Day 5 - Friday, 7/28/2023: Pinnacle 5 Minerals’ Amazonite and Smoky Quartz Claim
All right! This was the day! Today was why we had all journeyed to Colorado, the first part of the two-day culmination of our travels. Today was the day we headed to Joe Dorris's topaz claim. I made sure I had all the right gear for the claim packed for easy access near Barry's tailgate, then hopped in and headed to our rendezvous point.
I was the first of our group to arrive and was somewhat surprised to find a bunch of folks from Minnesota in the parking lot. Turns out both of our clubs would be working the claim today and that the claim in question would not be the topaz claim, which this other club had worked the previous day, but would instead be the amazonite/smoky quartz claim. So much for planning. I hopped into the truck and began digging out tomorrow's tools for today's claim as the other club headed off and my group began to arrive.
After Mr. Dorris gave us some history of the claim and some basic safety instructions, we carpooled--make that truckpooled; no way would anything short of a 4 x 4 have made it up those roads, plus there was limited parking--to the claim, and we all set off to stake our claims within the mine for the day and strike our fortune. Not a one of us did. Rockhounds dream of field trips filled with crystal-lined vugs or plate after plate of perfectly preserved trilobites, but it's not often that we bring home the treasures we dream about. We hit cool stuff just often enough to keep us out there, searching the next hill or roadcut like a gambler who senses the next pull of the slot machine lever will bring a jackpot. The sevens didn't line up, but then again, we had a great day on a mountain slope in Colorado, digging like demons as afternoon clouded the sky until the crack of lightning sent us running for our vehicles. As it rained and rumbled around us, we laughed about our lack of luck and got to know each other a little bit better before the downpour ended and we put in another hour of poking around the tailings, still finding little but glad to be there anyway.
When we got back to the Dorris's place, Mr. Dorris made us amazonite with envy as he showed us some of the specimens he had for sale. He also told us that his team has not had a great year at the claim either. It's one thing for us to have a rough day, quite another for him to have a rough year--after all, this is how he makes his living. Some folks took advantage of the moment to purchase what they didn't find, then we headed back to Manitou Springs and dinner at Rudy's Bar-B-Que.
This is the main excavation area at the amazonite/smoky quartz claim.
This is where I spent most of my day digging.
Looking over the ridge from the edge of the tailings. A wildfire hit a few years ago, but the trees are slowly coming back.
This was my view for most of the day. See that hill on the left? I think it was flat by the time I finished digging.
The clouds are starting to get dark . . .
. . . and here comes the storm! It passed fairly quickly, so we were able to spend another hour or so at the site.
You can see amazonite throughout the matrix in this specimen.
Another sample of amazonite in matrix.
I broke out the macro to get a close up of some of the crystals in the previous sample.
You can see more crystal structure in this specimen.
Hard to see this, but there are two semi-decent here.
Here are some smaller specimens.
Small, but very amazonite-y!
This is what we were all dreaming of finding. These are some specimens Mr. Dorris had for sale.
Nothing like pulled pork to make you feel better about not finding an amazing rock.