Stinkwater Pass

Glass Mountain

Burns, Oregon is the center of a host of areas worth exploring. Johnson's book, Rockhounding Oregon, details all the sites around this area and is worth having in the truck as you go exploring. One thing about following a guide that has been out on the market, every place you visit will have been picked over by many rockhounds before you. You will have to walk further, dig deeper, and be more persistent in all of these places if you want to find prime specimens

An exception is Glass Mountain. This area is a chain of hills that are made of obsidian. All sorts of types can be found here from different sheens to mahogany from browns to black and every combination in between.

If you want big pieces you will need to dig to find the base rock. Otherwise, there is obsidian everywhere.

Mercury Mines

Near Glass Mountain are other hills that bear minerals, mines and interesting rocks. There are some open pit mines that are purportedly mercury-rich. The rocks are interesting. I would be cautious when cutting or working with this material especially breathing any dust.

This kind of rock polishes moderately well, but has dull inclusions and gaps. It is interesting, but not flamboyant!

Stinkwater

If you follow the directions to the Stinkwater sites that bear petrified wood, you will battle some awful roads. There are some big pieces of wood up this river canyon, but they are sticking out of cliffs and are unaccessible. There are smaller chucks that can be found, but most the surface stuff are splinters of material removed long ago.

This is lonely and lovely country. The vistas are vast and there is always an interesting ridge to climb and explore.

A chuck of oak from the Stinkwater site. Much of this wood is beautifully colored, but it may have sections that are very fragile, punky, or cracked.

A couple of Stinkwater oak wood tops on popular and redwood...need to make one of oak on oak!

Here is a slab of oak atop an oak box.

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