Little Pikes Peak is near its bigger brother. I suppose someone must have mistaken it for it's namesake at some point in time. Today I hiked Elk trail to see if I could get to Pericle Rock. I was going to check out Oil Creek Tunnel and the Cincinnati mine, but it got cold and windy and so I never made it, but did do some prospecting as I hiked along. Better to be safe and turn around then get caught in sleet or thunderstorm or both. I got some nice pictures of Lil Pikes Peak. I started at 9:30 and it was 55F at the trail-head. When I got back at 1:30 it was 42F... no sun and quite windy. While I didn't find much, the area has some potential for smoky quartz and I'll probably revisit the area soon. Not sure why the road to the Pikes Peak doesn't open til 9AM, but the gatekeeper said the hours would be extended next week opening at 7:30. Evidently the key-master sleeps til 9 or so. At 9 there were about 30 cars waiting for the road to open (including me).
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| Elk trail heading out towards Pikes Peak from the northeast |
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| Little Pikes Peak |
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| Quartz dribbling down the hill, a good sign for smoky quartz prospectors |
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| Red dirt around a chunk of pegmatite. You can see some of the crystal definition |
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| Good smoky fragment, close but no cigar... or smoky for that matter |
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| Rumdoodle Ridge is between me and my quarry (Pikes Peak in background) |
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