Singleton Ranch Additional Information

It has been pointed out to me that there were some major holes in my last email.

The cost of the trip is $50 per person per day, and that includes the first 5 gallon bucket of agate.  Additional buckets of agate are $40 each, measured in ¼ bucket increments.

The Singleton Ranch is located south of Marfa on Highway 169. For two of the four hunting locations,a high-clearance vehicle and confidence in your driving skills are absolutely necessary to get to the collecting sites, and a 4wd vehicle will make your trip much easier.  If you don’t have that type of vehicle, there are places where you can park just off of the main ranch road, and we’ll find someone you can carpool in with.  I can usually fit 1 or 2 people in with me, if I know in advance that I need to get my jeep cleaned up so you’ll have a place to sit.

If you haven’t hunted at the Singleton Ranch before, it’s an amazing experience.  There is so much agate out there that in some places you can’t walk without stepping on agate.  Not all of it is agate you’ll want to cut or collect for specimens, but there’s enough incredible bouquet, plume, water-level, moss, and fortification agate out there that you will no doubt find something spectacular.  The bouquet agate is a plume agate where the colors of the plume are pastels, including yellows, oranges, pinks, peaches, reds, and occasional lavenders.   What I’m calling plume is the same stuff, but in the more conventional plume colors of black, grey and white.   Both Matt Dillon and Steve Ivie have great photos of Singleton Ranch agate.  Matt’s is on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/97769244@N00/sets/72157594503307829/, and Steve’s is at http://www.rockhoundingusa.com/rough/marfa/index.html.  Of course the photos are of the best agates, and they’ve been cut and some have been polished before being photographed.  Still, they do represent what can be found with a little luck and determination.

All of my field trips are Rollin’ Rock Club trips.  Those that aren’t members can join at the time of the trip.  the cost is $16 per couple and $10 single, and the membership is good throughout 2014.

Regards,
Teri

There are still two Singleton Weekends Left Before Summer!

Now that the “Great April Rockhunts” are over, we have only one month before I take a vacation from leading field trips during the summer.  And in May, there are two rockhunt weekends on the Singleton Ranch:  May 8 – 11 and May 22 – 26.

The Singleton Ranch has proven to be an incredible place to hunt agate.  Each trip has unearthed great pieces of the bouquet agate, some as large as a baked potato, with huge plumes running the length of the stone!  There are now four different areas in which to hunt, so we usually do one each day for the four days.  The last field trip this month has five days in it (the last day is Memorial Day) so we’ll have to decide whether to revisit one of the sites we’ve been to on that day, or take a chance with someplace new.

As always, I’d recommend staying at the Antelope Lodge.  You can make reservations at www.antelopelodge.com, or (800) 880-8106.

If you can’t make these hunts, we’ll start again in early October.  Either way, you’re going to have a great time hunting at the Singleton Ranch, and you’ll take home some true gems.

Regards,
Teri