When I was handed the keys to the motorhome my parents used to travel around this vast country in and lived in for the better part of 10 years, I found a small medicine bottle full of white rocks my mother had collected somewhere during their travels. I am not sure where the rocks were collected, but I do like to think it was in Alaska.
A few years ago, while I operated the newspaper in a small northern New Mexico town, I took a geologic trip on a scenic railroad. The passengers consisted of geologists, students, teachers and myself - representing the media - on a complimentary ticket, one of the perks of owning a small-town newspaper. There were also some who went along just to collect rocks. During the trip, the train would stop along the route to allow participants to step off and explore the rocks and collect as many as they wanted for study. A geologist would also explain the various types of rocks along the way.
It was quite fascinating to learn about the history of the region as explored in the rocks. I have always been fascinated with geology, which is easy to do when you visit places like Grand Canyon and see the multiple layers of rocks carved by the powerful river below. While on that journey, I collected a few choice rocks that fascinated me. They now have a place of honor next to that medicine bottle full of rocks my mother collected once upon a time.
I have seen granite quarries in New Hampshire and marble quarries in Vermont and, I have to admit, that the variety of rocks found throughout the nation is very fascinating to me. Here in Colorado, there is a type of rock I have recently discovered on my numerous hikes through the surrounding mountains. It is called Pikes Peak Granite and has a slight pink tone to it. It also holds heat remarkably well, to my surprise, as most granite tends to be cold by nature.
In a place gripped by gold fever long before statehood and where gold is still being pulled out of the ground on a daily basis, looking for rocks around here is hardly ever just a hobby. It is more like a passion with notes of materialism. The line between science and commerce is also very porous, as the popularity of such shows as the Discovery Channel's "Gold Rush" would indicate, like subsurface gravel over nuggets. Geologists, prospectors and rockhounds at heart seek the same thing: Earth's innermost secrets.
Devotees of all ages and fitness levels come from various economic and professional backgrounds. They hike the mountains around here searching for the strange, the rare and the unexpected. Rock shops all over town hold a variety of treasures others have already taken out of the mountains.
I am like many of them in some ways: I am always ready to pick up, cut open and break any rock I see to discover what it is made of and how it was formed. You can generally tell how rocks were formed by following such a process, as I learned while riding the geological train. Some were spewed out of the earth by ancient volcanoes and others were formed by massive pressure under ancient oceans.
I briefly flirted with the idea of being a geologist for a living and it makes me wonder how many others have had their careers shaped by the very rocks I examine while hiking. Whether they own rock shops or teach the next generation to appreciate rocks, many careers have been launched because of mankind's love of rocks and all things connected to the earth. Doing this alone or in the company of others is a great excuse to get outdoors and uncover the landscape that surrounds us. It is this love that makes the gem and mineral exhibit one of the most popular at Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.
While eager to share, rock nuts hoard favorite regions and treasures freighted with memories. They sometimes value a prize more as a token of a topography or experience than as a showpiece of possession, much as my mother did that bottle of rocks.
One of the people on that train ride almost risked his life trying to collect a specimen piece of rare quartz on the side of the mountain a few feet from where the tracks crossed a ravine just past a tunnel with a historical marker commemorating the assassination of President William McKinley.
If not always easy to reach, the region's geological riches rival its scenery in thrills and diversity. The mountains here yield chalcedony, which, sawed and polished, makes lovely red and white striped bookends. I found a small piece of that on that train trip through New Mexico. Former copper mines harbor rainbow-splashy "peacock ore" - bornite - and malachite ranging, like tropical seas, from turquoise to ultramarine. Lavender and pinkish amethyst - a coveted quartz gemstone - singly or clustered - dots granitic uplands. There is a jade mountain and one of marble. There are ammonites, corals and ferny dendrites, brachiopod shells, chunks of petrified wood, leaf imprints in rocks, watermelon tourmalines, agates, and bead-sized pyrite, also known as "fool's gold", which often fooled those early prospectors who made their way to Colorado in search of gold, copper and silver. I have seen amber, which is hardened tree sap, enshrining insects, some as old as the dinosaurs that long ago vanished, and even pieces of meteorites. Disguised river cobbles, geodes or "thunder eggs," sparkle bisected, cupping crystal. Mini Aladdin's caves, in the land near Cripple Creek, gouged since the 1860s, provided Victorian baubles - watch fobs, bracelets, brooches and hatpins - and fueled the growth, and the fortunes, of Colorado Springs and, later, Colorado itself.
So, go ahead and fill your yard with rocks, grow your sock drawer or desk-top collection armed with a pointy rock hammer or sledgehammer and chisel, or merely curiosity and a strong back. Rock gathering is legal in national forests and on Bureau of Land Management land, plenty of which abounds here in Colorado, but not in national parks, monuments, or wildlife refuges. Some state parks might allow it, just make sure you check the legalities before heading out on your search. Rock collecting on tribal lands should be avoided. Also, be aware of protecting vertebrate fossils and stone artifacts. It is okay to pocket a sample or two while hiking.
What better way is there to take a break and catch your breath on a hike than to stop and pick up a cool rock that catches your eye? You do not even need to keep it. Just picking it up and examining it can enlighten your mind and boost your spirits as you realize we have a connection to the earth around us.
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