Sunday evening we drove a long way into what seemed like the middle of nowhere. We turned down an unmarked dirt road by mile marker 77 on Highway US-20. We were on the hunt, but it was unclear where we should hunt. We stopped by a random campsite and asked a guy by his tent, “Where do we find obsidian?”
He looked at us strangely and said, “You want to find obsidian before sundown?” “Yes”, we replied. He told us to go down the dirt road another mile and to look to the right of the pond. So that’s what we did, and obsidian we found!
Obsidian is lava glass that is produced when lava from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. Most obsidian is black, but other colors can be found in the Glass Butte area.
We mostly found black obsidian, tons of it, but we also found some black with red stripes. It did look and feel like glass.
Yes, we forgot Bravely’s shoes! Proof we don’t have all our ducks in a row. Ha.
We walked around collecting obsidian until the sun went down.
This was a great non-tourist, off the beaten path, adventure! Our kids thought it was so much fun.