Rockhounding the Rockies: Prospecting the Lake George Intrusive

The Lake George Intrusive (LGI) doesn't encompass the city of Lake George, but a 5 minute walk from the center of town will put you in the Intrusive area. The LGI is a circular area of increased mineralization about five miles in diameter. Taking a look at a high resolution visible satellite picture will help you see the rings of the LGI. While you can find crystals within the Pikes Peak Batholith, the Intrusive centers are where the action is. There are a few intrusive areas within the Batholith including the LGI, Devil's Head, Wigwam Creek and other areas around Pikes Peak including Crystal Park. This past week I went out to the LGI area and was rewarded with amazonite and smoky quartz crystals. My digging buddy (Bob) and I were eyeing an area that already had been dug but seemed like a shallow dig. We surmised amazonite and smoky quartz were found at this site due to the dump debris and downhill float. Bob decided to redig the area and I went after some quartz float. Bob noted the dig went uphill and did not follow a north-south line that most crystal bearing pegmatites follow. He decided to extend the old dig checking out the north and south corners of the old dig. Bob found some microcline and quartz fairly quickly. With a little spit-shine we ascertained the microcline was indeed amazonite. Too bad the amazonite was so faint blue instead of the deep blue green amazonite the LGI is famous for. Bob also managed to find a few smokys. I went and dug through some float and came up with a few nice smoky crystals of my own. While normally float crystals are damaged, these crystals looked pretty good. A couple days later we tried our luck again and were shut out, as mother nature decided to end our activities for the day with a thundershower.