Burro Creek Canyon Rocks!

Here is just a sample:

But we get ahead of ourselves.

We learned from various rockhounding websites that Burro Creek -- and the area around Burro Creek Campground -- is a good area for rockhounds.  The website FindingRocks.com quotes another source as follows:  "Burro Creek is a well know collecting site with a wide variety of materials including, patterned jaspers, obsidian, purple chalcedony, opal with dendrite inclusions, and pink pastelite."

We were sold.  Off we drove from Wickieup, Arizona, south to Burro Creek Campground, accessible from US Hwy 93.  We drove down to the campground and across Burro Creek and up to the cliffs above the campground to enjoy the panoramic views.  This view was from the top of a very high dry waterfall --

-- which we later spotted from below at Burro Creek Campground:

We explored the views from the clifftops and recorded this 360 degree view from above burro creek campground.

The rocks in the hillside, and the washes draining down toward Burro Creek, held many surprises, including these beautiful little cacti:

After finishing our tour on high, we drove back down to the campground, enjoyed our picnic lunch overlooking Burro Creek, and then set out to hike down to the water.  On the way we got a view of the US Hwy 93 bridge upstream from us:

The campground is set in a low area opposite beautiful cliffs built from layers of sandstone and volcanic rock:

Downstream from the campground, the floodway helped absorb the excess runoff from heavy rains over the last 3 days:

We hunted rocks in the floodway and found lots of interesting specimens.  After exhausting our interest in that area, we found our way back up to the campground via this beautiful rock staircase built by the campground's creators.  The rock work reminded us of CCC construction:

The campground boasts a Desert Garden with examples of desert plant life:

Some of the constructions in the Desert Garden are whimsical:

Leaving the campground, we headed up US Hwy 93 and turned east on Burro Creek Crossing Road.  Our internet resources informed us that, 12 miles further on along Burro Creek Crossing Road, we would encounter large surface fields of pastelite.  We were excited.

Burro Creek Crossing Road is, for the first 8 miles, well graded and easily driveable, even for low clearance vehicles, although 4-wheel drive is useful in places.  Along the way, we found dramatic mountain scenery:

At this junction of Burro Creek Crossing Road and Sycamore Camp Road, one needs to bear right to continue on Burro Creek Crossing Road.  Things started to get more windy and steeper.

Eventually, as we approached the 12-mile marker on Burro Crossing Road, we entered the Clay Hills area of critical environmental concern.  You can get a glimpse of the "clay hills" in the background of this photo:

Our prey was the pastelite that is said to be plentiful in this area.  We were not disappointed!

Pastelite is a type of chert or jasper that is opaque. It is very hard and takes a nice polish. True to its name it can be found in several pastel hues including pink, peach, gray, orange, and a rarer blue or violet variety. Some is mixed or brecciated with various agate and other minerals. We found more pastelite than we could carry out in our pockets.

We were driving back out to US Hwy 93 on Burro Creek Crossing Road when we encountered this mother burro and her young, crossing the road ahead of us.  They ran from us for nearly a quarter mile before finally turning off the road into the cactus-strewn desert.

We were home by 5:00 pm after a full day out in the desert looking for rocks.  The first photo above shows you our take for the day.  We think we caught our limit!