 |
| Courtesy Cog Railway top of Pikes Peak, CO |
We found a fairly productive crystal area on a claim out at
Lake George, CO which has been producing smoky quartz crystals, twinned
microclines and an occasional faint colored amazonite. I had found one pocket
of crystals at this site and my prospecting partner had also found some
collectible material. Digging uphill we were finding small plates of microcline
and smokys as well as some single crystals.
While most of the crystals were on the small side there were some interesting
Carlsbad twinned microcline.
 |
| Microcline var. Carlsbad with perthite |
 |
| Microcline var. Carlsbad twinning with perthite |
A former officer of our club (CSMS) had moved to
WY and wanted to trade some jade and opal for an outing to L. George. Since Bob and I have known this WY cowboy for
some time we agreed to take him along with no guarantees of finding
anything. The area we had recently
located has several small pegmatites running very close to the surface which
makes digging easy and finding crystals fairly likely. We wanted to show our WY guest a good time so
we took him to the area where we guessed we’d be able to find something
collectible.
The first day was wet and we had to quit early, though we
did find some float crystals the quality, amount and size were unmemorable. The
weather was definitely not cooperating but we had another day to demonstrate
our skills. We went back to the same spot and after prospecting and digging
around for a few hours I found a spot with a small microcline crystal on the
surface and several fine grained granite rocks (pegmatite) poking out of the
ground nearby. I suggested to the WY cowboy
that we dig there. While he found some float smokys I hit a pocket just as thunder
started to rumble. Watching the skies to the west and trying figure out how
much time we had before the storm hit, I carefully extracted crystals from the
pocket. While the lightning was getting closer I decided to let Bob my digging
partner finish up the pocket while I packed what we had and prepared to
scramble down the mountain. Normally it takes about 30 minutes to get back to
our parking area but this day it probably only took 20 minutes. Just as we were
reaching the vehicles the hail started to pour down. Hail in the mountains is
often small but still intense. I was glad to be off the mountain and dry in my
truck. The WY cowboy took home some nice crystals albeit mostly small and Bob
and I made our way through the storm home while the WY cowboy went to NM to pick grapes.
Our third outing to the site at L. George promised early rain
again but we still went out, returning to the same area and continuing our digs.
Bob found a small pocket near the top of the hill and I continued working on
the pegmatite I had discovered with the WY cowboy. Quartz crystals and
microcline were shed from the top of the pegmatite and while I didn’t find
another pocket I did dig up several smoky quartz crystals and a few half-dollar
sized microclines some with Carlsbad twinning.
I’ve noted before that when an area produces something unique it often
repeats that unique crystal abnormality whether it be twinning, quartz hooding,
scepters or other abnormal crystal habit throughout the pocket or pegmatite;
this area seems to have a predilection to produce Carlsbad twins.
 |
| Carlsbad twinned Microcline with a spot of Cleavelandite near the base |
Thunder began
even earlier than our last outing. We were once again at the top of a hill with
another thunderstorm moving in. This
time I decided we would leave at the first sprinkle which pushed us off the
mountain at 1PM. No running down the
mountain this time. We got back to the
truck, stopped off at a nearby coffee house and treated ourselves to an apple
fritter and large coffee. I highly recommend the Donut Mill in Woodland Park,
CO. The temperature outside had dipped to 47F as Pikes Peak got covered in a
late summer snow.
My camera is broken, but I hope to get a new one soon and
post a few pictures of the crystals we found. For the WY cowboy (Al) check your microcline for purple fluorite. I found
a couple of microcline crystals with rice-sized fluorites near their base in my hoard.
 |
| Some crystals from the last few outings, note microcline twins and smokys |
.
No comments:
Post a Comment