When you’re hiking on Mississippi Bar, one thing you can be sure to find is plenty of rocks — in all sizes, shapes, and colors. After awhile, you’ve seen so many rocks everywhere you start to go a little bit rock-crazy; I had to stop myself from shooting every random boulder that caught my eye! I had the suspicion that no matter how fascinating they seemed at the time, later on I’d wonder why on earth I spent ten minutes obsessing over getting the perfect shot of each one … especially since I know next to nothing about rocks in the first place.

Whenever I see rocks like the three above, I can’t resist examining them for traces of gold — especially when I find them in a place like Mississippi Bar, where miners actually did find gold in 1849. Alas, I won’t be striking it rich with these specimens any time soon.

This rock may have had a hole drilled through it; now its edges have worn smooth

This cylinder-shaped rock looks like a petrified core sample

Two campfire sites; the one that has been used is on the shore of Lake Natoma:

For some reason, I’m always drawn to small round rocks like this one

Concrete and aggregate suggest this rusted metal post dates from the Teichart company era