Hi James,
Our local rock club from the San Franando valley is having a field trip to collect fossilized whale bone from Gaviota Beach State Park on January 13th. You or any other interested parties are invited to join in the fun! We will meet at the parking lot there at 11:00am unless heavy rain forces a cancellation. There is a small day use fee($8.00?) per auto, and everyone will be bringing their own food and beverages. Last year over 200 lbs. were collected. Dress in layers as the temps could be anything between 45-80 degrees.
I highly reccommend you look into joining a local rock club. So much information on collecting locally can be learned from the people who have sucsessfully been collecting locally for years. Southern California has many great opportunities for collecting, but with all the expansive growth in population much of the information in the collecting "guides" is out of date or not valid any longer. As many of the collecting sites are on private property, another benefit of a joining a group is getting the permission from land owners for a responsible organization to collect on their property.
Winter is a nice time of the year to collect in the deserts. Its not to hot. Petrified woods, agates, jaspers, opal, rhodonite and other interesting things can be found. It is also the best time of year for any beach combing/collecting as the winter storms bring up new material each year.
I hope this information provides some guidance. There is a lot of material in a lot of places, but permission and directions can be difficult to get without an inside introduction.
Bob
