Spending a few days in Missoula with my daughter, Leilani, I convinced her that I had to spend at least a few hours at Lolo Pass digging for smokey quartz crystals. ?She didn’t take much convincing, but insisted that we wait until 7:00am to leave. ?I used the usual argument about wasting daylight, but to no avail. ?We pulled out of the drive way at 6:50am and ?arrived at the parking area at about 8:30am.

The truck is in the shade now but when we got back to it the sun was baking it.

Fortunately it was only a five minute walk to the digging spot. ?This spot is the same one I have been to on previous trips, and since I only had a few hours to dig, I figured I would have the best chance to find something by staying at a known spot. ?There is a large boulder here that I dig around, and the last time I was here I almost got skunked.

Looks like I’m not the only one who digs here.

I started digging near the stump, while Leilani poked around the boulder. ?My first find was a nice quarter sized crystal with a tinge of smoke at the top.

A nice sharp crystal is always nice.

I continued to dig, and was not being very successful, when after about an hour Leilani decided to go exploring. ?She headed off down the trail. ?She returned after about fifteen minutes without any success, and started digging near the boulder again. ?It was at this point that I found the nicest crystal as well as two small clear ones. ?The large one is about 1″ long and dark. ?I think I need to keep Leilani near me when we are digging. ?She seems to bring me luck.

Three of the ones we found.

Leilani finally found a nice smaller crystal, but it was imbedded in the boulder and she decided it wouldn’t come out without breaking. ?She did find one in the hole she was digging, but was having a hard time reaching the back where the crystals seemed to be. ?I decided to give up on my spot and help her out by removing some of the overburden. ?While doing that I found another dime sized crystal with a tinge of smoke.

Leilani was getting tired so she headed back to the truck while I continued to work. ?She gave me fifteen minutes, but I ended up spending about forty five. ?I did find one more long thin crystal that looked like a miniature black Washington Monument.

Here is a look at all the crystals we found today.

I think it was a pretty good haul for a few hours of digging.

I made it back to the truck and Leilani had decided to walk out to the main road, so after cleaning up a little I hopped into the truck and headed after her. ?I picked her up at Granite Pass and we headed back to where we are staying.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire