About 80 miles south of Alpine is Terlingua, a ghost mining town near Mexican border and it was founded when mercury deposits were discovered. Few miles away is a Needle Peak which is a dark hills that seem to stand out in front of the massive Cretaceous Limestone Escarpment. Several different types of agates have been around the Needlepeak such as green moss, yellow moss, clear to frosty-banded agates (sometimes Iris) and well-known Pom Pom agates. The Pom Pom Agate refers to the yellow fan-like calcite inclusions in the agates and they had been mentioned in several magazines. Various marine fossils, petrified wood, banded calcite have been found there also.
  The agates are generally clear to white often with yellow and green moss-like inclusions and quite few came with yellow colors. They are found in the washes coming down from the Needlepeak hills and as well as dark-green nodules that can be extracted from reddish basalt outcrops exposed by the washes. Moss agates are the most widely encountered. I had an opportunity to visit both sides of the Needlepeak. The East part is mainly an alluvial deposit and stuff are found in the washes while the ravines of the west have exposed agate-bearing red & green basalt beds.
  The most challenging task is to find the locally legendary Agate-encrusted Aragonite Psuedomorph crystals which very few specimens had been found (one is in Smithsonite and two at Woodward House). They are so difficult to find that one guy told me that he been searching for such one for 20 years and I happened to find one sticking out of the wash wall! :)

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Gallery of pictures taken at the Needle Peak area (April 2012)

NeedlePeak	Close-up of Needle Peak	Yellow Moss Agate scattered all over	Green Moss Agate
Greenish-Red basalt bearing nodules	Pom Pom calcite	Agate sticking out	Ooh, a nice find!

 
Rough Appearance: Usually coated with dark pine-green skin with bit of clear agate showing through.
Often rimmed with white calcite bands.