Collecting on the 395 corridor in E. Calif

Hi all of you Great and Wonderful Minds. I will be heading down 395 down the eastern side of the Sierras in Calif and was hoping you could give me some ideas for some collecting locales. I will have a 4 wheel drive vehicle so off the beaten path is okay. Any info would help.

Thanks in advance.

Linda Smith
Rock Mama and Boogie Boarding Grandma

I have always wanted to check out Champion Mine, Laws, White Mts, Mono Co., California, USA, but I haven't gotten there yet. maybe someone else on mindat has more info on it. let me know how it is.
Andrew Green

There's a ton of good collecting in the area around Bishop, Big Pine and Lone Pine. Old Tungsten pits and prospects, lots of garnets in tactite deposits, and Amazonite east of Lone Pine. I've pulled a lot of nice specimens from the Tungsten Hill region NW of Bishop and the hills east of Big Pine.
I've wanted to check out the Champion Mine, but it's a pretty brutal climb to get up there.

...also, there are still prospects and outcrops that haven't been picked over. When I was in college (a few years ago, it's true) we were doing a mapping project east of Big Pine. My partner and I stumbled across an old mineshaft far up a ridge that produced some fantastic specimens of garnets covered with a crust of bright blue chyrsocolla. I haven't been there in a decade or so, but I'm sure it's still largely untouched. That's one of the great areas in the US to explore.

Thank you Andrew and Sheldon. Sheldon, would you be able to PM me?

Thank you,

Linda Smith
Rock Mama and Boogie Boarding Grandma

yeah, or we can trade emails. I haven't done the PM thing here...

Linda

The Champion Mine is fantastic. But it is a long walk uphill. The best finds and most interesting mineralizations is above, on and just below the high cliff where most of the mining took place. If you dig the pockets with Woodhousite in the wzll you may also see verylong hairlike bluish-grey tourmalines in quartz vugs. The rutile oddurs to the left in front of the cliff (as seen from below, i,e, the mining camp). Trolleite oddurs only ine one small area to the right at the bottom of the mine workings.

I have not been up there for a long time. At that point one miners hut was still possible to use for sleeping, with one bed, a table etc.
I think for successfull colelcting you need to stay at least a night.

South of Mono Lake, towards Mammoth you have Glass Butte road where a huge mound of obsidian is found right in the forest. There is plenty of obsidian near Mono Lake as well and the small mountain range south of Monon Lake is very young (If I recall correctly something like 9000 years.

The dry lakes have plenty of interesting minerals if you are willing to dig in the mud!
Cerro Gordo to the east of Owens Valley has some interetsing minerals too. Just, do not use your breaks too much going back down....

Good luck and have fun

Hi all, just got back into town last night and appreciate your posts. Sheldon, you can email me at vanegas3@live.com

Peter, thank you for the info on the Champion mine. I will look it up on mindat for the location. we will be traveling the end of July, so my concern is the heat. I wish we were going in the fall as the weather can be more cooperative. I collected at the Glass Buttes area 35 years ago and it might be fun to go back and see what it is like.

An added question--we are hoping to go to either the Oceanview mine or the Stewart mine in Pala. we will take a 12 yr old and a 8 yr old. which would be the more kid friendly?

Thank you again.

Linda Smith
Rock Mama and Boogie Boarding Grandma

Linda, The Oceanview is a better choice with kids. I'll send more info in a PM.

I too will be in the Lone Pine area this summer, driving up from Death Valley. Could anyone be more specific with info on the Tungsten mines and tactite deposite? Also, what is the status of the onyx marble near Ballarat?

Thanks and any info would be appreciated. If preferred, may respond to my email kenjc747@bellsouth.net.

Map of the area west of Big Pine

Here's a link to the area west of Big Pine (I mistakenly referred to "east of Big Pine" earlier)
The area between Big Pine Creek and Baker Creek, east of the bluff near the center of the map has numerous outcrops with interesting garnets, epidote, hematite etc. You need to scout around quite a bit, but there's a lot of interesting stuff if you're willing to spend a few hours in the area.
If you follow Glacier Lodge road to the west you'll see a couple of sharp switchbacks near the left center of the map. There's a small ridge that trends east from the second switchback, and I've found some large (1/2" - 3/4" garnets in matrix on that hillside.

Whooo hooooo!!!

I KNOW where I am going in the next couple weeks!!


Thanks for the information!!

You rock!

Good luck! I wish I were going.
In general the tactite deposits are very dark in color, which contrasts against the light colored granodiorite. Keep you eyes peeled for dark layered outcrops in amongst the lighter rocks.

Amazonite, Beryl at Haystack Hill
The saddle connecting Haystack to the Inyo range contains Amazonite and the occasional blue Beryl crystal. Clambering over the rugged rocks of Haystack can yield good specimens, but be prepared to work hard for them.

Diopside near Mt Baldwin
It's a long hike, but the scenery is unsurpassed. There's an old mine on the west side of the lake where I found large (3-6" crystals of olive green Diopside. The contact deposits are heavily weathered so it's hard to find solid specimens, but with patience you can find some good stuff.

Crab Cooker Hot Spring
This is an awesome hot spring, one of the best in California

Keough Hot Ditch
Another great hot springs. "The Ditch" is free; a chain of pools with nice hot water.

That's all I have for now...

Another place I've been meaning to check out:

Aeroplane Mine

Location

oh my goodness....

Id be happy if I could just find one of the places you posted about!
heh

Thanks!

I think I might have to make my trip just a little bit longer...


I am curious.. Since you seem to know quite a bit about the area...

I was up near June Lake last year.. On my final day camping an animal woke me up out of my sleep. It made rather loud almost grunting sounds. It seemed to scratch at the ground. It breathed fairly heavily.. It was very large, as I could feel the ground move when it walked. The next day I found impressions in the ground that lead away from my tent. They were not really defined as I was in a bunch of pine needles... Maybe a 5-6 foot stride. Softball sized prints.

I would say it could have been a small bear but the grunting seemed pretty strange. Whatever it was.. it scared me stiff.

Do you have any idea what else is up there that could have made a heavy breathing, almost grunting noise?

I would have guessed a huge boar walked by with the sounds but I did not believe they were in the area.

Just curious.

Sounds like a bear; I've had many encounters.