams which controlled the yearly floods.  This means you can find agate, jasper, petrified wood, fossils, etc. from the states way north of this area--like visiting Utah, Colorado, Nevada and Arizona all at the same time.  Farther south, along Highway 78, is a geode bed about one mile past Midway Well, which is easy to access.  The digging is soft and fairly easy, with a few geodes among the nodules.  If you only have a few hours in the area, this is a good stop for a family outing.  Sometimes this is called the Gold Basin Geode bed, or sometimes just the salmon colored agate geode bed.  Directions can be found in the Gem Trails of So. Calif. book, located in the same section as the Hauser Geode Bed and the Ogilby area descriptions.  There is good camping to be had in just about any place you stop here, but don't forget----this is basically a winter collecting locale.  It is blistering hot in the summer, as are the rocks you are attempting to collect!

Happy Hunting!