Wiley Well District Geode Beds
Public area set aside for recreational collecting
Native material: you search the natural ground on site.
Season: October to April. Summer heat in this desert is dangerous.
One of the three BLM rock collecting areas in California, listed by the BLM among its national rockhounding areas. The district spreads across the Little Chuckawalla, Mule and Palo Verde Mountains and the Black Hills, in the Colorado Desert south of I-10; the Hauser Geode Beds are the best known of its geode beds. Free BLM campgrounds at Wiley's Well and Coon Hollow.
Make a weekend of it
10 gem and mineral spots on open public land with no claim on record, within 50 miles.
There are more on the map, some of them with a possible mining claim.
Clubs and places nearby
- Red Cloud MinePay-to-dig · 30 mi
- Quartzsite Roadrunners Gem and Mineral ClubClub · 48 mi
- Savahia Peak Rock Collecting AreaFree public dig · 68 mi
- Borrego Rock and Gem Club (BRAG)Club · 81 mi
- Marble Mountain Rock Collecting Area (Trilobites)Free public dig · 84 mi
- Havasu Gold SeekersClub · 84 mi
Where to buy gear nearby
- T-Rocks in QuartzsiteShop · 47 mi
- Gem World (Quartzsite)Shop · 47 mi
- Half Fast Mining Co.Shop · 47 mi
- Camel Mining ProductsOnline shop · 48 mi
Access
From I-10 take the Wiley's Well Road exit, about 16 miles west of Blythe, and drive south about 15 miles: paved for the first 2.9 miles to the state prisons, then graded dirt, rough and washboarded if it has not been graded recently. From the south you can come in from CA-78 on Milpitas Wash Road. High clearance recommended. The Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range borders the area to the south: never enter it.
Technique
Hand tools. Geodes and nodules weather out of volcanic ash beds: dig them out with a pick and a small shovel, then crack or saw them at home. Agate, jasper and chalcedony lie on the surface of the hills and washes. Personal collection only, in reasonable amounts.