YOLO ROCK CHRONICLES Episode 3

YOLO COUNTY ROCK CHRONICLES

Episode 1 ; Goodnow Slough Petrified Wood

By Gilbert Gonzalez

Sunny days are always great days to look for special rocks. On my first time exploring the slough that drains storm water from Bald Mountain and the Capay Hills I encountered several huge log jams blocking easy access. They were mostly composed of large oak trees that had fallen to the bottom of the 60 feet deep slough. The normal winter rains had slowly built up a good amount of silt and wood debris around these fallen giants. These log jams were four to five feet high with narly spooky dead branches sticking up to the sky, and each log jam was fairly difficult to go over or around.

The local wild animals had trails under some of the large logs and it was easy to identify the different foot prints in the sandy silt. Mostly raccoons, white tail deer, quail, rabbits and wild turkeys. But I enjoy exploring creeks, ravines and sloughs, so these obstacles were just part of the adventure and excitement of hiking in these wild lands of Yolo County. I wish I could make a living walking and exploring these natural areas, the scenery changes with the seasons.

I found a nice piece of Yolo petrified wood about seven inches long four inches wide with a wonderful wood grain pattern. It weighed about two pounds and was a fine tan and dark brown color. I also collected twelve smaller pieces of petrified wood that day and went home with a good back pack load. For may years that seven inch piece of petrified wood was the largest specimen of petrified wood I had come across in Goodnow Slough. I did find many more smaller pieces of fossil wood and after every rain storm I would take time to look for any newly exposed pieces of Yolo petrified wood. But they were always small pieces.

One brisk morning I spotted two really nice pieces of petrified wood in a cobble stone deposit on the south side of my sheep pasture. During the night the local skunks had turned over many cobble stones in their quest for a dinner of high protein beetles that hide under the cobble stones, they help expose the agate. Later that afternoon I showed these fist size pieces to old Bob Kessler, Bob was the owner of the sprawling cattle ranch across the road from my sheep ranch. The slough also cut a 60 feet deep channel through two of his pasture fields before exiting to the east, where stood a century old almond orchard. Well ole Bob just laughed, in a friendly way, at my two small pieces of petrified wood. He exclaimed that there were big chunks of petrified wood to be found in the slough on his property. Then he told me I could hunt for petrified wood in his part of the slough, anytime I had a few hours to walk the gravel bottom of the small creek.

Day dreaming about finding large pieces of agate petrified wood was exciting and I could hardly contain my imagination about what might be in Bob's section of Goodnow Slough. The next day I packed a hardy lunch and filled my canteen with cool water. I headed down into the deep natural slough, which meandered toward the southeast in the general direction of county road 85. As I explored the slough I found only small pieces of petrified wood, lots and lots of beautiful small pieces, but no large chunks. I was disappointed and skeptical that I would ever find any big pieces of petrified wood in the depths of Goodnow Slough. The small pieces I collected made great material for my rock tumbler and took a bright polish with good cell replacement visible in the petrified wood.

That winter, one of the patron saints of California rock hounds made an appearance, "EL Nino". It started raining and raining, and the Pineapple Express of storms just deluged California for months. Many towns and roads were flooded in this local area of Yolo County. The massive concrete bridge over Cashe Creek at Capay was washed away. The water caused an enormous amount of erosion in the mineral gathering areas of California. Prospectors were scrambling for gold in the Sierras as stream banks eroded and released their buried lodes.

The most water I had previously seen in Goodnow Slough was about two feet in depth from a winter storm, but the rain heavy clouds of "El Nino" produced a tremendous volume of run off water from the Bald Mountain watershed. A thirty feet deep torrent of debris laden storm water surged through the slough for a week, each time one of the heavy storms drenched us. All of the log jams in the slough were completely washed away and were deposited on county road 85 several miles down stream. The banks of the slough were extremely eroded, all the grass, brush and small vegetation were stripped away, leaving bare soil.

Later in the spring the rain stopped, the storm water subsided and I carefully made my way down into the 60 feet deep water ravaged slough. Wow! mother nature had transformed the slough to create a three mile long strip mine and I was standing in a devastated landscape. All around me were large pieces of petrified wood and beautiful agate and brecciate jasper exposed by "El Nino" run off water. I had finally found the big pieces of petrified wood that ole Bob had told me about. That first trip I loaded five big hunks of petrified wood in a burlap sack and dragged them out of the slough, up the 60 feet high climb to the surface.

It was a wonderful and rewarding project to find and gather as much petrified wood and agate as possible before the new grasses of spring time sprouted and covered the newly eroded areas. I recovered some really beautiful pieces of petrified wood, the largest was about 50 pounds of incredible brown and black agate. I spent many days and weeks collecting this treasure that mother nature had exposed from the tertiary gravels of western Yolo County, about 2000 pounds. I have been cutting and polishing this petrified wood and it makes great specimens with good replacement of the cell structure . Goodnow Slough is on private property and there is no public access. Have a nice day.

GOODNOW SLOUGH PETRIFIED WOOD

Yolo County Rock Chronicles Episode 1