Prospecting in Nevada not only means for gold
but also other beautiful rocks and gems. Here is
is a site in north east Nevada, 6 miles west of Ely,
and about 3 miles north of Highway 50 called
Garnet Hill.
Turn off on Highway 50 is well marked, just west of Ely, NV.
Here my Gold Gal is shifting through some of that rock looking for
garnets. They are a pretty dark red color here. Some are lose in the
dirt and some are still attached to the host Rhyolite rock. BLM has
made a wonderful area on this one hill, with tables, restrooms, and
large area for parking or camping. They have also blasted up fresh
rock to search in on the hill.
These two Rhyolite rocks still have the Garnets in them. They can
be carefuly removed with a pocket knife. There still may be garnets
in the rock but you've got to bust them up to see.
Here are some dark red garnets to show for our efforts. They not only
are found in the piles of rocks and attached to the rocks, they migrate
down the hill and collect in gullies much like gold does.
This is a view of the parking lot and restrooms, this campsite and parking
area offer a spectacular view of the large copper mines to the east. What
you don't see are the nice tables and barbecues set up to the left. They
also
have special tables set up for busting the rock at each site.
Here I'm looking through my screener for the garnets,
notice the
large copper mine off in the distance. This is a great place to spend
an afternoon or a couple days between searching for gold.
We would find garnets in almost every screening, once we knew
what to look for. Some are broken but some are very nice keepers.
We would like to thank the BLM office in Ely for their efforts in
making such a nice place to rockhound and help they gave us.