GETTING THERE CAN BE HALF THE FUN

BY DONNA ALBRECHT

The dramatic sunset at Avila Beach is a fitting end to a productive day of rockhounding.

DONNA ALBRECHT

I suspect that like a lot of you, my first trips to Tucson and Quartzsite for the shows was pretty much pedal-to-the-metal. Get there as quickly as I could to maximize the time I had at what still seems to me to be a self-serve, all-you-can-see-and-buy banquet of rocks and minerals that stretches on forever. This past year, however, my husband and I decided to add a few days to the journey and experience some different aspects of being a rockhound, and we had a blast.

In this article, you’ll find some of the adventures we enjoyed while road tripping to Arizona for the shows.

We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and discovered early we could get to Blythe, California, just before Quartzsite in one long drive. You’ll find a lot more lodging choices in Blythe than in Quartzsite, and it’s only a few minutes to get from Blythe to the show. Tip: Buy gas in Arizona; it’s much cheaper.

That works for saving time but lacks that “vacation” feel. If you are looking for that kind of experience, some friends from one of my rock clubs mentioned Avila Beach. It was not only in Southern California, it has rocks and cliffs of rhyolite. Actually, the stone’s “official” name is DeeDeeite, named after the woman who saw it on the beach and discovered it was good for lapidary.

When you are on Avila Beach looking at the ocean, the DeeDeeite and cliff are on your left. The rhyolite comes in beige, brown, and a delightful blue. The most interesting material to me occurs when colors come together in a geometrical pattern. I didn’t see any signs restricting picking up the rocks, so I put some in my beach bag to bring home and work on. I didn’t take any tool to break off rocks, and you probably shouldn’t either.