On Saturday my friend Peter called me at about 10:30 in the evening wondering if I would like to make a quick trip to dig for some precious Fire Opal. Since I had nothing going on in the morning I agreed to go and try something that I have never collected before yes Fire Opals. Peter said that the dig area was just outside of Marsing Idaho about 2 miles from were we collected Queen Stone Jasper a few weeks earlier off Sommercamp road
 

Peter and I arrived at the mine around 8 am and Peter jumped out of the car and started searching for fire opal. I will let you in on a little information about Peter, he is obsessed with Opals. Back to the story, I had never collected opals before so I kind of watched Peter for a few minutes to see what he was looking for. I quickly found out the Fire Opals were in seams in between the rock. I decided to try my luck sifting through the tailing for a few while Peter busted rock with a 10 pound sledge hammer and chisel. I happened to find quit a few opals this way but nun with any fire.
 
 
We had not been at the mine for more than an hour before out of nowhere a pickup truck come rolling up to us. Mite I remind you we are in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday morning crazy but true. Two guys get out and they found a spot to dig about 15 feet away and set up shop. I came to the conclusion that this spot is well known and popular yet I had never heard of it or seen it before.
 
 
This was just a quick trip only a half day as I needed to be home by 2 but it was fun and I will most definitely return in the future. Peter and I did find a few opals with some fire but most were clear as glass. As much as I can tell it seems very stable since the opals have been siting out at room temp for 2 weeks and no cracking or hazing of any kind has occurred. Hopefully next time I will get lucky and pull out a beautiful piece of that Precious Idaho Fire Opal. When we returned to Peters house he showed me some of his fire opals that he had collected from the same place in the past and he must of had at least 50 to 60 carats in a dish. Some had just amazing flashes of red and green.
 
 
So all in all this was a fun trip and the digging was quit easy. The location is only about an hour from my house in Boise Idaho which is another plus. I will say one thing if you venture out to the fire opal mine be careful of other peoples holes as there are some very dangerous overhangs that could kill you if they fell. Hope you enjoyed this field trip as there are not many left of the 2008 Rock Hound season. My next field trip will be to Beacon Hill in Washington County Idaho just north of Weiser Idaho. The material that will be collected is agate nodules, moss agates, and geodes.