Larkspur alluvial smoky quartz

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Over the last 15 or so years I have collected alluvial smoky quartz crystals along the roads in our neighborhood while out and about.  Others in my neighborhood have also shown me crystals they have found.  I have seen some Native American points found in the area made out of smoky quartz too that are quite amazing.

These quartz crystals are alluvial and are obviously a ways from where they started.  I am assuming these originated in the Devils Head area and were ground down as they were transported by glaciers.  Many of these are very gemmy inside and could be used for cutters.

At the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society rock show many years ago I visited a club booth where one of the members found a huge alluvial smoky crystal along Fountain Creek that was on display.  This particular stone was a large gem (perhaps eight inches in diameter) and they had another similar size quartz they found faceted; both came from the creek bed.  That is when I decided that the larger stones don’t facet well (at least to my eye) — although the faceter did an excellent job it just didn’t sparkle like the smaller cuts.

Alluvial Smoky Quartz
My small collection of Smoky Quartz found along the roads near Larkspur Colorado.
Larkspur Smoky Quartz
This one came from a rut at the side of a road under some pine needles
Larkspur Smoky Quartz
This I found just a couple of weeks ago while walking the dog. Very gemmy inside.

Just goes to show that prospecting can be easy and very close to home; just need to keep a trained eye on the ground!

3 Comments

  1. Hi Dave – your neighbor Steven Lechner here – 960 Independence Dr. I too enjoy rock hounding, prospecting etc. I am a member of the GPAA and just got back from Arizona over Thanksgiving and spent a good amount of time metal detecting with my White’s MXT. Let me know if you would like to go on an pouting sometime.

    Steve – 303.657.5360

  2. Hi Dave,
    I have collected close to 100 smoky and some topaz crystals from East Plum creek north of Castle Rock and always assumed they washed down from the three drainages that join East Plum Creek in Palmer Lake. It’s always easy right after the spring floods to find crystals and fossilized palm. I have also found some nice amazonite crystals, arrow points and some mammal teeth (possibly camel). I explored west plum creek in the past but didn’t find much so it’s good to know they also are in west plum creek. I live south of Elizabeth and the Castle Rock conglomerate is predominant (including black tourmaline), however when I was building my home I found a single amazonite but none of the other rampart range crystals are present. It may have been carried there by a native as there are many other human carved tools on my acreage. This is the first I’ve heard of someone else mentioning the smoky crystals in the drainages so I had to post. I have collected a lot of crystals at the source though.

    Don

    1. Thanks for the information Don. I met a neighbor that found a bunch of points made from smoky quartz back in the early 90s in our neighborhood. While the neighborhood was being built up about 10 years ago I also looked through construction dirt mounds, but only found non-quartz crystals. No topaz yet for me. I know that many folks have found huge smoky quartz “robin eggs” in Fountain Creek in the Colorado Springs area; I’ve seen some faceted which were really nice. Thanks for sharing what you’ve discovered, cool others are into it too. Do you have any images available online?
      –dave

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