Stone hunting in Utah

[AncientTech]

The snake looks good.  I have not eaten rattler since the 1980's.  If you ever skin one, a simple trick is to cut down the stomach with a pair of scissors.  Scissors make a much cleaner cut than a knife cut, on snakes.  Just snip down the center of the snake's stomach, until you reach the tail, and cut through the base of the rattles.  If you are a bowyer, you will appreciate the skin.  If you are hungry, you will appreciate the meat.

Good luck with the rock hunting.

[JoJoDapyro]

I went out again to scout a new spot. We were (my dad and I) looking for a quarry with "rootbeer onyx". The area is in a constant state of flux as building continues. The quarry seemed a little tough to get to so we changed plans in motion. We decided to go to "Hells Kitchen". This is a few miles further south. The entire area on the west side of Utah lake used to be open. It is owned by the State schools trust. Too many people trash the place and there have been some close calls with wild fires, so they limit access to 2 points, instead of the old 10 or so. We took the road back up the hills a way and then got out for a walk. I found a outcrop of rocks that are almost like chert, bit a bit more coarse. I grabbed one. We stopped at another location and I found one chunk of dark brown jasper, with a lot of quartz inclusions. I also found this strange stone. No other stone in the area that looks anything like it. The edges look like they have been worked. We then took a road up to the radio towers on lake mountain and back down to SR73.  I spalled out the chert like stone (very black) and threw it in the kiln.
More to come next time.

[JoJoDapyro]

A good day. Back to broad canyon. Walked to another pit I found on the map. Hit the spot! Good sized chuncks all over. Also more of the hard banded rock. It almost looks like tiger chert. But it is grey and white, with the occasional band of yellow. I packed about a hundred pounds out. Now time to cut and cook!