Yellow Green Jasper — Yakima River Canyon — The Bold Contrast

Before Yakima, we had ground out a lot of miles. We combed rivers and highway cliffs across Northeastern Washington. We were mostly coming up empty on those trips. The turning point came from the locals. Janyce met a rockhound at an O'Reilly Auto Parts. I talked to a guy from Cle Elum. They pointed us toward the ancient Yakima River Canyon. Everyone else was hunting Ellensburg Blue agates. We wanted the jasper. We loaded the Tucson with a cooler and buckets. We got out of town around 10 AM. Janyce was pissed off about the late start. We burned west on I-90 from Spokane. Just before the canyon, we passed a gravel backroad named "Chert Road." We couldn't resist. We drove it slowly. I made Janyce stop for every piece of yellow on the shoulder. Most of it was crumbly. But we rescued heavy, solid chunks of chert and raw flint. By noon, we jammed the rest of the way to the canyon. It was a massive drought year. The water was incredibly low. We spent the afternoon wading in foot-deep water. We stared straight down at the riverbed. This was my first experience with the "picky trap." You look at all the stone and get real picky. At the end of the day, you wish you had saved what you threw back. I had never prayed for a drought before, but I do now. We aren't miners. We are surface hunters. If the colors hit and the contrast was right in the water, we grabbed it. We stayed in that river until sunset. We hauled 40 lbs of green jasper, ironwood, and mystery stones out of that canyon. Not a single one went into the front yard rock garden. They were too good.— Bob & Janyce, Rockhound Studio, Spokane Valley WA