A literal “gully washer” rainstorm swept through the ranchlands late this summer. The heavy runoff waters gouged down all the slopes and thrashed through the gully bottoms, removing and dragging off the accumulations of pine needles and pine cones. In some places, the water scrubbed away thin layers of overburden and exposed an underlayment of rocks.
This occurred in some of my prime rock-hunting ground.
Yesterday,
I took a hike through some of the rumpled land and bloodhounded down through
the deepest gully bottoms, looking for rocks. I quickly filled my pockets with
shale, quartz, and specimens of multicolored jasper. But the most interesting
and unusual rock is a weathered chip of limestone.
The
bottom is gray and smooth as an eggshell. The top is white and looks like a
skyrise city in miniature. What makes this more fascinating is the fact that my
neighbor, Kevin, collected a smaller piece similar to this many years ago.
—Mitchell
Hegman
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