Rife Lake

Jim Sawaya and I decided to try an area new to us today. So this morning we headed south to Rife Lake, more specifically Mossyrock Dam. Yet again it was cold and rainy as we headed out but being true rockhounds we went anyway. One of my employees had recommended the spot and after seeing some of what she found the last time she was there it wasn't hard to decide to go. With some vague directions we drove to the spot without too much trouble, except for the part where we drove right past the parking area. Once we got turned around we pulled up and parked. Now I've been to a lot of rockhounding sites but this was one of the few I've encountered that had portapotties and another bonus, they were pretty well maintained.
We headed down the stairs, yes another first for rockhounding, hopped a wall and started walking the boulder and rock strewn shoreline. I was told not to pay too much attention until we had walked a ways as most people stopped and hunted fairly close. So with an ever watchful eye I picked up the paced and gingerly moved on. Sure enough as I got further away I started to notice lots of boulders and rocks with tiny blue agate nodules in conjunction with albite in it's mass form. As I moved further along the nodules started to increase in size and I found some workable pieces that were blue-gray in color with nice fortifications. About this time Jim got a call on his cell from his daughter. She was running an extremely high fever so we decided it would be best to head back to town. I found enough quality agate to warrant a return trip. As a brief note albite is a feldspar and is the main component in granite. It does form crystals but not real commonly. I hope to find some in future trips and I know quartz crystals have been found there also. My fishing gear will get packed also as the fishing looked to be pretty good there. Rock on, Mark Baumann