Enjoy Gem-O-Rama in Trona, California

Gem-O-Rama is a rock and mineral show held the second weekend of October and it includes three field trips to the nearby Searles Dry Lake. On each field trip you get to collect rare and amazing crystals. You may have seen some of Gem-O-Rama on Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. His Mud Mineral Excavator episode was shot duing the 2007 show. He helped prepare for one of the field trips, toured one of the factories, and there was some footage shot of the mud piles field trip (in which yours truly had a tiny cameo :)

Gem-O-Rama is held in the small town of Trona, California, a desert mining town located in the Panamint Valley. Panamint Valley is the valley immediately west of Death Valley, so as you can imagine it gets rather hot there. That is why Gem-O-Rama is held in October, most of the time the weather is nice, not too hot and not raining. Most people get to Trona by passing through Death Valley National Park or by way of Highway 395. There isn't a lot in Trona, but there are a couple of places to eat and a gas station. Nearby Ridgecrest has hotels and everything else you could desire.

When arriving in Trona the first thing you will notice is the smell. Yep, it doesn't smell pretty. The factories and Searles Lake put a noticeable odor on the air, but remember, that's the smell of minerals forming and borax and other items being created for your use. The next thing you will notice is that Trona is packed. A lot of people come to this tiny, little town for Gem-O-Rama, and each year the event is getting bigger. That's because once people come and collect crystals here, they go home and tell everyone they know what an amazing time they had. It really is great fun and a wonderful way to fill out a mineral collection or start a collection. If you have always wanted to get into rocks and start collecting them, this is the event for you. You don't have to know any special techniques, know how to identify rocks, or any of the other things that would normally be a barrier to beginning mineral collecting. Except for the Pink Halite field trip, Gem-O-Rama requires only household items, a willingness to get dirty, and a desire for crystals of your very own.

After arriving in Trona you will want to line up with the other vehicles that are going to attend the field trips. There should be people directing traffic in the parking lot of the gem and mineral show so you will know how to park. There are two groups and each group will be driving in caravan fashion over to Searles Lake where all the field trips are held. You will go in single-file to the location of each field trip and then return to line up for the next.

After registering and paying the fee to attend the field trips at the booth on the north side of the hall, you can walk around the gem and mineral show in the show hall and see if there's any goodies that you want to buy. Numerous gem, mineral, fossil, and jewelry dealers set up at the show and there's lots to see. You can also pick up a coffee at the grub portal in the show building.

The first field trip is called the Mud Piles field trip. On that field trip, participants feel through piles of salty, sticky black mud to find the crystals that grew inside. Most of these are Hanksite crystals, a relatively rare mineral that is primarily only found at Searles Lake. You may also find masses of small, needle-like crystals, called Trona.

Later that afternoon is the second field trip. This one is to Searles Lake as well, and follows the same procedure as before. Everyone lines up in the parking lot, then when it is time, they drive over to the field trip site in single-file. Something to remember is that everyone wants to get to the site as much as you do. Be prepared to leave when it is your turn to go, have your field trip registration information ready, and do not cut in line. If you cut in line, like a little kid you will get sent to the back and have to wait until everyone else has gone before you can follow, so just don't do it.

The second field trip is called the Blow Hole field trip and entails sorting through various crystals and fragments that the mineral company got out of the ground for us. The way they got the crystals out of the ground is the interesting thing. Since Hanksite, Borax, and other minerals grow fairly far below the lakebed surface without help we could never get to them. To get the crystals up so we can collect, the mineral company first drills holes to where the crystals are growing. They then set off explosives inside the holes, to blast loose the various minerals that are inside. don't worry, they do all this long before we get there. When the crystals have been broken loose they are still at the bottom of the deep holes, so the technicians feed pipes down there to blow air in, which pushes the saltwater or brine (the solution the crystals are growing in) and the crystals, up to the surface where they are sprayed all over for us to collect. They do all of this prior to us ever arriving, but save the "blowing" of one last hole so we can all watch.

That is the end of day one, Saturday. Most people take their treasures back to their campsite or hotel rooms to clean their precious minerals and get ready for the next day. Some people also visit the nearby ghost town of Ballarat, an interesting old town with several adobe buildings and a cemetary, and Trona Pinnacles, towers of calcium carbonate or tufa that loom over the surrounding area.

On Sunday morning, everyone again lines up for the third and final field trip. This field trip is out to a wetter part of Searles Dry Lake. In the field trip area there are pools of salty, red-tinted water. These are variously called salt pools, brine pools, or Halite pools, and are where people get to collect Halite, or salt crystals. This isn't just regular Halite though, in some of these pools, tinted red by microscopic algae, the Halite crystals take up the red color as they form and so are very pretty and pink. Though the colors can vary from white or palest pink to a cranberry color, all of the Halite crystals are beautiful. To collect these crystals entails some work though. Anyone, even children, can easily collect Halite samples from all over the area. The entire, dry lakebed is made of it. To get the best, colorful crystals though you have to break sections of the shoreline off from around the pools. On the underside of some shoreline shelves jutting out into the pools, the Halite crystals are growing. To get them free one must wade through pools, feeling under the water for shelves with crystals growing on them. Then, they must use a breaker bar to break off the areas with the crystals growing on them and this takes some hard work. It is worth it though, to flip over a section that you have broken off and prehaps see tons of tiny Halite crystals growing on the shelf. Anyone can collect the still pretty pieces of Halite from around the area, and if you can't do the physical labor you can still enjoy finding pretty stuff growing outside of the pools.

That's it. Though it may not sound impressive, it is one vacation your family will never forget. You may just find yourself telling everyone you know about this wonderful event you just went to and telling them they should go next year too. Hey, where else can you tell your kids to play in the mud?

For more information on Gem-O-Rama and pictures, check out Gem-O-Rama Information