Deadman Gulch Agate Rockhounding Trip

(May 22, 2019 / Author: Tim Bondy) This April 7, 2014, rockhounding trip started out as a petrified wood search but turned into an agate finding rockhound at a location about 2 miles east of the Owyhee County’s Deadman Gulch. 

Featured Image Info: Geotagged at 42.740607, -115.908226 // https://photos.app.goo.gl/eFhJyHtisv2iHNTVA

I went rockhounding on Monday April 7, 2014 to a spot I have had my eye on for quite a while.  The birds-eye view on GoogleEarth and the geography seen on various topo maps led me to this spot about 10 miles south of Bruneau, Idaho.  Truth be known, I was thinking this area would be a hotspot for petrified wood.  My thinking was wrong.

Deadman Gulch Trailhead

It was a beautiful Idaho April day but I had one stop to make in the town of Bruneau.  There is/was an unowned Ingress Portal in this small town I have been hoping to get.  No luck on this day.  I headed south on Highway 51 and drove with one eye on my GPS unit, one eye on the road and my other eye on the landscape.  Obviously, I’m blind in one eye and cannot see out of the other(s).  But I found my perfect parking spot and off we went.

Cows, Cliffs, and Colors

This area, like most of the Owyhees, is ranching territory. Expect cows and if not cows there will be plenty of sign of cows while rockhounding this area.  Step carefully as those gray lumps may not be rocks.  While we were out there, plenty of cows were seen and many piles were stepped over, around and a few were stepped in … Such is rockhounding.

 

One of the major draws of exploring this area was the presence of cliffs seen on Google Earth, and sandstone cliffs at that.  Yes, they are out there, they’re not big, but big enough to do some major damage if you walked off one.  Don’t!  I explored these cliffs but didn’t find anything in them.  Your mileage and finds may vary.

Color … it’s the desert and it was spring and well … there is some tortured geology out there and that usually means color.  Sandstone, lava, rich browns, black rocks and for a few more weeks or maybe a month or two, there will be green … vegetation.

Rocks – Jasper and Agate and Petrified Wood and Other Stuff

Addie, my Plott Hound dog and I headed out into the desert and almost immediately saw a large expanse of rocky, “cobblely” landscape.  There is what looks like a metric-billion ton load of brown jasper laying on the ground.  I’m not an expert on jasper but I’d say it’s poor quality or not even jasper at all.

Originally, I was looking for petrified wood so I headed to the cliffy area off to the west-north-west.  There were small amounts of white agate mixed in with the jaspery and Leaverites along my path.  Once I got to the cliffs and explained, with little or no success to my dog it was a dangerous area, I started my exploration.  What did I find?  The highly coveted sandstone type rock, so I moved on  🙂 

 

I decided to get out of the lowlands and move back up into higher terrain and walk west.  This is where I found agate.  There isn’t a ton of this stuff but there are many, many micro-locations where agate is rather plentiful.  It becomes less plentiful in the low-land/dry stream-bed.

There is some petrified wood out in this area.  Not much and not collectible in my opinion.  But there is a lot of land to explore out here.  If you want to trade “secret spots” I’ll be glad to send you a latitude/longitude of the area.  

Other Information About This Adventure

• Date: April 7, 2014
• Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cJNok3L24dQMDXYQ7
• Trailhead: 42.739800, -115.901805

 

This story was originally published elsewhere on April 11, 2014.
This story was modified, edited and republished here on May 22, 2019.