Specimens of calcite, agate, quartz, topaz, diamond, gold, and more can be found in the mountains and mining prospects surrounding Fort Collins. It also holds a special place in my heart as I grew up spending summers in Crested Butte. The area is known as the best amazonite hunting ground in the world. Gold prospectors and sightseers alike scavenged the hills around Lake George and Crystal Peak looking for crystal souvenirs. While the internet is a fantastic resource to access information on rockhounding Colorado and network with fellow enthusiasts, its hard to beat the convenience, reliability, and knowledge associated with an in-depth guidebook. Once youve collected some rocks and minerals, its time to clean them up. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Much additional geological information was collected from eld observations made during the 1997 work. Rockhounding - Greenlee Arizona Tourism The Tree Root Pocket made its debut at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show in September, 1997 to an excited audience. This area requires a little bit more knowledge of geology than most, but if youre willing to learn its an incredible spot for the hunt. The pegmatite plunged into the hill at a dip of 25 degrees to a depth of 2 meters below surface. For the adventurous, hiking the mountains of Colorado with a gold pan can incite a nostalgia of the old days and maybe turn up some specimens. Careful pocket documentation and repair work will yield higher percentages of ne specimens than ever before. 4) Not really a good place for fossils or gemstones (there's not much to be found), but do check out Garden of the Gods. The Black Rock Range geode mine is also a great place for rockhounding. Pit C gave up the best prize of the year. The following article provides some basic information on safety, rockhounding tools, collecting and our responsibilities towards the environment. Crystals of Arkansas Rockhounding USA US Join us as we travel across the USA in search of rocks, minerals, fossils, and Native American artefacts. The constant water ow helped destabilize and break down many of the amazonite crystals. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "false"; I'm new to the site. It is along the edges of these intrusions where some of the better specimens can be found. Its just more convenient for the most part. The broken root (left center) was followed directly into the pocket. Amazonite is a blue-green formation of microcline, with some of the higher-quality samples being used in jewelry. Theres still gold in them hills! Despite early miners flocking to Colorado by the tens of thousands and pulling nearly their weight out in gold, they didnt get it all. The rst groups were heavily damaged but within a couple of hours, two very nice groups were pulled out. Though effort continued beyond 1997, only the first two years are summarized here. No signicant smoky quartz associations were recorded from that period. The pocket produced two other associations of note. The ownership and status of land can and does change frequently, making it impossible to document accurate information on this page. Just finding out where you can legally grab some stones can be a headache for the budding rockhound. The joints are almost undetectable and care must be taken that the working face does not peel away when one is near. "A Fruitful Field for the Specimen. The pocket was packed with clay and contained only amazonite, no smoky quartz. If it is a large pocket, thousands of quartz shards spill out mixed with some microcline fragments. In the eld, every piece removed from the pocket was carefully grouped and marked according to pocket location. Amazonite during this time was still an oddity and was often discarded on the dumps. The pegmatites generally lie horizontally. (Find Of a Lifetime! It was found just north of Florissant, near Crystal Peak, which you see mentioned frequently on this site. There is little or no movement along them. The Two Point Mine lies in the northeastern portion of the Lake George intrusive center, which in turn lies on the western ank of the Pikes Peak Batholith. . For the Tree Root Pocket collectors, this was a one-in-a-million eld collecting experience. Again, no material was found. I enjoy collecting and tumbling rocks with my daughter and traveling the world with my wife seeing geologic wonders. The later ts into the more classic model of pegmatite formation through magmatic differentiation during the late stages of cooling. Local mining prospects, stream beds, pegmatite veins provide a vast array of minerals for collectors including lapis lazuli, garnets, marble, tourmaline, and even some gold and copper. These are mostly comprised of old mining prospects, streams, and historically known rock and mineral collecting sites. Once theyre clean, you can put them on display or add them to your rock collection! Nearly 1,000 feet of the Tunnel Spring Tuff is visible many miles away as its startling white color varies from that of the surrounding landscape. Garnet Hill In any case, it was originally discovered in Brazil, hence the name. After a few field trips with seasoned explorers, you will discover how to recognize crystal- and gem-bearing rocks, as well as learn about local geology and topography. Typically these cavities are small, rarely getting more than a foot or so in size, forming in the inner portions of the pegmatite where the volatile portion of the magma has been trapped. On approximately 250 million acres of public lands, visitors enjoy countless types of outdoor adventure - participating in activities as widely varied as camping, hunting, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, boating, whitewater rafting, hang gliding, off-highway vehicle driving, mountain biking, birding and wildlife . The Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society is proud to be part of the Pikes Peak Gem, Mineral, and Jewelry Show. In the past, because most amazonite pockets are collapsed and the crystal groups disassembled, few amazonite and smoky quartz groups survived. The Crystal Peak Mine is a surface and underground mining operation. These were looked at during the 1998 mining season but are not reviewed in this article. Follow posted signage and always get permission from the landowner to collect. Atero, Chafee county The Turret Mining District Golden Gate Canyon Devil's Head Wolf Creek Pass Pike's Peak The Bachelor-Syracuse Mine The Old Hundred Gold Mine Loosely defined, a gem is a mineral that has been cut and polished to make jewelry or other sorts of adornments. Many of the pieces consist of groups containing amazonite, quartz and (sometimes) white albite. Allanite, Astrophyllite, Epidote, Garnets, Hyalite Opal, Hornblende, Magnetite, Sphene, etc. amzn_assoc_region = "US"; Amazing smoky quartz, topaz and Amazonite have come from there. There are are many areas which are known to contain petrified dinosaur bones and gastroliths, as well as opalized wood and agate. Rhodocrosite, on rare occasions, forms pink gemstones with high clarity. Its also found on the slopes of mountain gem fields, such as those on Mount Antero. Pit B was also revisited and it too was drilled and shot extensively. The granite is of a finer grain, containing crystals of quartz, feldspar, and mica less than 0.6 cm. If youre interested in getting started with rockhounding, all you need is a good pair of hiking boots, a backpack, and a few basic tools. The Tree Root Pocket contained possibly the highest number of ne amazonite and smoky quartz groups ever documented from the Lake George region from a single pocket. Location of major amazonite discoveries in the Two Point Mine region. The state gemstone of the wonderful state of Colorado, this brilliant clear blue crystal can often take a bit of an adventure to find. Crystal Peak is a Class 2 hike in the Tenmile Range SW of Breckenridge, CO. Located at the mountainside in the Pike National Forest, Colorado, is Devil's Head, famous for rockhounding. Brilliant, gem-quality Rhodochrosite is one of Colorados most valuable minerals. The microcline color varies from pink to light green to medium green to light blue green to dark blue green, the latter being the best and most desirable color. The adventurous rock hound wanting to venture further in search of lovely stones and crystals should go to www.peaktopeak.com/colorado/index.php3, an excellent Web site where you can access locations and availability for any mineral. State Mineral. The specimens are finally finished; a table reveals the treasures of the Tree Root Pocket. The minerals are often encased in cavities and pegmatites in the granite, so a rock pick and a hammer should be in your pack. The former would suggest the pegmatites postdate the magma cooling event. Almost anywhere you turn in Colorado there will be something worth finding because collectible rocks and minerals are well distributed throughout the entire state. One of these pegmatites opened into a high-quality amazonite pocket and produced about 30 nice amazonite and quartz groups ranging in size from 6 cm up to 14 cm. Much of the digging for specimens over the years has been done by weekend prospectors with rock hammer, pick and shovel, searching for the elusive crystals on the surface and then digging shallow holes following a promising lead. W of Gold Camp Rd & High Drive, Below road of Eureka Tunnel, W side of stream, Colorado River valley & side canyons W of Grand Junction, Willow Creek, many mines (mostly private now, get permission), Rockhounding on Public Land: Laws and Regulations, Can You Collect Rocks in State Parks? The pocket opening was about 50 cm in diameter, 10 cm high and produced about 50 single crystals. Four or ve of these faults will group in parallel forming a fault system having a total width of 3 meters. However, because of the terrain and vegetation, these marked claim boundaries are sometimes difficult to see. Turns out Mother Nature made, and buried, some really impressive display pieces in the area! Strict environmental standards require careful and complete surface reclamation. If the pegmatite was very strong, i.e. By law, these claims must be adequately marked. Somewhere in your bag of rocks and equipment, be sure to have a proper print guide along with you. amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; You see a small fossil, a shiny stone or a glimmering crystal and, naturally, you pick it up. The area also has an interesting history. Once a discarded byproduct by an early silver mine, it has now become highly sought after. After some cleaning, the deep blue-green color of the amazonite begins to stand out. Colorado is also host to a dizzying array of rocks and minerals. Photo by Bernie Kowalski. Native Americans collected crystals from the site for millennia before the first recorded visit to the area by pioneer wagon trains in 1845. Photo by C. Baldwin. Teller Co., Colo. Collection of the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum. The amazonite color was incredible! Within a pegmatite structure, there may be several places along its length where it widens into lenses. Is Iron out ok to use? Find a rockhounding site near you easitly by using this map. Be safe, never go underground, and make sure to get permission from the landowner to search for and collect specimens. There is a huge variety of rare minerals and gems in Colorado. Crystal Park Colorado Rockhounding - COLOR WYT The last time I had gone on a true mineral-hunting "vacation" was way back in 2005, when I went to Bancroft, Ontario, the mineral-collecting . This is a full-blown adventure, which is great but it also means a lot of planning on your end. on a small mining claim in Teller County, Colorado, approximately 65 km west of Colorado Springs, Colorado near Lake George. Crystal Peak area. Within a week, the pocket had opened up to 2 meters wide and about 1.7 meters deep. Care should be taken to respect private property and the claims within the national forest. Further work on the Two Point Mine evaluated other potential intersection sites. They may however, dip wildly within the horizontal trend. State Symbols. crystal peak colorado rockhounding. Sometimes it can be hard to remove limb casts from the ground by hand, even when theyre partially exposed. Artem Savidov/Google. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Some of the groups and families that own these allow rockhound clubs onto the property, but there are no guarantees. Public Dig Sites Across Colorado - Finding Gold in Colorado Colorado Prospector - Gem and mineral prospecting and mining forums
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