Smoky Quartz trip in Lake George, Colorado

Several weekends ago, rockroller and I joined a club from Denver (he re-upped his membership and I joined as a new member) so we could meet them at their annual picnic, which was on old club claims, that have been in the club since the 1950's.

These particular claims are bordered by claims of 2 of the "Prospectors" TV show folks, and are known for topaz, but mostly for the Smoky Quartz, Amazonite, and Fluorite.

Roland and I left later on Friday evening, and arrived on the claim well after dark. We saw other folks' camps set up, so we tried to very quietly find a spot to park and set up camp.

We picked a place and did our best to set up in the dark, and were in bed around 12:30.

The next morning we slept in a little until the noises from others' made it clear folks were up and around.

Roland set up his Jet Boil and made some really great Starbucks instant coffee. It was perfect. A club member sauntered over to see who we were, and once we explained we'd met some officers earlier and had submitted our membership paperwork, he became very chatty and told us all about the history of the club and the claims, and described the claim jumping that happened all the time, and how some folks were putting up claim markers right over the existing club claims, not knowing how to check with the proper authorities on how to verify their claim etc.

This all made me more nervous about the idea of ever filing for a claim myself, it seems complicated and easy to do wrong, but that is for another time.

We got into the truck after all our camp stuff was packed, and went down some pretty sweet trails. My truck is the longest thing I've owned and it is interesting to feel it leaning down a steep grade with all 4 wheels in various ruts. It handled it all well and we found the large hillside where everyone was digging. They explained that there are specimens everywhere, but that there are areas that get more attention over time, and this hill was currently the focus of much of the attention.



I'd never dug for any of this stuff before, so I picked a spot under some boulders that looked like it hadn't ever been dug (mostly because it was hard to work) and I set to digging. Roland headed over to a lower area where he'd had success previously (last year on the same trip).

Here's the hole I ended up digging:



One early motivator on picking the spot I did was seeing a point sticking out of the boulder next to where I dug



After about 30 minutes of digging I found a point poking out of a feldpspar/quartz cluster



and a litle while later an actual point on its owned



I found one small pocket that had collapsed, and it had some small double-terminated points that were mostly damaged, but really dark and pretty. Here is the whole haul after a little rinsing



And a parting shot of the surrounding area



The club members were an odd bunch so we felt right at home. We got to visit during the potluck lunch and again after the day's digging was done. The members were eager to share stories and show cell photos of their trophies found on the claims. I hope we can make it back before the snow flies, but it took a while to get into and it is not easy digging.

It was very fun though and I do look forward to getting back out there at some point. Also, now I can no longer say I've not found any quartz points!