 Okay, we made it to our rock-hounding spot today. Today we are getting some Wonderstone near Salina, Utah So we just took a drive up the canyon. That's what the time-lapse was so we're in the location now right here so we took the right fork that heads up toward some weird named Meadow and mud mud springs or something and You just come up a short distance to this little turnout right here And what we're looking for is Wonderstone. That's gonna be up on the hills so if you look back on this way you can see where people have been digging right up there and Also, if you look back this way You might be able to see some other places people have been digging along that edge It's hard to tell though with where the Sun is right now We're gonna be just hiking along the Layer that's all over these hills that layer that you can see there. We're gonna just See what we can find in it and different spots will have different colors and patterns of the Wonderstone So this is rhyolite ash mixed with mud and sandstone Probably a couple tens of millions years old. I'll find out exactly how old but That's what we're doing up here, and that's what we're looking for Digging over there. I Decide to come over here a little bit Think obscene some promising things or put a few things out right here that might be nice and I like the look of that one with this thick layer right here. That's kind of a light tanish green gray green Whatever you call that Okay, we'll try and Get some of this out and dug for a little bit And I pulled this one out just now it was It was originally like that busted it kind of nice looking We'll take some of that home and try and cut it Yeah, dig here a little bit more get a few more pieces here, and then try a new spot So I was just over there came here a little further just to test it out. It looks very similar though And it's just okay I'm gonna keep going further All right, I was over there on the other side of this little hill here, and I followed the van over here and It doesn't look like it's been dug nearly as much and Right here seems to be the layer again, although I think it's more than one layer but here it's the Kind of layer above that looks kind of nice but The thicker one underneath where you'd expect something is Nothing really There's not much of anything on that so The colors come and go All right, we'll go a little further Came over here just a little further. I was just right there and I busted this one open and it's that dark stuff, but now we're getting the black again But it's darker bands not lighter color ones like we got when I was digging over there The last time I was here Which is the only other time I've really been here We ended up just going over there, and that's where we found those ones that I cut open a couple a couple weeks ago If you've seen that video where I cut open the Wonderstone, and I thought that was just okay stuff Turns out that might actually be the better stuff over there. I don't know. We'll keep looking around though All right, I'm leaving further over and more black But the black is starting to have more contrast, and this is the kind of stuff we were getting Kind of over there some of this it was kind of the black, but also some lighter colors Yeah, we might need to head back over there Plus that one up. Let's see how she looks inside. Well, hello Yeah, that's kind of cool, but I think the stuff on the other side was better Interesting well, I've come a little further along this hill actually very distance further and Other than what that black stuff. I was sitting back there haven't found the greatest looking stuff It seems to be losing a lot of its pattern The swirls and stuff are disappearing like and it's becoming thinner I'm except maybe that one bust that one up and see So if you remember That's what I was finding further back that way, which is definitely better looking found that sitting there I thought that was really cool. It's just so perfectly flat and smooth The way it broke off Just really cool Yeah, just naturally come off that way might take that just because it looks so cool It does have some lines in it All right, I'm gonna try and bust that thing now Let's bust this thing open. It looks like anything inside So I guess it's gonna be mostly black Yeah, I can smell that sulfur every time I hit it The high sulfur Volcanic ash looking stuff. That's gonna want to break. It doesn't want to break. It has high silica Yeah, it's kind of just looking inside like it does on the outside. Not very good Well, I'm back at where we started My dad went over and dug over there Found a thicker vein, but it was just solid black. There was no variety or pattern to it So we are gonna go to the other hill on the other side where I was before and probably Find better stuff because we definitely found better stuff on that trip than what's over here Maybe I hit the Good zone the first time I was here and didn't even know So there was where we parked So we're gonna head over to the north slope, okay, let me point it out that is where we're gonna head Hiking up the hill to get up there Right here from interesting piece of agate. I made it over here I were parked over over there and I searched all that Black stuff I found was right in that area And here we are over here This is where I was last time I came here about four years ago the only other time I've actually been here So I found those pieces in here and I found that one Sitting there right on the surface somebody dug up that didn't I didn't want to keep Yep So Go get into this a little bit Dig down in there and see what we can find. Okay. I just finished digging all this out This is the layer right here. It's dark stuff. So we'll try getting some of those pieces out Break them open and see how they look Okay, just pulled the first one out Let's break it open and see how it looks. Ah, yes, that's what I remember Interesting stuff here pretty cool So one thing that we have noticed throughout all the layers is Some of them are much thicker than others This is one of the thicker layers like this and these ones tend to come out in bigger sheets And a lot of the other places some of them are very thin like this very small layers They were the ones that didn't Work out so well. That's why we're over here and hopefully get some good stuff All right, I'm gonna try and get this one out and see how big it is All right, I was digging for a bit getting a bunch of dirt out of the way and look how thick the layer is right there So it's still there. It's getting really thick right here. So these are very promising So I want to try and get these out in as big pieces as possible You can see the regular fracturing going on regular jointing in the rocks and frost wedging Okay, like a bunch. You can careful. This is a curious overhang here That should be enough now Loosen a lot of these pieces up. We'll just pull them out. Yep There's one It's kind of cool to have these little things of bits of gypsum That grew in natural fractures right going through the middle of it that piece Pieces came out lots of small pieces mostly All right been digging for quite a bit got quite a few pieces out now All right here. We'll get in the bucket. Look at that one though Some pretty gypsum on it Sparkly in the sun Just been hard at work removing some bigger pieces Got this one out right here. It's a nice big piece of Wonderstone A lot of gypsum on it Looks neat the way it is Does have a fracture going through the middle of it. So it's technically two pieces. They're still pretty big That'll be a good one. I've got enough stuff out of my area Mostly fill the bucket So we're gonna see what my dad's got. He just finally hit the layer further down here We're gonna see what the stuff over here looks like some of it out My dad got his first few pieces out and there were two very different pieces So the first one we got was this just that purple right in the middle and then the second we pulled out was black The white one. Very good looking. This one had a little bit of green in it What a deep hole right here. Oh, that's a good sized one I'll break open the little one to get a fill, but we'll definitely want to keep the bigger one Break open the small one and see how it looks. It's kind of like that first one A little hazardous a little bit just fell so we're probably not gonna go any deeper Don't want to have anything cave in on this But he did pull this big piece out right here So that'll be nice Nice full bucket. It's gonna maybe try and get that one last piece down there My dad's pretty much done in his area. It's just getting too precarious. It took a load down. We've got a bunch more. I was just digging this spot and Look at this broken one that just came out. Oh Nice I'm not sure if I broke it if it was already broken like that, but look at that So I'm gonna get the rest of that but Looking good here Looking good All right, so I just wanted to explain a little bit about the layers and how you get this stuff out of here So this is the Wonderstone right here. Usually it'll have this nice yellow on here probably sulfur and It'll have gypsum Also, the layer above is kind of a brown and it's very loose So we dig the the layer on top out of it and then right below it it turns to white ash and To get this stuff out Dig the top out and then bust into the ash underneath because that's easier and Once you've busted it out and you've got some space then it becomes easier to get these pieces out So we're gonna go ahead and demonstrate that here That's gonna dig the top layer a little bit Once you've got a good amount of it off the top right there And he's gonna go ahead and try and bust into the ash underneath See the ash kind of comes out in these little layers. It was fractured. That's too bad Well, we've been digging quite a bit and I think we're gonna call it there My dad's on his way back up. We have limited buckets and We've already taken one load down and we're gonna sort through that and figure out what of that we're gonna keep We're gonna get those down We'll get them all loaded up And then starting the eyes We'll head back home and I'll cut some of the small ones open so we can take a look at those and The bigger ones are just gonna have to wait to have a bigger saw. That'll be something down the road All right, I'm back from the dig. Let's get to cutting some of this here Wonderstone I'm just gonna cut some of the smaller ones today. The bigger ones. I'm gonna save till I have a bigger saw So let's get at it and see what we find That's pretty Look at that. Look at that. That's pretty in it Nice one that one That's a pretty one too, isn't it? You want to see it? Yes, that's beautiful. There we go some more Wonderstone Without some special That pretty Okay, look at that one That one's got more black in it. It's really pretty when you get the black with a nice contrast So that's a really pretty one Look at that one. That one does not have any black and Has a lot more bands in it That's pretty cool, too nice Hey Another one that looked very similar to the last one a little bit more white. Don't see any black Lots of bands in it. Oh, hello. This one has a lot more black in it So I can tell when it's gonna have black because it makes a black Mud that I can see and I can smell sulfur So this Black must have been deposited with high concentrations of sulfur from whatever groundwater was going through it Pretty neat. Well, that looks like a couple other ones. We've already done Still got that same White barely any black Yeah, not as many bands in that one All right, so everything we've cut so far was from that last area where we found all that good stuff In the first area that we were where we didn't find a whole lot. There were those few pieces that I found decent This is one of those We'll cut this one. See what it looks like Well, that's quite pretty too. Look at that That's not too bad It's just different different from the other it doesn't have the black Or the purple So not as good but still quite pretty Okay last one I've got tons of wonders done like I said, but I'm only cutting a few today the smaller ones And the bigger ones I'll save for when I have a better saw. All right. Here we go last one Well, this one had a fracture going through it. So there's one side the other side As you can see broke. Let's see how it looks along the break That's how it looks along the break Still a pretty piece Not bad All right, that's it for this episode. I really hope you enjoyed the wonder stone from selining utah It's a beautiful area I really like the stuff that comes from there and I plan on making some really cool stuff with it Eventually down the road And for now, I'll just enjoy it as it is So I hope you really enjoyed it and remember there is treasure everywhere