Rockhounding the Rockies: Rock Hounding the San Juan Mountains #epimorphs #quartz #fluorite

Rock Hounding the San Juan Mountains (Photo Courtesy Austin Cockell)

We decided we needed a break from Colorado’s front range mountains and the Pikes Peak batholith so Austin planned a trip to the San Juans. Austin has been eager to go back to Silverton, Colorado area since his big score of last fall (see post 10/28/2019). Since I planned our spring trip to New Mexico (see post 5/8/2019), Austin took on the planning for the San Juan trip. On our way to the San Juans we stopped at the mineral show in Durango, CO. I brought a few duplicate minerals that I had, and hoped I could trade or sell for something else to add to my collection. I first tried selling some of my stuff, but nobody wanted anything for cash. All the vendors who had some interest in my material said the show was going poorly for them and they just weren’t making much money. I sometimes wonder with a dozen shows in Colorado alone how competitive it must be for the dealers. I decided maybe I could work some trades. Most of the vendors didn’t have anything I really wanted. Finally I noted a gentleman who had an interest in my material and had some fluorites that caught my eye. I did a trade and I felt satisfied in getting something for my duplicate minerals. Austin also picked up a couple items from one of his favorite dealers and off we went to Silverton.

View from the camp site

We arrived at a campsite we used last year and found the dig site nearby had been worked quite heavily over the winter. The mosquitoes were exceptionally hungry and despite Deep Woods Off we were both bitten several times before we realized the bug spray appeared to be some kind of attractive pheromone for these pests. We decided to skip this site and moved on toward Ouray, CO.

Austin knew a guy in Ouray who might be able to get us on to the Amphitheater claim. Austin’s friend said the owners of the Amphitheater mine were not allowing rock hounds on their claim but he suggested another site for us to visit. We got a map with direction to the Crystal Cavern. Well that sure sounded promising! This site is not claimed but I am loath to give directions to the site out of fear that publicity will cause this site to become picked over. After walking about a half mile we got to the Crystal Cavern and met other folks already there hard at work.

Austin wrapping crystals in the Crystal Cavern

The cavern was once filled with calcite crystals but then a secondary infusion of mineralization coated all the calcite crystals with druzy quartz. Evidently many collectors put these crystals in HCL and remove the calcite providing an eggshell of druzy quartz. The end product is a man-made epimorph. An epimorph is a type of pseudomorph where one mineral replaces another and the original mineral (calcite) dissolves leaving a hollow cast of the old mineral (calcite) surrounded by a different mineral (quartz). Not sure about homemade epimorphs but I was up for something different. You had to hack the crystals off the wall with chisel and crack hammer so there was some work involved. We enjoyed the company we found at the cavern and soon had enough crystals to make us both happy. It was great to be inside a cool cavern with temperatures outside in the 80s. We decided to camp near Ouray as Austin knew of a fluorite site that he’d had some success at when he was a geology student at Ft Lewis College.

We camped at a no fee, improvised campground near Ouray that seemed to be a small village of like-minded frugal vacationers. We were greeted by a deputy sheriff in the morning, which I believe Austin correctly assumed to be a welfare-check of sorts--making sure nobody was doing anything illegal. Sheriff was cordial enough and quickly moved on. Off to the fluorite site. Austin had found some covelite at this site when he visited a couple years earlier. I was happy with the fluorite and quartz I found in the tailings. Most of the fluorite was broken but I still got some fairly large pieces which I may either cleave into octahedrons or polish. Getting to the tailings piles of the old mine was an adventure in itself. We had to cross one stream at least 4 times.

Tailings piles contained fluorite and quartz (Austin's photo)

At one point the stream was about 6 feet across and a foot deep. I quickly realized why the hikers we had encountered were wearing water shoes. I managed okay on the trek in, but on the way out I had too many heavy rocks to make the jump and trudged through the stream with water up to my calves. The first tailings piles we hit had both fluorite and quartz. Finding intact crystals was nearly impossible, but the green color and size of the fluorite made them seem collectible in my mind. The second tailing pile was more of the same. Austin scored a covelite (copper sulfide mineral). The mineral has a very lustrous blue metallic color. We found many broken bottles, old cans and even a crucible. We took pictures and left the material for others to enjoy. On the hike out I noticed something flying off a vehicle as it zipped through a hairpin turn. I walked to the road and picked up an I-phone just before a truck rumbled by. The phone seemed intact, probably because it had a hard shell case. The owner of the phone eventually called it, so we waited for them and eventually met up with them in Silverton returning their phone. They seemed grateful and we got a hearty thank-you and hopefully some good karma (haha). We set up camp once again and decided to do some prospecting.

Water rushing under snow field

If we go back to this site I think I will have to look for a covelite. We also explored what appeared to be the miner’s dump area.

While prospecting the next day I discovered a quartz outgrowth that looked promising. After about an hour or so of slugging through the quartz I made it into a vug and started pulling out some small quartz plates. Austin came along and said he had found a more promising site and urged me to join him. About a 5 minute walk through the mosquito infested area we found another site that others had been working.

Snow avalanches contributed to this late season snowfield

There was a narrow hole that appeared to be the source of several crystal plates lining the edges of the dig. We decided to leave most of the plates where they were and try our luck in the hole. Somebody had put a lot of work into removing these crystal plates and we thought they might return, so we left them alone. Austin decided to have a go at the hole. Most of the crystals around the opening had been removed. The hole/vug continued into the ground at least 8 feet and had 6" or so of ground water at the bottom. The first 5 feet or so of the vug angled into the ground at 45 degree. Then the vug flattened out for another 5 feet. The initial opening was pretty well picked clean of crystals. This is where a tall skinny guy has the advantage.

With Austin’s 80 inch height and 42 inch reach he was able to get well into the vug where others couldn’t reach. Out came the plates, one after the next. He got a little bruised up squirming in the hole not much wider than himself. The skeeters seemed excessively hungry here so I went on bug patrol while Austin crawled into the pocket. The hole, now referred to as the Mo’Skeeters pocket, was lined with crystals that

Mo Skeeter

that were solidly intact with the sides of the vug. Austin managed to spear his elbow with a one inch crystal. He plucked that one from his skin and said it was my turn to crawl in. I told him I would give it a try but didn't plan on removing any crystals with my elbows (haha). I did the best I could and found a side chamber about 4 feet into the vug. I managed to glean a few crystal plates from that tube. By the end of the day both of us had the scars and bloody hands to prove we had gone after some difficult to get crystals.

Two different quartz habits, both needle and blocky crystal plates

We slathered on some Neosporin and looked forward to the next day. Day 2 at this site we continued our mission and managed to get a few more crystal plates.

A nice pale colored amethyst

Austin noticed that some of the crystals had amethyst in the plates so we scoured the leavings of others and found a couple broken plates with amethyst crystals on them. While surveying the site we found another hole dug out some time ago with several crystals near the bottom of that vug as well. We left that spot for someone else to burrow into. We'd had enough of the mosquitoes and had filled our crystal storage bins. So we decided to call it a day.

Next we headed down to Durango. Austin wanted to continue the journey all the way home but I was thinking Pagosa Springs at 7:30PM would be a nice place to spend the night, than traveling half the night and arriving in the Springs at 1AM. After nearly hitting a few deer and having a very close encounter with a large brown bear during our night time drive, Austin relented. We stayed in Salida prior to bringing our rock hounding trip to it’s conclusion by driving home the following day. Overall a successful, enjoyable trip with plenty of specimens to add to our collections as well as some valuable trading material.