Directions: Garret’s directions and map will get you there and get you to the various sites. There are a lot of meandering cross roads in the back country though, so GPS is helpful. We might have given up on the rainbow site if not for having accurate coordinates from the book. As it is, it’s a steep, very rough and washed out track. Our big 4WD Dodge pickup made it, although with some white knuckles near the end.
Date: August 2009
Notes: Glass Buttes is amazing. We went to sites A, C and D and came away with plenty of material from each. The Aurora pit was the most challenging, with large blocks of material buried about 6′ down and under a dubious amount of overhang. We opted not to take the risk of digging for those and still came away with a bucket full. At the Rainbow pits the question was where to start. We did a lot of looking before finding a likely place to dig. Here the material was only a foot or so below the surface, and we filled our bucket again.
We camped at a nice spot less than 2 miles in. There are lots of camp sites farther in.
Updates: We have slabbed our first block of Aurora Borealis obsidian and it is marvelous. It shimmers in the sunlight with green and red sheen bands looking just like the Northern Lights.
Endless rivers of obsidian at Glass Butte.
Six feet down in the Aurora Borealis pit.
You must log in to post a comment.