Hi, mineral friends!
After a very long hiatus, we are starting the 2025 fall season with a bang. On Sat, Oct 4th, we will visit the Minerals Unlimited rock and mineral shop in Ridgecrest in the morning, then reconvene at the Round Valley mine in the late afternoon to collect scheelite after sunset and in the evening. Please confirm whether you’re planning to join. If there is rain, the night trip will need to be rescheduled, but I’ll still do the morning trip to Ridgecrest anyway.
We will gather at 10:30 AM at the first location in Ridgecrest, 156 miles north of Pasadena, a 2+ hour drive. The address is Minerals Unlimited, 127 N Downs St, Ridgecrest. The GPS location is: 35.6235, -117.6884. It is on a city street, easily accessible by low-clearance cars, near a Salvation Army distribution center. The shop is open at 10 AM, so if you arrive early, you can start browsing before others. Here is the link to Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/D6BvJvZEMs9L5HrP7
The shop houses an excellent collection of various minerals and rocks for sale. You will see way too many rare minerals and rare or even extinct localities, including rare crystals from Searles Lake. Wendi (aka Ace) Elkins is the daughter of the famous Californian collectors and dealers, Ralph and Mimi Merrill. She will entertain us with some great stories about her parents and rocks & minerals. The collection might get sold next year, so it could also be a great opportunity to find something special at a price level not really seen anymore.
Around 1 PM to 1:30 PM, we will need to start heading out for the next segment of the trip towards Bishop. The next meeting place is 146 miles away, also a 2+ hour drive. Leave ample time to fill up and eat something on the way.
Here is the Google Map link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jybPm4DZ7XVkRVVg8
At 5:00 PM, we will meet on the side of S Round Valley Road, about 10 miles past Bishop. Turn SW on Sawmill Rd exit off US-395 and then right (NW) at the first intersection, then continue on S Round Valley Road for 2.6 miles to a dirt road turnoff at this GPS location: 37.3924, -118.5464. Here is the map screenshot for the last segment. The mine is marked by the green arrow in case somebody gets there late:
The view from the mine at the dirt road:
The scheelite at the mine is quite abundant. Hard to distinguish in the sunlight, so the best UV collecting is after the sun sets, 6:30 PM on that day. Bring your portable short-wave UV flashlights for the hunt. The red flashlight is great for walking around in the dark and not blinding everybody else in the process. I’ll have one extra at the back of my car for people who don’t have the SW UV. The best material is mostly on the steep slopes, which will require good mobility. However, a lot of the fluorescent material can be found just lying on the ground in the area.
Nice brown garnet can be found in the vugs after etching out the calcite. The green crystals are mostly epidote, but it can also be seen in pale yellow and pale brown. Some rocks are covered with layers of waxy green to gemmy blue chrysocolla gel. Sometimes the cracks in the rock hide some malachite needles. There are also some bismuth minerals, like yellow to pink bismutite that can be enjoyed without magnification. Very nice, but tiny bismuthinite needles can be found in quartz. Sparkly white micro balls of eulytine, a bismuth silicate, were found in veins of chalcedony. The most surprising of them all is an exceptionally rare dreyerite, a bismuth vanadate, found only in Australia and Germany until now. The rarities have been identified using the Raman spectroscope at the Caltech Mineralogy lab, thanks to the hospitality of our members, Prof. George Rossman and Prof. Bob Housley.
The space on the top pad is limited to about 6-7 cars, so people spending the night will get priority there, but there are many more spaces on the turns and pads below as well. Please let me know if you are planning to camp out.
Hope to see many of you there!
MarekC