Rock Hounding the Rockies Indoors

While the snow is 2 feet deep in the mineral belt of Colorado, there are still plenty of mineral related things you can do in the Rockies. Today I visited a fellow rock hound who got to show us his collection.

 

 While most of the minerals he had were not found in the Rockies he lives in the Rockies, so a bit of a stretch but still rock hounding the Rockies J  Here I am with a 50 pound fluorite that my friend found over the summer. He’s pretty cagey about where he found it and I will respect his wishes suffice it to say it was found in the Pikes Peak Batholith. He’s been working on his display cabinets a couple of years and he finished them this fall and loaded them up with museum-class crystals.

There were tourmalines, rhodochrosite, wulfenite, sulfur, quartz clusters, barite and calcite to name a few. The display just about took my breath away.  I favor fluorites and so I captured a few of these for your viewing pleasure. Most of the crystals in his mini-Museum were purchased and have probably increased in value several times over the years. While most were not found in Colorado they live here now.

After leaving his house my rock hounding buddy Bob and I ruminated over the collection we had just seen. As a rock hound I primarily collect what I find and don’t have the budget to purchase anything in the cabinets I’ve just seen, still I enjoyed viewing the minerals, the hospitality of friends and the knowledge imparted during the visit.