Henderson Flat Jasper

Central Oregon is an area of great abundance and variety when it comes to rockhounding. On recent trip in the area, we had some time to spare so we followed a lead for lily pad jasper. The material was said to be the same as the main lily pad jasper location, which was slightly underwhelming so we didn’t have high expectations for this spot.

Henderson Flat is part of the Crooked River National Grassland, and is about 40 minutes from Bend and from Prineville. We didn’t know anything about this particular area, but turned out it’s an OHV area. As we walked toward the lily pad jasper location that we were seeking we noticed other, colorful jasper littering the ground. The colors were varying shades of red, purple and brown and the pieces ranged from quarter sized to medium boulders, with plenty of fist sized pieces. Some pieces had some fracturing making it not ideal for cutting and working, but a lot of it was very solid and would make for nice slabs. The jasper was all over the surface of the ground, and we didn’t do any digging.

We didn’t explore the area very much, so there could be and probably are other interesting rocks around nearby. We also found some agatized wood mixed in with the jasper. The best time to explore this area would be a weekday morning because it’s a popular ORV area. The area where we collected was off the ORV trail, but dirt bikes zipping around near you would not make for nice rockhounding conditions.

The area is closed December through March. There is an abundance of great disbursed camping in the area and lots of unexplored area with unknown rocks to be found!

See the location listing for more photos and information.