Bruneau Idaho Wood Pile Field Trip 9/28/08

02 Oct

Posted by Jason as Rock Hounding Field Trips

Bruneau Wood Pile Location On Sunday Peter, my son Jake and I ventured off to the Bruneau Idaho Wood Pile. I have heard that there was some petrified wood out there and wanted to see for myself. This was a quick drive from Boise Idaho about 1 hour and 10 minute drive from my house. We left at about 8 a.m. to the collection site man was my son excited about going to get rocks. Did I mention that he always has at least one rock on him at all times!! We arrived at the collection area at about 9:30 and we started to find Petrified Wood within feet of the car. Jake had his bucket half full of rocks in 5 minutes.

Digging for Bruneau Petrified Wood We found an area were there seemed to be a lot of float and started digging. As you can see Peter and Jake are quite involved in digging in the bank. We found alot of broken pieces of Petrified Wood with the occasional little branches and roots. The wood at Bruneau Wood Pile is very young at about 14,500 years. Most of what you will find seems to look like drift wood. This location at one time was the shoreline of Lake Bonneville.

Digging Petrified Wood Bruneau Idaho After digging in the hillside for about an hour Jake wanted to eat so we went back to the car and had a snack. It was fun to watch my son carrying his bucket of rocks which probably weighed about 10 pound. He was determined to do it by himself thats my boy. After eating we headed back up the hill and Peter and I found a few nice little branches and decided to start digging a little hole to see what we could find. As you can see Jake took over our hole and he was ask about every rock if it was Petrified Wood. Most of what he pulled out was small pieces.

Bruneau Idaho Petrified Wood This trip is great for the whole family as it is easy for any vehicle to get here. I will say that the petrified wood is not the greatest but the time spent with the little one and seeing his face glow was all worth it. The petrified wood in this picture is what we collected in about 2 1/2 hours of easy digging at the Bruneau Idaho Wood Pile. I would have to rate this trip about a 5 out of 10 due to the poor quality of the wood. I may have just been in the wrong spot.

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10 Responses

Dave Cline

October 6th, 2008 at 11:21 am
1

Thanks for the post. Always fun to read of other’s having success diggin’ rocks, wood or fossils.
Tony Griffin

December 13th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
2

There is very little petrified wood at the Bruneau Woodpile that is a decent quality. Some green opalized wood has been found west of Hwy 51 along the powerline south of milepost 61 to Jarbridge. You can probably find it on both sides of the Hwy, I have only found it on the west side.
Eric

January 28th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
3

According to all my sources Lake Bonneville was actually contained within the Salt Lake Basin and never encroached into Idaho except for a few locations in eastern Idaho.
Jason

January 28th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
4

Eric

Thanks for the comment. Yes you are 100% correct about lake bonneville. I took the source from a gem clubs publication and after doing a little research found out the was incorrect. I think that they should have stated that it was from the bonneville flood. It had to of been a shore line as most of the wood was rounded like drift wood does on shores, and there are fish vertebra all over the place. If you have any info for me to update and correct this it would be much appreciated.

Jason
Tony Griffin

January 28th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
5

About 6 mya the Western Snake River Graben subsides forming a basin for Lake Idaho to catch water from what will become the Boise Mountains and water from the Snake River watershed. I show two current links with evidence supporting this theory. There are other citation that show evidence of smaller lakes that were in the Twin Falls/Hagerman area after Lake Idaho was no longer so large.

Evidence of Lake Idaho and approximate size found at:
http://earth.boisestate.edu/home/dwilkins/docs/Gillerman-etal_IdahoTerroir_GeosciCan.pdf

Volcanism and lake sediments with pillow lava support the existence of Lake Idaho:
http://www.usu.edu/geo/shervais/Shervais%20-%20My%20Articles/Shervais_WSRP_2002.pdf

There are numerous other citations that talk about the existence and location of Lake Idaho at various times in the recent history of the development of the Snake River plain. At one time the Snake River through Lake Idaho emptied into northern Nevada eventually finding the Humboldt and Lake Lahontan. Fossil evidence supports this theory.

As the Western Snake River plain developed through tectonic and magmatic evolution the Snake River Plain eventually changed course and emptied into the Columbia Basin through Hells Canyon.
Jason

January 29th, 2009 at 12:54 am
6

Tony

Thanks for the links and input on this location. Where are you located? If your close next season you should come out with us.

Jason
jim

March 26th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
7

have you ever found rocks that looks like peanuts at the wood pile?
Jason

March 26th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
8

Jim

Yes I have. If we are talking about the same thing the petrified wood is encased in sandstone. I have also seen what looks like Whoppers candy perfect round little balls. The Bruneau Wood Pile is an interesting place to visit. I have only been there once but plan on exploring the area more this summer. Tony Griffin mentioned a location around there that I plan on checking out.

Jason
jim

April 5th, 2009 at 11:57 am
9

i’m talking about peanuts in the shell
Jason

April 9th, 2009 at 11:07 am
10

Jim

I have not seen anything like that.

Jason