Rockin the Rockies

Rockin the Rockies
Rock Hounding

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

A Hail of a Crystal Pocket or an Extended Weather Report


It was a rather humid day and thundershowers were expected for later in the day.  The prior days forecast mentioned thunderstorms developing over the Colorado Front Range around 3PM and the early morning forecast set back the timing of the storms to 5PM.  Storms were not expected to be severe, except for some isolated heavy rains. A few years ago the Hayman fire stripped the forest of overgrowth which makes the forest along Ute Pass susceptible to mud & rock slides onto US-24. A couple weeks ago I got trapped in the pass due to a rockslide and had to wait for the road to be cleared by front end loaders.  A couple years ago I waited nearly 3 hours for the road to be cleared of debris prior to its reopening.  As I was rock hounding at Lake George I found some interesting goethite and smoky quartz float crystals.  One very large goethite spray is surrounding some smoky quartz crystals and is an exceptional specimen in my opinion. 
3" smoky for size from pocket.  Couple smokys at bottom of goethite spray
Usually smokys in goethite are more embedded than this... I like it!
After finding this specimen near the surface I decided to dig around the area a bit further and deeper and dumbed into a pegmatite with large grained quartz about 2 feet below the surface.  I decided this peg needed further inspection and so I dug up a few feet of this pegmatite to see what way it was traveling underground and see what it might contain.  After an hour or so I started to get smoky quartz faces on some of the pegmatite pieces and then some rather large crystal fragments.  I hadn’t found a crystal point so I wasn’t sure there was much there but as soon as I hit a crease of yellowish-brown mud some quartz points appeared and a small crystal pocket opened up.  
Turned out to be very expensive smokys!
I was getting some fairly large smoky quartz shards but the complete crystals were few and far between.  For the most part the crystals were about 1” except for the one pictured above.  As I was digging out the pocket I found some small fluorite but unfortunately they were not attached to any of the pegmatite or smokys. It was 1:30PM and the sky was beginning to darken to the north.  I mentioned to my digging partner Bob that it had been thundering for nearly a half hour and if we want to get down Ute pass before it might get closed we should pack things up for the day.  I wrapped my meager lot of crystals and headed back to the truck.  One hour later. We stayed dry until we got about half-way down the pass and then the hail began to fall.  I looked for a place to pull off the road for cover but there were really no options.  I slowed my speed, put on my flashers and eventually got off the highway and waited under a willow tree for shelter.  As I left the highway another 5 vehicles followed me off the road. 
I don't care for these ice crystals too much
  I waited about 15 minutes until the hail diminished in size and the storm appeared to ease off some.  So 2” hail is definitely severe weather and it started around 3PM, but oh well I didn’t pay too much for that misguided weather forecast, or did I? I should have stuck with the prior day's weather forecast. We finally resumed going down the pass.  We spent another 30 minutes or so driving thru the hail and eventually within about 5 miles of home the hail quit and changed to rain.  Time for me to start making my own weather forecasts again I guess. National Weather Service can't seem to get it right very often.
Trying to take a little cover off the road under a tree to no avail.  Crack in windshield spreading and car getting totaled.
While my windshield held for the most part, the rest of my vehicle got turned into what looks like a very large dimpled golf ball.  My vehicle is 10 years old with 114,000 miles and I like it a lot but depending on what my insurance company says I may decide to get a new one.  The insurance claim has been filed.  The weather forecast for tomorrow is for severe weather and I’ve decided to stay home… we shall see. Sigh.  Turned out to be sunny, 75 and no rain... go figure.
Most appreciated comments
1) You know if we would have left L George 30 minutes later we probably could have avoided this
2) Oh that doesn't look too bad
3) It if gets totaled I wouldn't mind buying it from you if I can get a discount


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