The Yellowstone River
The Picky Trap
Day 7. July 5th. Yellowstone River, Seven Sisters, outside Sydney Montana. Janyce drove every mile. The 3,000-Mile Run →
We woke up in Sydney on the Fifth of July. The night before had been fireworks in the rain. Montanans are not weak. The day before that had been a full day of driving through a thunderstorm — the only motel room of the whole trip, forced on us by the weather.
I went down for coffee and a cigarette and there was cobble in the motel landscaping. Inch and a half, two inch pieces. All different colors. I started looking and the next thing I knew I had six Montana agates out of their flower bed. I told the maid. She said oh yeah, people tell us that all the time.
We took that as a good sign and headed toward home. We stopped at the river past the brown public access signs — our favorites, because they mean we can hound legally. It was a drought year. The water was low.
We walked around and found agate after agate. We were looking for clear dendritic — the kind that looks like little trees frozen inside the stone. What we kept finding was red. I made a pile on a little island out in the middle of the water. I looked at that pile and thought — agate is everywhere, I’m not wading back out there.
We stopped at six or seven more public access points down river. The agate stayed red.
At about 3pm we left Forsyth. Freeway. Non-stop. Pit stops and snacks only. Eleven hours home. Janyce got us there at 1am.
The stone from that first stop — Seven Sisters, just outside Sydney — made it home in my pocket.
The Yellowstone River Collection →
The 3,000-Mile Run → — The full journey, day by day.
The Richardson Strike → — Day 3. Where the Africa Compromise came from.
— Bob & Janyce, Rockhound Studio, Spokane Valley WA