Big J and I had the chance to do one last hoorah before winter sets in and snow covers all of our favorite spots. The goal was to fill up some buckets with agate to stare at and play around with while we remain cooped up all winter. As far as agate goes in Southern Utah, I am familiar with the “Summit” location near Cedar City, but had heard of some other great locations nearby to hit up.

The first place we visited was located near Brian Head ski resort (I do love snowboarding here with the Misses in the rockhounding offseason). We passed a group of young skiers just learning the basics on what little snow had fallen the day before. There is a small creek near the top of the resort running off of Brian Head summit that contains a fair amount of nice agate. The ground this day was lightly dusted with snow and the creek was mostly frozen over, but we bundled up and braved the wind and the cold for a day of nice hunting.

I noticed right off the bat several large boulders of agate just chilling right there in the creek. They were definitely picture worthy!–Reds, yellows, blues, blacks, and whites mostly, but we only explored a small section of the river. I noticed some jasper there too as you usually would see. It is always good to have water or a spray bottle nearby when hunting for agates to get an idea of what each specimen will look like when polished so this location with the creek running right through the middle was ideal.

We parked on the road there and spent the majority of the time on the lower end of the river. It seemed like the agate was bedded up in the North bank of the creek and flowed right down into the water. Even with the cold weather, the ground was quite soft and so we didn’t really need any of the tools we had brought–only buckets to fill up 🙂

The beauty of the area surrounding this location really is extraordinary. Vast meadows and snow capped peaks with rolling hills of red rocks around the horizon. It is definitely NOT what you would picture Southern Utah to look like, but I’d say well worth the trip even just for the views.
Like many of the other locations I have on this site, the directions and distances can and will vary quite a bit from what you will see in books or on other websites. I always use Google Maps (especially the satellite view or Google Earth) to get these locations down to as exact as I possibly can.

Directions to Brian Head Agate:

From the intersection of 800 North and I-15 in Orem, Utah

1. Drive South on I-15 for 194 miles until exit 78 toward UT-143/Parowan/Paragonah

2. Turn left (South) onto North Main Street for 1.2 miles

3. Turn left (East) onto East Center Street (turns slightly right and becomes Highway 143) for 14.9 miles until Brian Head Peak Road

4. Turn left (East) onto Brian Head Peak Road and drive .4 miles to the creek that runs right under the road