El Paso/Teller County areas anyone? Options

[ForestGnome]

I'm making plans for spring, and curious if there's still anyone here that may want to team up with and do a little digging here once the ground thaws up.

I've been having a good enough time re-exploring the long "picked over" areas just around north cheyenne canyon, and what's accessible still behind bear creak, and by my own standards pretty lucky. Some good quarts pockets the size of a small child, some fluorite pockets, beautiful displays of microcline, all literally within minutes of major trails, usually just following debris uphill. I'm hoping this year to head in a little deeper like I used to to scour the old pegmatite maps for the upper old stage areas. The way I see it the more the merrier. Most area pockets are "afternoon sized" and not worth the hassle of claiming but if you find something that good more power to you. What I love about the area is pretty much everything follows the same patterns. Same faces, same elevations, same mineralization, so even if one of us finds something the other won't be too far off.

So anyone out there want to do little hunting when our beautiful spring weather finally comes around to stay? No experience necessary, I'd still consider myself a newbie to all this too, i've just been as lucky as I am determined.

Attached are some recent finds from the area.

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[NewRockHounder]

Sounds interesting. Between myself and my wife we know our stones. My wife and I own claims in Douglas County. We live in Park County. And mine with the Busses on Mt. Antero for aquamarines. I've been prospecting/mining since 2012 - and like you, lucky and determined.

Good to have some research on the ground and more importantly, claims.. in the areas you're digging in - prior to collecting. We can show you what to look for on the ground as far as markers go. And/or other things that might hint that there's a claim there.

The BLM offers a lot of help for both of those. It's tricky at first, but you can look up claims using LR2000 - again through BLM. There should be an old link somewhere in the forums reguarding this.

Please shoot me a private message with some contact info.
I'd say FB, but I don't really use it anymore. You can, however, google Endless Lode Claim or CORockHound and it should pull up my old FB page for that claim.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[ForestGnome]

Don't worry about claims, I stay on the up and up whenever I go out. The El Paso/Teller County areas are a real pain when it comes to claims. Usually high turnover, and poorly marked. Or yes yet, vandalized by local hikers. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir though, I know exactly where the Endless Lode claim is and you are right in the thick of it lol.

But yeah I'm constantly checking and double checking for active claims where I'm at, fortunately (or unfortunately) in my favorite areas the pockets are usually smaller and not well linked, so there isn't much need to file a claim on any given area... yet... although there is one spot I may this year if my suspicions are correct. Claims though are one of the reasons I don't even bother much with the Devil's head area. Between hikers, shooters, drunks, and claims... ooof. I do want to get out there though. I've seen and heard so many great things about the area. Not to mention how much better the crystals up there look and clean up. I haaate the iron in the st peter's dome area.

Also jealous of going up to Antero, that's another nightmare I don't want to deal with, or pay for lol. Wouldn't mind looking over all the old piles on the surroundings sometime though. I love seeing everything the snow melts can turn up on the surface.





I'll shoot you a DM here in a little bit. I too don't really touch FB anymore, but I check in here every so often and I'm sure I have other means as well.

[NewRockHounder]

Yer spot on with Devils Head.... it's a nightmare for having a claim there.
My wife and I are prospecting new ground this year, for that reason, it seems it gets tenfold on people every year... and with the new camping rules/regulations it's even worse.

Anywho, DM, PM, EM AM/FM me (joke)
We're down to get out.

[JDSprings]

Have you made any trips yet? I've just found the forum. Been heading up into the mountains to dig around the last couple of weekends and would love to keep that up with a group.