Staurolites near Taos NM

The Vehicle we really needed for this trip!

                  We went to Taos for a weekend getaway and do some rockhounding.  Our local club in Colorado Springs was going to look for staurolites near Pilar NM, so we went along.  The road was quite rough and muddy.  We joked about broken oil pans and engine lights on, but despite a few scrapes on our skid plates the trip went well.  We drove on a forest road for about 2.5 miles. We located schist outcrops and the hunting for staurolites began.  We all found something (Staurolites and Garnets).  The picture above of a vehicle just outside of Taos would have been nice to have, though maybe too wide for the narrow road. Staurolites crystals are famous for their twinning properties. However not all are twins. They are a silicates made of Fe,Al, Mg and SiO

Schist outcrop upper right

Schist plate with small garnets and staurolites

Here is a staurolite crystal in matrix (schist)

This staurolite weathered out of the schist and is ready to clean and be made into perhaps a pendant.

End of Day Group Hug... Yes the sun finally came out!

Goethite at Lake George

While not as exciting or difficult as removing smokys in the previous post. The hike to where I found the goethite with smokys was rather arduous.  I hiked into an area of the Lake George Intrusive that I've prospected before.  Bob (my rock hounding buddy) and I have prospected this area several times, often with success.  I dug into an area of quartz and was about to give up digging when I noted the color of the dirt changed from brown to yellow (a good sign).  I immediately hit groupings of goethite and quartz.  The quartz was infused with goethite to give some crystals brown and others a purple color (amethyst).  In the past the mineral combination was called onegite, which is easier to say than quartz infused with goethite sprays...
Below are some pictures of my finds.  Bob was gracious enough to assist in taking zoom-in pictures of parts of the onegite (see last picture).

Onegite specimens

Goethite and quartz (onegite)

Nice display piece with goethite spray at bottom with quartz

Onegite scepter magnified 40X

Smokys at Lake George

April ended well, with the biggest pocket of smokys I've ever worked on.  The excavation was about 5 feet deep and measured about 10 feet across. While the collapsed pocket was not nearly this big (1ft deep by about 3ft across), the excavation was required to ensure crystals were taken out without damage. Many of the smokys exceeded 4 inches and length.  Below is a photo record of the find. My partner Bob made the discovery in an area we have been prospecting for about a year.  We shall return!

Pocket is opening up with smoky quartz appearing

Smoky Quartz crystals are now popping up as we dig further down

Careful extraction is key to preserving 1 billion yr old crystals

Some crystals nearly cleaned up for display

Bob ensuring all crystals are removed from pocket

Crystal grouping preserved in mud

Finished product one of several 5 inch crystals

Lake George smoky quartz fluorite amazonite and more!

Pikes Peak: The morning started out a little foggy, but cleared up quickly

We arrived at Lake George CO in Park County around 9AM.  It was a chilly start, but warmed up quickly.

We went to a claim where we have permission to prospect and spent the better part of the day poking around for crystals.  By around 2pm Al, found a nice pocket and we helped him clean it out.  Al is new to crystal hunting, and we tried to give him some pointers, but he is mainly looking for quartz to cut for jewelry.  Seemed a shame to cut some of these up, but they are his to do with as he pleases.

Al and Bob posing for pictures with a 4 inch smoky

Here you can see one of the smokys pulled from the pocket.  We had found some pockets here before and figured it would be a good spot for Al to potentially find something.  The following pictures show a picture of the pocket and a pile of crystals.  I wouldn't recommend stacking crystals like this, but Al will be cutting most of them up anyway (pity).  I would say he found a few nice plates (up to 6 inches across)  a few small fluorites (purple) I believe which were less than an inch, and over 100 smoky crystals ranging in size from .5 to 5 inches.  We have dubbed this the "Good Friday" pocket.  Quite a nice find for a newbee rock hound!

Crystals popping up

Pocket just about cleaned out

The crystal Booty!  (Biggest crystal here is 4 inches)  About half the haul

Bob double checking pocket to ensure it is really clean out.

Smokys ready to pluck from the "Good Friday" pocket

"Good Friday" Smokys cleaned up a little

Rockhounding with my nephew Matt

Mathew was on spring break and his parents wanted him out of the house and away from video games so Mathew got to spend a day with his uncle.  We arrived at Lake George CO around 10am and first did some 4-wheeling.  Then we hiked to one of my old digs to make sure we found something for Matt to take home.  I did some digging in a mineral dump and opened up the pegmatite (rock bearing crystal) to see what I could find.  I tried to give Matt some nice specimens but he only wanted to take stuff home that he found.  I don't think he realized he was digging through one of my old digs, but he did find some things which he believed he discovered and was happy to take home.  After about an hour he was bored so we hiked out, did some more 4-wheel driving and headed home.

Pale Amazonite with smoky quartz

Matt is ready to go prospecting at Lake George

Fresh out of the ground crystal group

A view looking down into the pegmatite and diurite

Looks like boredom is setting in, time to go 4-wheeling

Snow near Colorado Springs anyone for ice crystals?

Deer are coping okay with the snow so far

Snow drifts over 6 feet here!

Petrified wood and Tumbling

Refer back to 03/04/2011 "An adventure to the Denver Basin looking for petrified wood."  In the winter I clean, examine and tumble specimens found over the warmer months. I finally got around to tumbling some of the petrified wood I collected last March and if I may say so I think they look pretty good.  My friend helped me build a tumbler for about $50 (Bearings, used motor,scrap wood and belts).  While I've read some people use old paint cans and other barrels to use as tumbling barrels, I decided to buy a rubber barrel (another $50). No sense in doing all the work of collecting, storing and polishing only to have a crummy barrel mess everything up.  Anyway here is a picture of some wood that went through 4 of the 5 tumbling stages.  A burnishing step with soap flakes is described as a finishing step, but I'm not sure I need to.  Stones look fine as they are.

Red, Yellow, Black and White all good looking stones