My buddy @brian.rrr told me he wanted to get out and do some rockhounding so I recommended we go checkout Cascade Canyon near the town of Mt. Baldy. I've done some rockhounding in the area before, but this time I wanted to explore the upper reaches of the canyon in search of Corundum Rubies and Lapis Lazuli. We started at the parking area on Barrett-Stoddard road and hiked up the road and through the small community of small rustic cabins in Barrett canyon and then continued up the road to where it intersected with Cascade canyon. We started making our way up the canyon, but the hiking was slow because the narrow canyon was full of obstacles. Rocks, cliffs, down logs and branches, spikey blackberry vines... it was brutal. But we made it quite a ways up the canyon exploring a few spots here and there, but not finding much.

The cabins in Barrett canyon

Hiking up Cascade canyon

Brian checking a rock outcrop

Views from Cascade canyon

Brian checking another location

Exploring Cascade canyon

Unfortunately we never found any of the Lapis Lazuli, but we did end up finding an outcrop with some Corundum Rubies! The rubies are stuck in a matrix which means they are solidly fastened into the host rock and can be quite difficult to chip out without damaging the gemstone. We spent some time chipping away at the rocks removing some rubies, but eventually we started running out of sunlight so we both tossed some specimens in our packs to work on back at home, and then headed back down the trail.