Rock Hounding Owyhee Mountains Plus Scenic and Question Photos

Saturday May 14th, 2011: We headed down to the Owyhee Mountains for a quick rockhounding trip. The weather window for this trip promised to be quite short on this warm Spring day. And it turned out to be even shorter than promised as thunderstorms developed shortly after getting to our destination. Our destination was in the Birch Creek area southwest of Grand View, Idaho. More specifically, the upper reaches of McKeeth Wash.

Owyhee Mountains Greening Up Nicely

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Looking south while in McKeeth Wash of the Owyhee’s
Photo made: 42.882068, -116.320941

Slow Moving Thunderstorm Just to the East

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Thunderstorm that stayed with us for about an hour
Photo made: 42.882050, -116.320674

Snow Capped Silver City Mountains

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Zoomed in on the Silver City Mountains of Owyhee County
Photo made: 42.877586, -116.311254

What Was This Area?

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Is this an old Mountain Home AFB Missile Silo Site?
This fenced-in area (open gate) had two large electrical panels and a few round metal fence posts at the gate that were much bigger than necessary. While the total area was much smaller than I’d expect an old missile silo site to be, I cannot come up with any other explanation.
What do you think it is?

Photo made: 42.877586, -116.311263

Rock Hounding McKeeth Wash
We didn’t spend more than 30 minutes looking around this little known wash. I got a tip from one of my readers this wash contained some nice looking opal but we didn’t see much of interest. There was a lot of nice looking quartz but nothing worth sticking in our pockets. Of course, McKeeth Wash runs much futher south and across the Poison Creek Cut-Off Road. You may want to explore another portion McKeeth Wash.

You don’t take a photograph, you make it. – Ansel Adams

Comments, Questions or Answers
So what do you think? Let me know what you think about these photos.