Coweeman River
Washington
Find: Carnelian agate, petrified wood, chalcedony
GPS: 46.17156, -122.73212
Nearest city: Portland, OR
Recommended Vehicle: Any
Season: Accessible year round, it was cool and rainy when I visited in November.
Summary:
The Coweeman River is a challenge to access the water, as much of the surrounding land is private. The GPS marker takes you to a park with water access that’s owned by the county.
A kayak may prove to be handy in the Coweeman river, depending on the water levels. There seem to be quite a few large gravel bars that could be accessed if the water were deep enough. I had my best luck searching gravel bars in slightly faster moving parts of the water, where muck and algae had a harder time accumulating.
I visited in 2022 but I would love to return with a proper set of waders to explore deeper portions of the river.
Watch the video below with caution, or maybe a bowl of popcorn. It’s the first one I ever made. Swim trunks with water shoes definitely are NOT the recommended attire for being comfortable exploring out here.
Video
Check out the video for a better look at what can be found when exploring this spot.
3 Helpful Tools
Chest Waders
Chest waders (as opposed to hip waders) would be really handy for exploring the deeper portions of the river around here.
Agate Scoop
An agate scoop is helpful for both keeping dry and picking up rocks faster. You don’t need a fancy one. Mine is a golf club welded to a kitchen scoop.
Classifier
A classifier is helpful if you’re a fan of sifting through smaller stones. One with a larger, 1-inch mesh would be what I’d pick.
The water here varied in depth from a few inches to a few feet. It was slick with algae, making footing difficult.
Here's one of the beaten up carnelians you can find in the gravel beds. They seem to be a little sun-bleached.
Plenty of chalcedony in here too.
Here's my haul for the day. Looking back, I remember how much fun this day was and how nervous I was to make a video of myself exploring alone. It's amazing that certain people that can just click a button and do it.