Hunting for Geodes in the West Desert - Dugway Geode Beds

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, we were walking around Liberty Park and the boys were stopped at a table of a man selling Geodes.  Geodes are geological secondary structures which occur in certain sedimentary and volcanic rocks.  They are essentially hollow and contain crystals. (Geodes are found in five states in the US (Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky and UTAH).   He asked the boys if they wanted to hammer the rocks open and find crystals inside?  This sparked their interest!  Boston asked a few times after that, "When can we go to the park with the rock man?"  We did some research on the Dugway Geode Beds that he told us about.  A couple weekends ago, the weather was cooler so we decided to take  a drive out there (a three hour drive to be exact - half of the way on a dirt road into the middle of nowhere ... the West Desert).  There is NOTHING out there!  Ben and his little boy Will came with us.  We saw some antelope and wild horses along the way ... other than that, NOTHING!!  We were worried as we drove out there that it was going to be a bust (long drive hoping to find ROCKS).  We finally made it to the beds and as soon as we stepped out of the truck, the boys quickly found 4-5 geode rocks at their feet.

For the first hour, the Nick and I hunted for the rocks and the boys just took hammers and smashed them open.  It was almost like Christmas morning excitement!  "Look at this one."  "Look how shiny this one is."  They were both in ROCK HEAVEN!!   It was fun to see them so excited.  We brought home a few buckets full of geodes.  It was a long drive but a successful one.  Payten enjoyed sitting in the SANDY dirt and tossing it in the air for it to land on her clothes, hair, ear, eyes, etc.  She was covered in dirt when left.  She crawled all over in it and just threw rocks and let the sand go through her fingers.