Reading a Ridgeline Pegmatite in Colorado Front Range | Exploratory Prospecting

Beginning with only a curiosity for rocks and minerals, this was a three day camping trip to explore pegmatites in the Front Range of Douglas County, Colorado. The video is designed to familiarize pocket-hunters with small-scale textures and larger scale morphologies associated with pocketing pegmatites.

Following float is an interpretive pursuit, but sometimes these surface finds are well-developed and hallmark of a nearby pocket. That was the case on this ridgeline where pinpointing the crystal cavity proceeded with relative ease.

The geologic setting is Pike’s Peak batholith and I’d like to share a piece of information not presented in the video. That is, sometimes you may walk many miles without noticing any veins. If you aren’t seeing blocks of quartz or feldspar on the surface anywhere, try a new area. That’s what I did to arrive at the location featured in this video. I saw float about once a day, drove 7km further, and then found attention-worthy float once every 20 minutes. This video begins only two hours after setting foot into the forest.

Video Chapters:
0:00 Promising Float Forms
0:38 Scratching the Surface
2:30 Day Two: Into the Pocket
5:50 Welcoming Extraterrestrials
7:12 Alien Technologies
10:34 Same Vein, New Location
13:48 Day Three: Conclusions on First Site
14:35 Deeper into Second Site
19:43 Reclamation
20:26 Post-Cleanup Review


I encourage everyone to venture into the forest to see what curiosities lie within the earth. Knowledge of active claims and regulations in your area will permit you the freedom to explore. Always reclaim your dig sites to keep the future of prospecting bright and beautiful.