Prospecting the Pikes Peak Batholith

My digging partner Bob and I returned to an area we had not dug in 4 or 5 years.  I was a bit surprised at how quickly nature had reclaimed our old digs.  We normally don’t dig more than 2-3 feet down and then collapse the walls around the dig when finished, it was much more difficult to find the old spots than I would have guessed. Many old burned out trees had also fallen down since we had last been there also better disguising the terrain. I searched for an old favorite area for a while but finally gave up and decided I better just go ahead and do some prospecting.  I figured I was close to the area and put my nose to the ground looking for quartz.  I found a few pieces of white quartz on the surface of the ground which heightened my prospecting senses and I started looking real closely at the ground.  Within a few minutes I was rewarded with a very gemmy double terminated 3” smoky quartz crystal. I began digging up the hill with my pick axe hoping for more and I was rewarded with chunks of pegmatite that suggested something better up the hill.

3" Exceptionally gemmy crystal

I reached the source of the pegmatite and began digging down through the soil along the peg.  I was about 1 foot down in soil along the pegmatite when I began hitting scree mixed with quartz shards. An area of greyish white clay got my attention as the quartz shards appeared to be concentrated in this area.  Soon the quartz shards got bigger and I pulled out a few small quartz crystals.  The quartz crystals were all small and had broken off their host matrix. I found one fairly etched microcline and assumed their must also be fluorite in the area as well.  Volatile liquids in a miarolitic cavity will often etch microcline if they contain fluorine prior to the liquids cooling and fluorites forming. Sure enough a few minutes later I found a larger chunky fluorite.  I probably would have tossed it as junk if I hadn’t noticed the etched microcline and kept my eye out for possible fluorites. The fluorites I found were not well formed, etched and near the top of the pegmatite (junk). Pocket #1.  The pegmatite was running across the hill in an east to west orientation. I worked the pegmatite to the east as there was more quartz associated with the peg in that direction. About 2 feet down along the pegmatite the scree began to turn a more yellowish color and once again I hit a small pocket of crystals.  After working about half an hour and not finding much I decided to use my pick axe to take out some of the pegmatite. I pulled down just one chunk of pegmatite and smoky quartz crystals tumbled out from above the 2nd pocket of the day.

Pockets #1 and #2 with #1 rinsed off a bit

Another fluorite came out near the surface and the pegmatite continued to run. I reasoned there was obviously another pocket in the pegmatite so I carefully picked the peg apart with a bent screwdriver. Soon crystals were tumbling out of the topsoil and above the peg as the clay within the peg took on a dark reddish color. Pocket #3!  This pegmatite seemed to be winding down and I could hear Bob’s pick axe clinking in the distance but I couldn’t see him. We usually rockhound til 3PM or so, but this day the thunderstorms had popped up early and the sky was beginning to darken with a lot of lightning crackling to our southwest.  I called my digging partner on our radios and mentioned I would be packing up and heading back to the truck due to the threatening weather. I had also used up a lot of my drinking water cleaning up the fluorites I had

Pocket #3 (Biggest crystal at top is broken of course)

found only to learn they were pretty crappy. We met back at the truck about 20 minutes later just as the skies began to open up. Bob showed me a 12” smoky he had found which put my meager finds to shame but we both had a good time digging crystals before Mother Nature shut us down.

Day 2 we went back to the aforementioned area and worked Bob’s pocket. The pocket was very elongated and was about 3 feet down.  The overlaying pegmatite was quite strong but once through the quartz layer we hit shards of quartz crystals with an occasional euhedral keeper and very intermittent amazonite.  The quartz crystals had size but may not be very gemmy. 

Note amazonite cleaned a bit in lower right

The amazonite crystals were of good color and it sure would have been nice to dig out a few more of those or some combos but Bob and I always have a good time when we dig a pocket together. We kept carefully digging out what appeared to be large smokies in the pocket only to be fooled by 3 or 4 sided shards or blunted terminations. Bob did get a couple 5” crystals so that alone made the dig worth it. The amazonite seemed odd in that it was not in a pocket, but just seemed to have been occasionally formed from the ceiling of the pocket.  There were a few well-formed amazonites, but no groupings.  We finished up this pocket and suspect there may be more pockets in the area but only time and some prospecting will tell  

Looks done to me..... NEXT!

A couple more pics of the crystals.

Looks like the butt of a big one!

Well formed 5" Smoky Quartz

This is an ugly fellow, I'd say close to a 13" smoky. I think much of the secondary quartz will flake off with some abrasive cleaning. Not a museum piece though :-(

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