Ten Sleep Canyon

 

Recently visited Ten Sleep Canyon in Wyoming.  Here I found some interesting rocks in Ten Sleep Creek.

 

Every Spring new rocks are exposed.

Some very interesting patterns

Above the creek, the canyon walls have many types of stone.

And the Canyon has caves...

animated gifs I made of rock specimens

Animated gif I made of a jasper conglomerate specimen I found in Wyoming.

 

Animated gif I made of a specimen composted of agate, chert and jasper that I found in Wyoming.

The agate is a holly blue or periwinkle blue or a cornflower blue color.

Few more rocks

Tiny nugget but tremendously beautiful!

Boulder in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming

Black rocks found in desert south of Wind River Canyon, Wyoming

Weathered quartz with unusual pattern

Creekbed specimen found in mountains by Ten Sleep, Wyoming which consists mostly of clay and sandstone.

More rocks I've found in Wyoming

Petrified Wood beginning to agatize. Found south of Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.

Now why didn't I bring this rock home? It has such an amazing pattern.
Oh yeah, thats right -- I'm trying to leave the huge specimens at home since I live in a small apartment! (Besides, I already have several hundred pounds of rocks!)

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Prime Rib Rocks

I call this a Prime Rib rock!  Just look at the flaming red color marbled with white.

Close up, it looks even more like a good steak!

Similar stone with a darker hue of red.

This is what I call Christmas Stone.  It is more orange in color and has green agate mixed in.  The orange-red color is more of a flint or chert-like stone.

Again, I sharpened the photo and increased contrast to make the image more clarified, but did not alter the color in any way.

Green River Rocks

This beauty I found in Hot Springs County, Wyoming in a creek.

This third image is with the stone wet.  I did not tweak the color in any of these photos; I only sharpened the images to improve their clarity.

As can be seen, these rocks are considerably large and perfectly smooth and orb shaped -- I would love to see them as edging around a garden, a woodland path, etc...

Stones found in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming

Sandstone ball-shaped concretions

 

 Non-sandstone ball-shaped stone

Banded Ironstone found by Owl Creek Mountains, Wyoming

Found in dry creek bed on west side of Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming

Found by creek east of the Bighorn Mountains - has some agate in it.

Orange lichen growing on this rock give it a flowery appearance

Love the feather-like crystaline pattern on the surface of this stone.

Rocks Found in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming

Rocks found by Ten Sleep, Wyoming by the Bighorn Mountains

This is the area I went rock hunting at last weekend.

This is near the town of Ten Sleep, Wyoming.

What did I find?

Agate.

And some purplish-blue-reddish chert.

You can't find this stuff anywhere on the eastern side of the Bighorn Mountains; thus I make the trip over the mountains to find it.

This stuff is absolutely gorgeous!

This stone is a mixture of agate, chert, etc.!  You can see crystalization on some areas.

The agate in this piece is cloudy.  The red on the exterior is from the red soil I found it at.

Many of these agate specimens appear to have geode qualities.

This is a piece I found in this same area a year ago.  I've been hand-polishing it.

This piece is about 9 inches in length.

This piece has crystalization on the top, with a bubbley interior.  Perhaps the rock was at one time liquid, and then cooled?

The color of the agate in these stones is almost a cornflower or periwinkle blue in color.

This is in my opinion the best specimen I have found in this area.  I found it last year, and it is a sheer delight to behold!

Here is another view of it.

Tomorrow I plan to explore and hope to find more things like this -- stay tuned!