Richardsons Rock Ranch

[Rockoteer]

Has anyone been to Richardsons Rock Ranch in Oregon, just outside Madras?  We went down thru Madras but could not find it with their directions.  Did not see the sign either.

Anyone offer any insight to my conundrum?

     TOG

[ScarlettoSara]

http://richardsonrockranch.com/

[Rockoteer]

We went down thru Madras but could not find it with their directions.

I guess what I was asking was, are the directions they give..accurate? cause if they are I just missed the turn.   

tks SOH

TOK

[catmandewe]

I missed the turn too the first time I went, had to back track.
There was still a sign there when I went last year.

Definitely a must do if you are in the area...................Tony

[Rockoteer]

I remember now that I was using my new GPS and between that and my memory (I didn't actually take the directions with me) .... well anyway that was the problem.  We are going down in June so I am definately going to find it.  I will take pics.

TOG

[Steve]

I got their address from Google search the cut and pasted into Google maps and got the location easily.  Here's the address I used:  6683 NE Haycreek Rd. Madras, Oregon 97741.

But - WOW- they had some bad reviews - mostly about being rude to visitors...............

[Rockoteer]

Steve, thanks for pointing out the reviews.  I went back and read them.  Two of the four were from the same person, and one I couldn't click on.  But still, did not sound good.  When I had looked over the site earlier today I noticed their rock was $1/pound and a 5 gallon bucket, they said, holds about 50 pds.  Fifty bucks a bucket???  I have no idea if thats high low or about right.  Of course these are 'you dig' prices.

I know there are a ton of places you can go to dig for free so I think I will pass on the triple R.

TOG

[catmandewe]

Steve, thanks for pointing out the reviews.  I went back and read them.  Two of the four were from the same person, and one I couldn't click on.  But still, did not sound good.  When I had looked over the site earlier today I noticed their rock was $1/pound and a 5 gallon bucket, they said, holds about 50 pds.  Fifty bucks a bucket???  I have no idea if thats high low or about right.  Of course these are 'you dig' prices.

I know there are a ton of places you can go to dig for free so I think I will pass on the triple R.

TOG

Depends on what you are digging for, they reopened the priday bed, (which I think they now call something else, but I can't remember what,) but that material is worth the buck a pound. It is very hard digging though, so unless you are used to getting it out or happen to show up on a day when they run the hoe in there to tear some up, you won't be leaving with much.
There is no more camping available at Richardson's due to some conflicts with some campers, which coincedently happened at about the same time as the bad review got posted. Too bad, it was convenient for lots of people to stay there and they had just built some public showers for the campers, too.

There are lots of free digs in the area. Get a rockhounding map from the Prineville chamber of commerce, it lists lots of areas that are open to digging. Some of them are claims, but the claims are owned by the Prineville Chamber of Commerce to keep them open to the public for digging. If you go to the Prineville pow-wow  and/or the Madras show the next weekend, they have daily guided rock hounding trips. One of them is usually to Richardson's and they usually take the hoe in to the priday beds for the group. If you go, be prepared to fork over a few hundred, cause you will get several buckets worth, and it is so nice it is really hard to high grade it down to a bucket or two.

Have a great day.................Tony

[Rockoteer]

Thanks Tony, sounds like I should rethink a trip.  We are going thru Madras again towards the end of June and again in July.  I think I will touch base with the Chamber and 'Go with the Hoe'.  I am definately not used to hard digging.

TOG

[catmandewe]

Last weekend in June is the Prineville Pow-wow and first weekend in July is the Madras show. I think Ralph, Maryann, Chris and I are going to the Madras show, but the plans are still not set in stone.
Good luck with whatever you do.............Tony

[woodyrock]

TOG:

If you were heading south when you got to Haycreek road it is very easy to miss if you have never been there. The sign was still there two weeks back. It can be easy to miss coming from Madras, but the Gem Trails book mileage is good.

As to the bad reviews you read, I personally would enjoy doing harm to the person that wrote those reviews, and those got the camping shutdown. The Richardsons have bent over backwards for many years allowing rockhounds on their ranch. It is a working cattle ranch. At Pow Wow time each year the Richardsons barbecued a whole steer. With the camping no more that is probably gone too. Most of the ranches in the Madras area have thunder egg beds on them, but due some stupid lawsuits by rockhounds hurting themselves in the past those ranches no longer allow rockhounding.

If you think a dollar a pound is high........price a single slab of Priday Plume. The old Priday beds are now called Pony Butte. To find one of the Priday surprise eggs you do have to cut open a few dozen, and get lucky...............but then forty years ago when this bed was still part of the Priday ranch you had to cut open a lot of eggs to find that OMG egg. The richardsons will usually get a backhoe in the beds just before Pow Wow, so you just have to pick them up, and put them in a bucket. Most of the year, it is hard rock tools and sweat to pry them loose.
Woody

[johnjsgems]

We participated in the Prineville and Madras shows one summer.  Both are great shows with lots of rock.  We went to Richardson's after Madras and had a great time but never made it to the digs.  It was 100 degrees and I went crazy buying from the multiple truck loads of rock at the shop.  I think the better thunder eggs were $2 lb. with no digging involved and $1 for the take a chance variety.  Also available at the time a nice truck load of labradorite, leopardskin, ruby in fuschite, and on and on.  This was 5-6 years ago so prices may be higher now.  Well worth checking it out even if you don't dig. 

[Rockoteer]

Tony, I think I will try to make at least one of those events.  Looks like now it would probably be the Prineville show but if you and some of the others are going to the Madras show that might be more fun.  I don't know any of you personally but there would be something in common.  I could put a name tag on that said TOG and just wander around until somebody said something.

Woody, thanks for the info.  I am glad you posted this as it changed my mind back again.  I definately am going there, just a matter of which weekend works out best.  I should know better than to take reviews with anything more than a grain of salt.  Case and point, the Best Western in Wenatchee, Wa.  had two bad reviews out of about 15 good ones.  We stayed there and it is a very nice place and everything that was said negatively about it were not true.

John, I most likely won't dig (unless I lost 100lbs and got buff,...like thats going to happen) but poking around in the bins of rocks sounds like a lot of fun also.  Where is the Idaho Rock Shop located?  I grew up in Boise Valley.

TOG

[stonesthatrock]

yes, ralph and i will be at the madras show......... its our first yr. up here.  we are going to try and stop at richardson's on the way out......
stop by and say hello............
mary ann

[Andere]

WoodyRock is correct- I was out there this past Sunday, and I believe rock prices are similar. (As in, the signs on the piles have been there for a few years!) They are quite pleasant to visitors provided you keep your pets contained and children from defoliating the peacocks. Yes, it is a cattle ranch, and yes, it's the Central Oregon business sense- Can I help you? Great. What do you want? Good, now you've been helped, please go away so I can help the next person. It can come across as snippy and short to people from the city, used to a salesperson who makes a living by it, but it's perfectly normal to the rest of us.

A good landmark for finding the road (The sign is there but weathered) is going towards Antelope from Madras, there's a flat-topped butte with a stone fence running down its side on the left-hand side of the road. Richardson's is the paved road just before and opposite it.

For anyone worried about the rather large amounts of rain recently, the beds and holes are damp at the bottom but dry enough for digging. On sunday, everything was open. They weigh all buckets on a scale and subtract the bucket weight, so it's a fair price, not an estimate. Also, trust me, there is no better place for their material. People do cheat and jump fences along the road to dig around other exposed rimrock, but even the stuff where I live, which is an extension of the same beds, doesn't hold a candle to their digs.