Picture of the Day - Quartzy Whale Vert

Today I went fossil-collecting at Field #2 in Templeton and found this petrified whale vertebra that is highly silicated. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Yesterday's Haul

This morning I organized my finds from yesterday's expedition to the Gaviota Coast. I found 46 pieces of petrified whale bone at two beaches we visited (I gave three away as samples to other's I met at the beach) and 3 pieces of petrified wood. Some of the whale vertabra I found are some of the most beautiful such I have ever found. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - My Final #3 Hunt

Today my bother by another mother, Ron, and his son Ethan and I got run out of Secret Field #3 in Templeton, CA. The actual owner of the property or one of them as he framed it, drove up and flagged us down to talk to us. He told us that although we had permission to be there from the lessees of the property, his out-of-town partners didn't like the legal risk of having guests on the property. Ron and I don't believe the latter part of the story and suspect he is the sole owner and wanted us out but felt bad about it so put it off on the fictitious "other" owners. Thanks a lot lawsuit-happy America! Below is my final haul from this short-lived (the last nine months or so we enjoyed it on the whole and I enjoyed part of it off and on for the past dozen years or more) biconoid and petrified whale bone locality. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Today's #1s From #3

This was today's haul from Secret Spot #3 in Templeton: tractor-disk-fractured petrified whale vert (upper right), tractor-disk-fractured biconoid (upper left), and various carnelians and yellow agates. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

My Big Whaleboner

Today while hunting for Miocene petrified whalebone from the Monterey Formation and biconoids from the Franciscan Melange in Templeton, CA, I discovered this end-piece of a large petrified Miocene whalebone, parts of which are highly silicated. This is the first such piece of I have ever found in regards to end-pieces with ball-joints. It is also one of the largest pieces of petrified whalebone I have ever found.

Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Big Bone Finally Home

This afternoon after school I made a quick jaunt over to the coast to pick up a necklace repair made by a friend in Los Osos and to attend an estate sale which included some rocks once belonging to a 90-year-old recently deceased gentleman. By the time I got there most of the best stuff was already gone but I did manage to snag a few things for myself and for friends. I encountered this large chunk of petrified whale bone which I was told by the family was discovered decades ago in the Paso Robles area. In the image above it just came home. I gave it to some dear friends living in the Paso Robles area. The mid-Miocene stonied bone came home. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Muh Spoils

These are my spoils from the 26th Annual Rockhounds Roundup Gem, Mineral, & Jewelry Show.... I spent more than I intended but still stayed within my means and picked up killer deals in each case. See if you can spot each of these: Ocean Jasper (Madagascar), two lone red quarter crystals (Morocco), red quarter crystal cluster (Morocco), biconoid core (Templeton, CA), smokey quartz scepter (Hallelujah Junction, CA), three doubly-terminated quartz crystals (Tibet), petrified dinosaur bone (Utah), lapiz lazuli (Afghanistan), petrified coral (Florida), and Roman glass bottle fragment strand (Afghanistan). Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

26th Annual Rockhound Roundup Display Cases

Here are the competitive display case offering from the 26th Annual Rockhounds Roundup Gem, Mineral, & Jewelry Show hosted by the Santa Lucia Rockhounds at the Midstate Fairgrounds in Paso Robles, CA, this weekend. To see the dealers and other elements of the show go HERE.

Outer space gemstones..... olivine (peridot) inside slice of pallasite meteorite from Russia.... and behind it is a backlit chunk of Libyan Desert Glass.... this was in my favorite booth at the show.... it is also featured in the next two images below showing more of the booth.... but it did not win most popular.... there is no accounting for taste I suppose! Note: I am not sharing the name of the owner so as to protect his collection!

Jim Mills' fossilized pine cones are awesome!

I love collecting shark teeth like these from the very geologic deposit from which these came.... Bakersfield area northeast of town.

Nick Sherwin's agate beautiful slices.

This was the winning entry in the display case competition.... the Rock Mafia Dons won again!

David Nelson once again brought his florescent minerals to show off and they looked as great as ever.

I was shocked to learn today that Orcutt Mineral Society member Sandy Berthelot recently died.... I am so saddened by this.... what a sweet soul. RIP!

More amazing meteorites.... really BIG ones! Note the Widmanstatten pattern within the sliced specimen.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Masterpieces of the Earth

Masterpieces of the Earth from Guido Ronge on Vimeo.

Picture of the Day - Why It's Called Oyster Ridge

This afternoon into this evening I worked a wedding at Oyster Ridge Barn within the Ancient Peaks vineyards within the boundaries of the southern annex of Santa Margarita Ranch south of Santa Margarita, CA. In case anybody might be wondering why a place 20 miles inland would be given such a name just consider these are all over the place either as scraps laying here or there or loosely incorporated into the landscaping or cemented into walls. These are Miocene-era fossilized oceanic oysters eroding out of an prehistoric near-shore submarine deposit of which the low-lying ridge is comprised. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Chasing Amberized Dino Tail

More proof dinosaurs probably tasted like chicken. For more on this new discovery from China of a first ever dinosaur tail embalmed in amber from 99 million years ago go HERE. To zoom in left click on image. Photo by RSM/R.C. McKellar (all rights reserved).

Cliff's 2016 Annual Tailgater

This morning I attended Cliff's annual Santa Lucia Rockhounds' rockhound tailgate sales event in Wellsona, just north of Paso Robles, CA.

I am at a point in my life that I'm getting rid of rocks, not acquiring more of them. However, today I found some really cool stuff in club member Jim Mills' booth at left.

These two specimens of Lower Permian (265 m.y.o) petrified wood are from near a petrified forest in Araguaina, Brazil. This particular wood was scorched when it was still organic prior to its petrificiation.

Miocene-era (14 m.y.o.) petrified wood from Badger Flat, Virgin Valley, Humboldt County, NV, showing signs of brown rot fungus destruction from its pre-petrification days. All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Visiting a Rockhounding Legend

En route back home from Jalama Beach last weekend, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen visited the private museum of the arguably most legendary rockhound in California. I withhold his name for the sake and safety and sanctity of the man and his collection. Needless to say this infamously peripatetic rockhound and raconteur regaled us with many a tale of adventure and graciously showed us his fine collection of the fruits of his lifelong labor of love. To view the Jalama Beach part of this adventure go HERE.

The largest shark teeth are megalodon teeth.

Lots of Desmostylus teeth here as well as a tusk at right.

This is essentially a petrified shark skull sans the skull which is made of cartilage but the teeth are in their original configuration.

The collection of local petrified wood was the most interesting thing to me aside from the shark-related items.

Petrified burl or root.

This petrified limb was found encased in a concretion.

This is another concretion-encased petrified wood limb.

Since being a child I have been intrigued with Nipomo agate. Nipomo beanfield agate is at center in the geode.

Nipomo sagenitic agate.

Nipomo sagenitic (at left) and marcasitic (at right) agate.

Nipomo marcasitic agate.

A bit of everything Nipomo agate here: beanfield at bottom, marcasitic at left and top, sagenitic at right.

He told me he got this petrified whale skull for me but I did not follow up on it and now I fear he does not want to give this up having grown fond of it being in his yard. Let the game commence!
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all right reserved)