Rockhounding 2014 Year in Review - what's what with davealex

2014 was a wonderful year for rockhounding the Rockies for me, when I started to think about it I went out prospecting to many localities this year and found some great crystals. I also met and dug with some great people this year! I can’t wait for the snow to melt off so I can commence the 2015 season…but until then, here are some of favorite memories of 2014.

Last year started out with a fun trip in April with my daughter, Daphne, to the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society amazonite claim near Lake George. It ended up being the only trip I made to the Lake George area, although I had several other trips I wanted to do, the timing didn’t work out for me.

April Amazonite — Daphne and I hit a small amazonite seam. The iridescent purple clay was the highlight, but all these amazonites were cool too! Also were a bunch of small white quartz plates.

I was invited to visit a private Topaz Claim near Pilot Peak. Although we didn’t find any gems, we had a great time and I learned a lot about claims (which I suspect 2015 will have in store for me). Thanks James for the invite! Read more about that trip here:

I also found my first “wild” topaz at a Lake George Gem and Mineral Club field trip to another private Pilot Peak claim. Here I found a couple of topaz crystals digging; I have found many topaz before, but they were at the Dorris topaz mine, so i don’t count them as “wild” finds given we dig in piles made by an excavator!

Topaz Prospecting in the Rockies

My dad and I (and son) hit a couple of Red Feather Lakes area spots finding some crystals in each spot.

Red Feather Lakes quartz cluster — Wonderful cluster from near the end of the pocket. My dad extracted this and another similarly amazing cluster

I visited the Wigwam area on a private claim a couple of times this spring finding some cool quartz and amazonite crystals. I found some really neat crystals on these days.

Rockhounding Wigwam in Jefferson County

I call it "The Right Foot", awesome unique crystal! — I call it “The Right Foot”, awesome unique crystal!

CrystalsWigmam-3837 — Very unique shaped light blue/green amazonite crystal.

The first crystal I pulled out. Clear/smoky quartz topped with milky quartz caps/growth on both ends, terminated on both ends.

Awesome parallel growth crystal cluster from Wigwam locale.

I’m pretty bored with the Ruby Mountain area although we camp there every year, so this year I ventured a bit further from camp. Next year I have plans for several sites in the area. In 2014 I found some awesome petrified wood near Brown’s Canyon.

I love the detail on this piece of petrified wood

This year through the CSMS club we had the opportunity to take a wire wrap class from Kim Peckham. She was a wonderful instructor and my family did an excellent job both at the class and since! Here are some of the wire wrappings that we did this year.

Wire Wrapping — From our class with Kim Peckham

Wire Wrap Pyrite Balls — Erin created these awesome wire wrapped Christmas tree ornaments out of pyrite balls

Pyrtie Ammonite — Pyrite Ammonite and iron snails

Pyrite concretion I finally took the time to clean up!

Finally, my most visited location was Devils Head areas this year as it is less than an hour from home. I found many cool spots that produced many enjoyable days!

Large Blue Amazonite — Largest amazonite of the day.

Parallel Growth Smoky Quartz — This parallel growth smokey quartz had a chunk of amazonite attached.

Devil's Head small seam — Devil’s Head small seam

Part of the top plate of the small pocket. This crystal had fallen off but I was able to repair it.

Dia De Los Muertos Smoky Quartz Pocket — Daphne constructed this 2 1/2 foot crystal skull from the smoky quartz from this pocket

El Nariz Quartz Crystal — El Nariz – The gemmy smoky quartz cluster from the center of the pocket

I have posted several videos of my crystal finds this year as well; I was expecting maybe 50-100 views during the year, but I was surprised to see views in the thousand on one! Wow. Here are the videos I’ve posted this year.

All in all, 2014 was an incredible prospecting year! I hope to be able to top the amount of fun in 2015…and meet some more neat folks and learn more to help me find better crystal pockets! See you out there in 2015!