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Marble Mountain
My friend, and hiking buddy, Mark asked if there were any places I'd been wanting to see, so I asked him if we could take couple trips- One out to "Marble Mountain" (not sure that's its real name), and a trip to Bates Well on the El Camino del Diablo highway.
Marble Mountain got its name from the millions of small stone marbles that ring its base. The trip out from Ajo is only about 20 miles, but it is a rough and tumble road so the trip takes about an hour and a half.
The hill in the background of the photo above is the "Marble Mountain" I couldn't wait to see if the stories were true.
One scoop with my hand and I came up with these specimens. In just a few minutes I had a handful! Oh- that's a flake of apricot colored quartz there too.
I spent half an hour wandering up and down the slopes looking at the ground and delighting at the variety of small round orbs. I found what looked like clumps of marbles embedded in stone- like a bullet mold poured with rock. There are several theories about how these formed and the most reasonable theory I've read, is that the sedimentary rock formed in the empty bubble voids formed in volcanic magma.
I wanted to fill my pockets with marbles and fragments of rock with marbles in them- but reason descended over my enthusiasm. What would I do with them? I don't need this type of souvenir- especially living in a motorhome. Leave them here for others to find and delight in them as I did.
When Joan and I first arrived back in town we were surprised and pleased to see that the murals in Artist's Alley had overflowed out on to the walls of several adjacent buildings.
Trip Meter 0
Marble Mountain
My friend, and hiking buddy, Mark asked if there were any places I'd been wanting to see, so I asked him if we could take couple trips- One out to "Marble Mountain" (not sure that's its real name), and a trip to Bates Well on the El Camino del Diablo highway.
Marble Mountain got its name from the millions of small stone marbles that ring its base. The trip out from Ajo is only about 20 miles, but it is a rough and tumble road so the trip takes about an hour and a half.
The hill in the background of the photo above is the "Marble Mountain" I couldn't wait to see if the stories were true.
One scoop with my hand and I came up with these specimens. In just a few minutes I had a handful! Oh- that's a flake of apricot colored quartz there too.
I spent half an hour wandering up and down the slopes looking at the ground and delighting at the variety of small round orbs. I found what looked like clumps of marbles embedded in stone- like a bullet mold poured with rock. There are several theories about how these formed and the most reasonable theory I've read, is that the sedimentary rock formed in the empty bubble voids formed in volcanic magma.
I wanted to fill my pockets with marbles and fragments of rock with marbles in them- but reason descended over my enthusiasm. What would I do with them? I don't need this type of souvenir- especially living in a motorhome. Leave them here for others to find and delight in them as I did.
When Joan and I first arrived back in town we were surprised and pleased to see that the murals in Artist's Alley had overflowed out on to the walls of several adjacent buildings.
Early one morning I slung my camera over my shoulder and headed down town to snap some pictures of the new additions.
All the art is beautifully done, but I confess, I don't always understand the message.
Hope you enjoyed it!
In my next post I'll show you what we found on our trip to Bates Well.
Your Traveling Friends
Jeff and Joan
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