2019 Collecting Ends On A High Note At Lake George

Big Horn Sheep off the mountains in Colorado Springs looking to bulk up before winter

I wrote most of this up some months ago and delayed posting it hoping for some new information to share, but my patience has eroded away and this is what I got for the end of 2019.  I made it in and out to our claim at Lake George but not without a couple white knuckle driving moments on this trip due to mud and ice. The following week temperatures are forecast to drop to zero Fahrenheit with several inches of snow forecast.  This would be one of the earliest endings to my field collecting season ever (early Oct!)  We shall see. I would say overall this season has been a little slow collecting-wise. I went to a few places I had never been before and had some great experiences. I went to my first Tucson show ever; found fluorite at the famous Bingham mine; got some calcite epimorphs from the Crystal Cavern near Ouray; purchased my first Sweet Home Mine rhodochrosite; and got a couple nice pockets of crystals from L George, Colorado.  See previous posts.

My last visit to my favorite collecting area this year was successful. The Lake George intrusive area of the Pikes Peak Batholith is my favorite place to collect. I had found some float below a large area that had been remediated some time ago on our claim. I figured most of the float I was finding was just pieces pushed down the hill by erosion and a bulldozer from someone’s remediation effort long ago. Bob and I loaded up the truck and hit our area one more time before the onset of winter.

Nice float a few inches under the topsoil kept me going

Normally I wouldn’t dig an area like this, but some nearly intact showy specimens just below the surface kept me going. I also noted a few smoky quartz shards in the ground and hoped for the best. As I dug, I finally found an intact pegmatite, so I knew this spot had not been dug.  I guess the area was just covered by roll down from years ago I supposed. Pulling out chunks of pegmatite I found some crystal faces with fairly good amazonite color as well as some quartz. I was not finding any really good pieces but a couple larger chunks of rock with numerous crystal faces on them got my attention. I pulled the pieces and wrapped them for further inspection and cleaning at home.  I dug up down and all around as my mentor taught me to.  You never know when something might have gotten separated from the main pegmatite. To my dismay, despite the nice formation there just wasn't much in the way of collectible crystals. I continued scratching around the area but didn't even find any more float up the hill, and was satisfied that I found the original occurrence.

Overall color is good and I may be able to fit a few pieces, but it was disappointing due to all the damage

My digging partner Bob also seemed to be onto something as well.  He had been digging quartz shards for most of the day with only an occasional crystal face but the spot he was digging looked good. Persistence once again paid off for Bob. He mentioned he checked down, up the hill, and to the right and found only quartz.  Finally he dug to the right a bit more and found a pocket of crystals. Bob hit some fairly large goethite chunks and then some smokys. 

Note fingers to right for size, I think it was about 18 inches.  The fish
and game warden said this was big enough to keep, so Bob took it home.

The smoky crystal with goethite wrapped around is fairly impressive. Near the bottom of the pocket were some pale amazonite crystals.  Though small and pale in color, I believe Bob got a couple combination pieces of amazonite/microcline with secondary minerals. Bob invited me over to his dig and said I could have any of the microcline plates I wanted.  I took a few after noting that some of the plates had mannebach twins and small fluorite.  Bob always shares.

Xenotime Y(PO₄)

After I got these specimens home I cleaned them up and found a fairly odd secondary mineral with the microcline plates.  Very small yellow dipyramidal crystals lay on top of some of the microcline.  After consultation with a few other seasoned collectors it was determined that these small yellow crystals are Xenotime ( with rare earth Yttrium). I mentioned this to Bob and I think he went back to the site to pick up the rest of the pale amazonite plates to check for Xenotime. It was a very nice way to end the season with both of us finding some collectible crystals. Winter is coming with a forecast deep freeze in a couple of days.  Next stop the Tucson Show!