Fall Colors in the Rockies and Goethite with Smokys

Fall in the Rockies near Lake George CO

I've looked for advertisements on-line for goethite and there doesn't seem to be much of a market for it.  I guess that's because it would be tough to incorporate in jewelry.  However, the mineral collector should still seek it out.  I think goethite is somewhat under appreciated.  Goethite was named after a German who first named it.  Some folks like to pronounce it like gerthite.  I guess that is due to the German background.  Evidently there must have been finds of goethite in Germany at some point.  I dug where I had found crystals before and was pretty sure I would find more today. The results of my dig are pictured below.

Off to rockhound and take some fall pictures.

Somewhat unusual goethite balls perched on smoky quartz. 

Goethite crystals are displayed here as needle sprays

Not sure what is coating this plate, maybe goethite in another form.

Rockhounding Streams in Colorado

Every once and awhile Colorado Springs gets a good rain that churns up the creek.  There is no telling what you'll find after a flooding event.  Normally the rocks get moved around, new stream channels are cut and sandbars appear where there was a stream before.  I've found everything from smoky quartz, petrified wood, fossilized bones, agate and jasper.  Most pieces require some hunting, but they are there for the taking.  The other day I noted 4 other people combing Fountain creek before I got there.  While I only found a couple pieces of petrified wood I did find some nice smoothed smokys.  I probably won't try this again til spring.

Fountain Creek Really Got Churned Up After a 4+ Inch Rain

Smoothed Smoky Found On A Sandbar

Can You See the Smoky?  Pick it Up!

Now that's the color of amazonite!

Amazonite comes in different colors of blue-green.  Some light blue, others very green.  The amazonite I found this past week although somewhat small is near the optimal color of blue/green. 

We went up to Lake George again, famous for its smoky quartz and amazonite.  After doing some initial prospecting I came across some amazonite on the surface kicked up by a fallen tree. As I searched for the originating pegmatite I kept running into amazonite float.  While the amazonite was dinged up some, the color is spectacular for amazonite.

The pictures that follow show me working the amazonite dig.  Eventually I did find the source of the amazonite and am probably going to work that area a few more days.  There were some smoky quartz crystals with the amazonite, but they were of very poor quality.

After finding quartz float I begin to aggressively prospect

I've excavated a trench following amazonite float and am working uphill.

First nice size amazonite on the edge of the pegmatite

Some sidewall amazonite.... no pocket yet.

Cleaning the float amazonite

Extraordinary Arrowhead

Once and awhile you find something that's really exciting.  This arrowhead was found near Florrisant Colorado on private property.  I had been given permission to prospect the area and found a little quartz, but no collectible crystals. I found no other artifacts and concluded that the arrowhead was lost during a hunting expedition.  I can find no evidence on-line of similar quartz arrowheads from Colorado.  Sometimes it's amazing what you can find when prospecting.

Rockhounding for Smokys at Lake George

Ray Berry, 81 years young, owns the mineral rights
to about 30 acres northeast of Lake George CO. 
Ray lets local clubs dig on his claims from time to time. Here you can see the Master crystal hunter at work.  Ray has been hunting crystals for over 50 years!

My digging friend and I arranged to permit the
Colorado Springs Mineral Society's crystal club to
dig on Ray's claim this past Saturday. Everyone found something to take home from the trip.  Some even found crystals.  Most just took home aches and pains, sunburn and the formation of new friendships.  We did find two pockets of crystals.  One pocket (5ft down) yielded about 30 crystals; however, none were more than 3 inches long.  Another pocket consisted of microcline and smokys.  None of my finds exceeded 2 inches in length. The pocket I found was mostly broken crystals with microcline, but at least we had something to show for our efforts.


While Ray retains the rights to any spectacular
(museum quality finds) he let us keep everything
we found.  Here we all are at days end sharing our stories of how the big crystal got away and examining our finds. 

Lake Geoge Rock Hounding

Another beautiful day at Lake George, although a bit warm.  84F is not so hot at sea level, but at thinner air and sitting in the sun it got quite warm.  The heat didn't bother me much after I started finding crystals.  I went back to Lake George again and worked a spot that I had dug previously.  It was too warm for prospecting, so I just set myself down in an area that looked to have promise. 

 You can see some of the tools of the trade here.  I am working a seam of peg just below a burned tree. My digging buddy is working up the hill from me in the upper left of the picture.

 Here are bits of the pegmatite dug out.  I'm looking for pocket where groupings of crystals can be collected.  I noticed on the peg I dug out that there was some amazonite and smoky quartz.  However I also noted there was some damage to the crystals, probably due to pocket collapse and shifting of the earth over the last few millions of years.

Here is a picture of a pocket located along a seam of enhanced minerals within the pegmatite.  You can see some microcline and smoky quartz.  I managed to get this out mostly intact.


Some specimens, soaked in water overnight.

Smokin!

Scientific Method & Rockhounding at Lake George CO

We all use the scientific method from time to time, usually not even realizing it.  I decided to more formalize my rock hounding using the scientific method.  There are 6 parts to the scientific method, (1)a question, (2)background research, (3)a hypothesis, (4)testing the hypothesis, (5)analyzing and drawing a conclusion, (6)communicating your results.  I will update this posting from time to time.

(1) QUESTION: What's the best approach to finding crystals in the Lake George Intrusive area?  There are several parameters/restrictions involved including things like areas privately owned and claimed, what is the best elevation, where have people had success in the past, are more remote areas more likely to be less picked over, how does erosion play a role in crystal discovery.

(2) BACKGROUND RESEARCH: My background research will be a culmination of my experiences in the last 2 years of rock hounding combined with rules of thumb and questions I've gleaned from old-time prospectors.  The Lake George Intrusive area includes parts of sections: 33, 34, 35, 1,  2, 3, 4, 8, 9,11,12,14,15,16,17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27 in Park and Teller counties. I will not include crystal finds for areas I have not prospected. This would include private claims and private property which are well documented for finds, but unavailable for prospecting.  I will include some finds on private claims for which I received permission to prospect. I will construct a database that will include section #, elevation, whether or not it is in the Hayman burn and how steep/incline the site is. I will also include a notation as to the remoteness of the site, as well as what was found and its quality (somewhat subjective discriminators). This database will be a close hold item as I don't want to reveal the specific sites of my finds!

HYPOTHESIS: Steep areas in the Lake George Intrusive area that were extensively burned by the Hayman fire within +/-500ft of 8500ft in elevation that are at least 1/4mile from any road should have the best prospects.  This hypothesis is based on experience.  While I have found crystals within 20ft of a road it seems most crystals are found off the beaten path.  I must now begin construction of a database to review my finds and prove or massage my hypothesis to better fit the data.  Testing of the hypothesis went hand in hand with its construction.

ANALYZE DATA AND DRAW CONCLUSIONS: