Meeting Time: 9:30 AM
Departure Time: 9:45 AM
Where: Junction of US 93 and Burro Creek Crossing Road (Burro Creek Crossing Road is about 66 miles northwest of Wickenburg on US 93.)
The Burro Creek area has been a rockhounding area for over 70 years. Many interesting rocks, primarily chert and chalcedony related rocks, have been found in the area. The location has been listed in many rockhounding books. In the area of the MSA field trip the collecting is easy. The chert and subtle colors of pastelite are scattered across the desert for miles. There are also areas where druzy quartz crystals can be found as well as rillensteine patterns in the calcareous tuffs that are mixed in with the chert. It is a great area for exploration.
From the meeting area it is about a 12 mile ride in on a fairly well maintained dirt road. However, on my last venture to the area a few areas had experienced significant erosion, as a result, high clearance is required.
Once at the parking area the collecting areas are in all directions, although most people head in a general southerly direction.
Another point of interest only about 2.5 miles away is Burro Creek Falls. A series of very small waterfalls in very grooved bedrock. Nothing to collect at this spot except interesting photos.
(More information to come.)
This is a general view looking south toward the primary collecting area.
Lots of different colors and shades of chert have been (and still can be) found in the area. I thought this one was interesting and I call it Picasso chert, due to its disjointed (fractured) appearance.
This is a great example of rillensteine pattern in a calcareous tuff. The tuff is softer than the chert and has developed these furrows (rills) due to hundreds of years of water erosion in the desert.
A few areas have yielded samples of druzy quartz.
This is Burro Creek eroding narrow channels in the volcanic rock. It is an interesting contrast to the chert littered desert floor and this area of bedrock stipped of the overburden of regolith.
One of the many, but small waterfalls found in this area.
Leaders: Stan Celestian and Bill Freese
