I first heard about aquamarine in the Sawtooth Wilderness way back in 1978 or 1979, when I was an undergraduate at Montana Tech. I then spoke with a fellow who had actually hiked in there with his wife, to the Camp Lake area, where they spent one day collecting aquas before they had to hike out (the hike in took them two days!)

A few years passed before I began to gather more information about the area, and ultimately, I researched several publications that dealt with the beryllium deposits and the exploration geology that was done there in the sixties. I acquired topographic maps and studied the topography in detail, in conjunction with the geologic mapping done by those authors and geologists.

Then, a fellow collector managed to beat me there by only a few weeks, coming back with some impressive specimens and equally impressive stories. What he told me was that the glaciers had managed to sculpt most of the exposed pockets clean, so the only pockets worth collecting were to be found on boulders that had been exposed post-glacially; and the best selection of these was found in talus fields.

With that in mind, one of the things I studied were the positioning of the various boulder fields throughout the Sawtooth Mountains; there were many of these, widely spread. Some of the larger exposures were marked on the topographic maps, especially in the Goat Creek drainage, near Glens peak, and in the lower Benedict Creek. There were also a number of mapped pegmatites, and since I had some experience in this area, my first trip was centered on these occurrences. That first expedition is the subject of another story.

On my second Sawtooth trip, in 1983, my partner and I hiked in to Ardeth Lake where we stayed for about a week. The large boulder field that lay to the west and over the divide was part of our target collecting area. So on one day we set out to hike up to the divide, our intention being to hike up and over the divide into the valley that had the largest boulder field in the Sawtooth Range. Now the Sawtooth Mountains got their name for a good reason: the ridges and peaks that separate the various valleys and drainages throughout the range are steep and ragged. Our hike up to the ridge didn’t even come close to indicating what we were up against: at the very top, we looked down into the adjacent valley, over a thousand feet directly below us, down slopes so steep there was no way to get down without extreme danger. But the view was spectacular to say the least; we could see the entire upper headwall of this unnamed, hanging glacier valley, which was completely covered with huge boulders of freshly-broken granite. From wall to wall, east to west, the headwall measured a mile across, and from the far southern end to the termination at a small tarn lake, it spread over one and a half miles in length. In this entire area, not a single tree, bush, or plant of any kind grew; it was like looking at a lunar landscape. Immediately I thought of the Confederate stronghold at Gettysburg, a rocky depression known as the "Devil’s Den", and from that time on, we have referred to it as such, since the entire area, valley, lakes, boulder field, was unnamed.

That first attempt was completely unsuccessful, but while collecting along the ridge between the Devil’s Den and the upper Ten Lakes Basin, we found numerous pockets, some with small but very fine spessartine garnets, encrusting microcline and smoky quartz. One large errant boulder held a large miarolitic cavity, somewhat tubular in shape; on the back wall was a huge topaz crystal, completely embedded in the granite matrix, and absolutely "uncollectible" from any standpoint, as the diameter of the vug wouldn’t allow a hammer to fit, and the depth was nearly arm’s length, so the crystal was almost out of reach anyway. This doubly-terminated topaz was at least six inches long and at least an inch and a half across!

On the way down, we cut across the boulder field to the west of Glens Peak, where previously I had found a pocket with the rare mineral potassic-carpholite (the only accurate and completely documented locality for this mineral). I found another large boulder that had a fairly large vug opening at one end, but it had already been excavated! Several specimens were carefully placed on top of the boulder, above the vug opening. Apparently the collector was after smoky quartz, because they left a half dozen specimens of large helvite tetrahedrons sitting there for me to just pick up…..one of these measured 1-1/2 inches on edge, probably the largest helvite crystal ever found in the U.S.! Others were nicely planted on white albite, and although somewhat dull in luster, were the best helvites I have yet found in the Sawtooths.

In 1984 I took a job as a field geologist, so the next "expedition" to the Sawtooth Mountains was in 1985. By this time I had connected with another digging partner, and we hiked up over Sand Mountain Pass, down to Edna Lake, where we camped with three other collectors for a day before hiking over to Ardeth Lake, where we spent a week camping on the north side of the lake. Part of this trip was a second attempt to gain access to the Devil’s Den; only this time we had calculated another route which was more promising.

Our route took us north of Ardeth Lake along granite benches that ran roughly parallel to the valley. We had to climb up a series of vertical faces on to flat ledges until we reached the arête that separated the Payette River valley from the Devil’s Den valley. On he way up we examined dozens of large, empty cavities that had been scoured free of their contents by glacial ice. Large, coarse grains of smoky quartz and pink microcline indicated the nature and size of the former contents. As we got higher, we found a remote lake just below the ridge, on the east side; there were a series of huge prints undoubtedly left by a wading moose, so we dubbed this unnamed lake "Mooseprint Lake".

At the ridge crest, we found the route down into the Devil’s Den to be far more reasonable that the one I had attempted to the south two years previous. We were able to easily climb down the wall, where we found a second small lake that was great for a swim.

We had spent much of the day just getting to this point, and found we had little time to explore this very broad area. We ended up just examining the other side of the ridge we had scaled up; fairly high in elevation, and largely free of exposed miarolitic cavities. I found one fairly large vug, way up around 9200 feet in elevation, but filled with tiny, dull smoky quartz crystals and no accessory minerals. The best of these was only an inch in length, so after much fruitless excavating, we gave up and returned to camp, arriving just after dark.

It was clear that we needed to find another route to get in to this remote area; on foot the Devil’s Den was at least 16 miles from any trailhead. Our 1986 expedition was planned to approach from the small "town" of Grandjean, and follow the Payette River upstream to the Benedict Creek fork, then directly uphill into the hanging glacial valley. This presented a number of problems, as no trail lead into the drainage, and we were completely unable to plot a route using the topographic maps, as the detail is not enough to see where impassible vertical faces were. Nonetheless, we planned carefully, and when the time came, we met up with a third collector, L----- R---, at the trailhead in Grandjean.

The first day on the trail was grueling; we were able to hike the first 11 miles to a point about a mile above Elk Lake, where we found a small flat area suitable for camping. The next morning we started on the trail again, making the Smith Falls and Benedict Creek trail fork early. Our plan was to climb up this trail only a short distance, then cross Benedict Creek and climb up the nearly vertical face of the southern wall, then up into the Den.

This plan barely worked; much of the climb was so steep we had to pass our packs up and scale up vertical faces. This was sweaty, grueling work, but we finally managed to get to the top. There we had to cross an open field, which was wet and swampy, then through a woodsy area until we reached the lower, main lake. Here was an ideal camping area, and we set up our tents and began to hunt.

To the west and south of the main lake, we found an area that was rich in aquamarine, all massive in the granite, and much like other areas that had been mapped by the exploration geologists that had explored there two decades before us. But this area was not on their maps, and it was soon clear that we were the first collectors to explore here. L---- found a large smoky quartz-feldspar vug only a short walk from the campsite, but much of this apparently had been glacially scoured and little remained.

The next day we spent the day collecting in the west boulder field (actually three separate boulder/talus fields in the Devil’s Den: one main, central field, one east and one west). P-- and I find a number of small vugs, mostly smoky quartz, feldspar, with some hematite;

P--- finds one large boulder with a large vug exposed way up high. He finds a number of deep gold topaz crystals, associated with smoky quartz and white albite. The largest topaz crystal is almost two inches across; all the topaz from here is curiously etched but very gemmy. He lets me do a little digging in this pocket, but because of its relative inaccessibility, we had to climb up the steep side of the boulder and hang on with one hand while excavating the vug. The pocket’s entrance was also very narrow, and while trying to open it, I managed to mangle my thumb with a rock hammer. That day L---- found a pocket with many helvite crystals; the pocket was at the lower "entrance" to the main boulder field.

The following day P--- and I went into the main boulder field, hiking all the way to the south headwall. We found a few small vugs but nothing of note. Later I went alone to the east wall, where cliff faces had many large vugs exposed. I collected in an area where a couple of impressive vugs were easily spotted on nearly vertical faces of bare granite; most proved to be quite empty except one that had a nice 4 inch smoky lying on the floor near the back of a three-foot deep cavity. One of these vugs had an opening measuring approximately 2 feet in diameter, and could be spotted from nearly a mile away! I find another huge cavity, on the lower face of the east wall, and hidden in the woods. This pocket was nearly big enough to stand up in, but after much digging, I found only "plates" of microcline crystals, none of which were worth keeping.

On this day L---- finished cleaning out his helvite pocket and explored the main boulder field; he finds a large vug on a huge boulder with small quart, feldspar, and topaz crystals. He claims that it had been previously collected, but when I visited this pocket some time later, I had to disagree with his theory….it looks as though the large boulder fell quite a distance, and before it came to rest in its present position, it must have hit nearby and spilled its loose contents on an adjacent rock, where they lay with the appearance of having been placed there (by some one).

We split up on the following day; P--- and I hunted the east boulder field while L---- went up to the west boulder field. We found nothing and L---- claimed to have found nothing either. On the east wall, up on higher benches than where I had been, P--- opened a second etched topaz pocket; one of these was in several pieces but together it was a huge crystal over two inches across, but severely etched. In the area I found more topaz and one greenish fluorite crystal, but am not able to trace it to the source.

Below, adjacent to where the large vugs were exposed, I climb onto a very narrow ledge, following small pocket openings out to the end of the ledge. Here, I dig into a medium-sized vug with much smoky quartz, but these are pale in color and covered with pinkish mica that could not be removed. I left quite a few of these lying on the ledge, and never fully excavated the vug. Years later I would return here to find all the material gone and the pocket finished off.

We explore further along the east wall, climbing up higher. One weathered out vug has numerous smokies lying in the float, but nothing of great importance; other small vugs yiled a few smokies and some albite specimens. We used an etrier, which is a series of hoops for standing and climbing in, with a chock or wedge driven into the rock or wedged into a crevice; this allowed us to gain access to vugs in precarious positions, especially on steep to vertical faces. High up on the east wall we discover a series of genuine pegmatites, all dipping steeply east and striking roughly north-south; these are very regular, tabular bodies approximately a foot or so thick, and stacked one on top of another, perhaps seven or eight separate bodies. They outcrop along strike for about fifty feet or more, but we found only one small vug near the south end, and it had shattered smoky quartz crystals, nothing of note or worth keeping.

The following day we packed up and hiked out of the Den; P--- and I made camp near the trail where the Benedict Creek joined the Payette River. Our plan was to hike to Ardeth Lake the following day and collect on the divide between Ardeth and Edna Lake. We spend some time collecting the west side of the Payette River Valley; here I find several small vugs on the ledges, but with inferior smokies. One vug yields a nice Carlsbad twin of microcline, but it was a bear to remove, and it suffered some slight damage.

The following day L---- packs out to Grandjean alone, and P--- and I head to Ardeth Lake. We collect on the benches below Mooseprint Lake, finding a little but mostly empty pockets. The area I had visited a month earlier (on another trip) that yielded nice helvites on corroded microcline and with tiny topaz crystals, we found a few more pockets but specimens weren’t easy to get. Later in the afternoon, we crossed the valley to the east wall of the "Inama Ridge" and I began to climb up towards the top. Exhausted, I gave up before I got halfway up and decided to give up and head back to camp. As I descended, outcrops became fewer and fewer, and finally near the bottom I came upon a steep-sided ridge of granite that stood about 25 feet high and several hundred long. Much of this granite had been exposed to weathering for some time, and the surface was covered with moss and lichens, not a good indication of preservation. But I spotted a fairly large vug opening about halfway up the cliff face and after walking over; I scaled up the face and peered in to vug opening.

I immediately saw two large crystals lying on the bottom of a nearly empty vug, and I reached in and grabbed a hold of one of them. It was squarish in cross-section (or so it appeared) and somewhat long in one dimension, and covered in white clay, so I assumed it was a large feldspar crystal. When I got to the bottom of the cliff, where I could stand in the sun, I called to P--- that I had finally found something (because up to this time, what I had found amounted to very little, especially when compared to what my companions had already found). When I examined the crystal more closely, I could see that beneath the white clay, the crystal was deep blue….a very large aquamarine crystal!! I climbed back up and removed the second crystal, which was also aquamarine and fit neatly to the first crystal, making it 7-1/2 inches long and 1-1/2 inch in diameter! WE began to look around, as it was evident that the pocket had been breached. We found numerous smaller aquamarines lying around on the ground, at the base of the cliff below the pocket opening. We spent the rest of the afternoon digging through the shallow soil profile where we recovered hundreds of smaller aquamarines. Some of this was deep cobalt blue and perhaps the finest color aquamarine ever found in North America, and I believe the large crystal is the largest vug aquamarine ever found in the United States. A picture of me with this crystal was published in John Sinkankas’ "Gemstones of North America, Vol. III".

We planned to return to the Devil’s Den in 1987, and we hired an outfitter to haul in some gear at a drop-off point near the fork of the two trails. Our arrival coincided with the Fourth of July, and we had to settle for a late delivery from the outfitter, who refused to deliver when he promised. Around the campfire at Grandjean, local prospector Rich "Mountain Man" Knoblock heard our problem and agreed to give us a ride in his truck, six miles up the trail to his cabin. This allowed us to miss walking those six miles, so the next morning we met up with Rich and rode to his cabin. The hike in the rest of the way took us past Elk Lake, across the Payette River, and to Smith Falls, where the trail splits, one way to Ardeth and the Ten Lakes Basin, and the other up Benedict Creek to Mount Everly and finally to Lake Ingeborg. The first night we made it to Fern Falls, and then to the trail fork on the second day. After setting up camp we hike to Ardeth Lake and to where I found the large aqua pocket the previous year, primarily to take pictures (we had no camera with us in 1986 when I made this discovery). A little digging yielded a few additional aquamarine crystals, all small.

The next day we hiked up to the Devil’s Den, where I find a small but nice pocket of slender smoky quartz crystals on the east wall. We took a nice series of photographs of this find; there was a small mass of pegmatitic granite partly exposed on a ledge; grass was growing from a spot where the pocket opened up. After removing the grass I started digging out the soft earth, and eventually the clutch of smokies. Afterwards, we crossed over the valley, passing our campsite from the previous year, where we found a number of decent specimens that had been left behind, including one fine miniature cluster of pink microcline crystals. A patch of bertrandite crystals in a hemisphere was planted on the microcline, measuring nearly a half inch across. It wasn’t one of the specimens either P--- or I had collected; apparently L---- had left it behind as worthless, but it turned out to be quite a fine specimen.

To the west of the campsite we examined the smoky quartz pocket L---- had found in 1986 near the campsite; this was a well-exposed vug but apparently not fully scoured by glacial ice, as a few matrix specimens remained. We collected several nice matrix plates, with smokies planted on whitish microcline and white albite; one nice hematite crystal nearly two inches across. A quick search of the west boulder field fails to re-discover

P---‘s large topaz-smoky quartz pocket from the previous year, but I find one small pocket with a couple of corroded topaz crystals.

The following day was scheduled for our pack drop, so we spent the day around the campsite fixing up a kitchen area, the solar shower, and generally relaxed.

The next day we hiked up the east side of the Payette River valley to a hanging glacial valley we dubbed the "15 Lakes Basin" for the number of tarn lakes there. It was a 2,000 foot vertical climb, which took several hours, but we were able to hunt around the basin and found a few small vugs with smoky quartz. One contained a large number of one-inch smokies, all very pale, with some Baveno twins of feldspar. On the way out we spotted a huge opening on the side of a cliff, and scaled up to find a "walk-in" sized vug, lined with coarse feldspar and white quartz, but massive. Whatever had been in this cavity had been either scoured out by glacial ice or weathered out after it was exposed.

The next day we spent relaxing after the climb into the 15 Lakes Basin; we did a little hunting along the west side of the Payette valley, but find only a few small garnets in one pocket.

The following day we hiked back into the Devil’s Den and hunted along the east wall again. P--- finds a small vug with one highly corroded aquamarine crystal, along with several small fragments. I find a few smokies, plus we discover two large quartz crystals in the float, very near the top of the ridge.

The day after we followed the trail up to Benedict Lake, then hunted along the wall between Benedict Creek and the Devil’s Den, finding little of interest. The day after we get rained on so we do no collecting at all. The next day we returned to the 15 Lakes Basin to examine the large vug on the cliff, but after much digging it is apparent that there is no material left here. We find a few pockets, but nothing of importance.

The next day we return to the Devil’s Den and collect the east wall again. I find a couple of small pockets in the east boulder field with a couple of small topaz crystals. Higher up, near to where we had found the pegmatites in 1985, I spot a pocket opening at the base of a roche montonne ("sheep-back"). This common glacial feature is a hillock that is scoured on the upper (upstream) side and plucked on the downstream side. The glacier scours out a hump as it moves over the structure and on the trailing edge the ice "plucks" the rock, leaving a distinctly-shaped outcrop. At the base of the plucked side, a pocket opening was visible, and while only fist-sized in diameter, it was soon excavated to nearly arm’s length. Every specimen from this cavity was completely encrusted in bertrandite, literally thousands of tiny white crystals, covering faces of smoky quartz crystals, including one that measured nearly four inches long. Near the termination is a cast of a beryl crystal, all that was left of an aquamarine that had once existed and now had yielded bertrandite as a result of its instability. I had to very carefully wrap up each and every one of these delicate specimens, as they had to be packed out a distance of nearly twenty miles to the trailhead. Over the top of this outcrop I discover that the granite is permeated with deep blue aquamarine, some pegmatitic streaks, and a few small microvugs. One of these yields a couple of small but beautiful blue aquamarine crystals.

Later I find P--- who has discovered a narrow vug opening on a cliff face; he has recovered a number of nice, corroded aquamarine crystals, up to an inch or more in length. About a hundred good specimens come from this pocket. The next morning we pack up our gear and specimens and hike out to Grandjean. The rest of our trip was a second hike into the Cramer Lakes, which I will account later. Out three weeks in the Sawtooths this time totaled over 145 miles hiking and at least 48,000 feet in relief (24,000 up and 24,000 down!)

My next visit to the Devil’s Den was in 1990; by this time I had moved to Missoula and was working at a jewelry store there. I took a week off, and P--- arrived from Great Falls with his girlfriend at that time, L------. The trip to Grandjean takes most of a day, and after checking in with the outfitter, we camp at the trailhead. Get an early start the following morning, and soon we get rain. On the way up, we spot a forest fire that started on the ridge to the east of us; the out fitter leaves us there and rides back to Grandjean to report it. The rest of the day is uneventful, and we make the campsite at the trail fork above Smith Falls that afternoon. We put all our gear in pack frames and head up into the Devil’s Den. They camp out in the middle of the valley in a fairly poor site; I set up at our 1986 site on the lower lake.

In the early morning, I get a fast start and head for the west boulder field. By the time I get there, the skies have darkened and it begins to rain heavily. I seek shelter under a large boulder, as there are no trees nearby; the boulder fields are barren of life. The rain soon turns to hail, and quickly the ground is covered in ice an inch deep. Lighting is wicked and I count off the seconds between the flashes and the thunder until the two are simultaneous.

After an hour or so, the rain quits and I begin hunting. I spot a fairly good sized opening on a moderately sized boulder; the opening is about 8 x 10 inches, and a matrix specimen protrudes from the pocket "filling". It begins to rain again, so I hide under another boulder until it abates. After about 15 minutes I emerge again and begin to excavate the pocket. I find three nice smoky quartz-albite plates, then several large smokies, one over six inches in length. These quartz crystals are excellent quality, very lustrous, and with offset, parallel faces typical of Sawtooth smokies. Altogether I recover about 2 flats of good material from this pocket.

I search around the immediate area and find a few small vugs. One exposed pocket, planted on a large granite boulder, was lined with the typical druse minerals, with one nice topaz crystal displayed. I took a picture of this vug in situ, before attacking it with my rock pick. Typically, such pockets lined with crystals are solidly attached to the granite, rendering them almost completely uncollectible. One blow from my hammer and the plate came off flawlessly, yielding a superb matrix specimen, one of the best I have ever seen from the Sawtooth granite. It exhibits smoky quartz, microcline, albite, zinnwaldite mica, and one very sharp, glassy topaz crystal. This is on display at my shop, along with the picture of the vug I took just before I removed the plate. After this, I returned to the campsite and unloaded my specimens before going back into the main, central boulder field.

On the way up, I passed near to where I had found the pockets, and had also sheltered from the storm. Here I found a tree that had been struck by lightning so close to me that the thunderclap and the flash came instantaneously. This 100 foot high pine tree had been stripped of all its bark, leaving a circular mound of shredded bark around the base of the tree, without so much a singeing or burning an inch of the wood!

Near the entrance to the main boulder field, I spotted a large vug high up the vertical face of a huge granite boulder, which turned out to be the helvite pocket L---- found in 1986. It was well-exposed and easy to spot, but only a few dozen feet further in was a much larger opening, this one on an even bigger boulder. The opening, when measured, was 15 x 10 inches across, and several specimens were clearly visible at the entrance, including a nice smoky quartz crystal about 4 inches long. Another exposure turned out to be a large matrix plate measuring 15 x 9-1/2 x 2" thick; it was stained blackish, but it was clear that it was covered with quartz, feldspar, and topaz crystals. Since the vug was several feet above the valley floor, on the side of this boulder, I had some difficulty excavating it; there were several smaller "plates" (which later turned out to be a part of the larger plate), and one fairly large Baveno twin of microcline, encrusted with small topaz crystals. This singular twin measured six inches in length, and was free of any damage. The total take from this large pocket was at least four flats; however, I left some of the lesser-grade material in deference to the better matrices & specimens with topaz crystals. At this time the load was great, so I returned to the campsite and called it a day.

The next morning the weather cleared considerably, so I started out early and headed into the west boulder field. I climbed up to the col that separated the west ridge of the Devil’s Den from the Benedict Creek valley. There were boulders I examined nearly to the top, without much evidence of vugs. I spotted a large patch of pegmatite and what looked like a large vug opening way up on a vertical face, at the top of a steep snow field. I soon discovered that there was no way to scale across the smooth granite face to gain access, so I began to cut steps into the firn (icy snow) and climbed several hundred feet across and up the permanent snow bank. At the top, I was able to jump across the bergshrund to the solid granite face; then scaled up a few dozen feet to the pocket opening. There was a bit of smoky quartz debris on narrow ledges, but when I got to the top, there was a large, empty pocket with a roll of used tape! Apparently in 1986, L---- had found this, but kept it a secret so he could collect it all for himself. To this day I am not aware of how much or what he found there, but I did find several really good subparallel plates of hematite, plus the evidence of smoky quartz was clear. I later found his campsite and there were a few pieces of quartz crystals that had clearly come from this pocket. Then I had to climb down the steps I had cut in the ice…very precarious and scary, since I had no safety rope and the fall would surely been fatal.

After this I headed along the west boulder field, hunting high near the cliff face, then over to the east wall where I attempted to find the 1987 bertrandite-quartz pocket. Here I discovered a similar roche montonne outcrop, covered with micro pegmatite and much aquamarine; I took some nice pictures but there wasn’t anything large enough to collect.

The following day we had to cut our trip short, as P---‘s girlfriend has called it quits. She turned out to be not too hardy, so we dropped our gear off at the trail fork up Benedict Creek and hiked down the trail. I spend the night camped at Rich Knoblock’s cabin, but he wasn’t there. P--- and L------ hike the rest of the way to Grandjean and get a cabin for the night; the next day the outfitter rode up to the drop site, picked up our gear & specimens, and packed them out.

The next trip I made to the Devil’s Den was in August of 1992; this was my first solo trip there. I drove to Grandjean and got an early start in the morning, making Elk Lake where I camped for the night. The second day I was able to hike the remaining distance to Smith Falls and up into the Devil’s Den and finally to the lower lake, where I set up camp. I had enough time to collect in the afternoon, so I went into the west boulder field and found

P----‘s 1986 topaz-smoky quartz pocket. I was able to dig out much more material that we did then; the pocket clays, having been exposed to weathering for a few years, had loosened up and I found quite a few more deep golden, curiously etched topaz crystals, and a number of small but very fine smokies. The quartz crystals from this vug are sharp and well-formed, and most are very transparent; the topaz crystals are also quite transparent, but the color fades quickly on exposure to sunlight, so they need to be stored in complete darkness. An additional note on this exceptional pocket: it is exposed on the top edge of a huge granite boulder that’s nearly the size of a small house; it has a steeply sloped side that faces roughly west, where the pocket is located, so you have to climb several yards up the steep face to reach the pocket, and hang on precariously to the upper edge with one hand, while you collect with the other. This was one of the reasons we never finished excavating this vug in 1986; it became so tiring that we had to trade places several times.

The next day I went into the main boulder field, beginning to hunt along the west wall. Here I find several medium to small vugs, mostly with smoky quartz, many of which exhibit casts formerly occupied by beryl (hexagonal imprints). Way back in, near the south headwall, I find the large boulder L---- found in 1986 and claimed was "already collected". There is a vug so large you can almost crawl inside of it, except that the entrance is too small to admit a person. Many loose specimens are lying around; all of which exhibit small topaz crystals, but it is apparent that this could have been dumped out of the vug as this huge boulder fell however many feet to the place it came to rest finally. This would explain the distribution of the loose contents around the area while it was clear that no other pockets in this drainage had ever been collected. I maintain to this day that we were the first collectors to hunt in the Devil’s Den, along with the Goat Creek drainage, the Upper Cramer Lakes area, and also our 15 Lakes Basin.

I find a few additional lesser vugs, mostly with a handful of small smoky quartz crystals, along with some bertrandite. I end up the day at the campsite; the following morning, around 4:00 AM to a tremendous crash; later when I get up I find that a huge dead tree has fallen only inches from my tent. A close call, but the broken pieces provided me with a great source of firewood for the rest of my stay.

That morning I decided to head up the east side of the valley, in hopes of revisiting the bertrandite-smoky quartz pocket I found in 1987; failing in this, I crossed back the valley floor and started up the west wall. Having not hunted here before, this was with some potential; a long climb up, and took a rest a few hundred feet below the crest of the ridge. After I got back up, I found a nice topaz crystal lying in the float right where I had been sitting. I couldn’t trace this to its source, so I continued uphill. There was a broad clearing near the top, and soon I found numerous bits and pieces of smoky quartz scattered around. One large mass of pegmatitic rock was covered on one side by much broken smoky quartz. One very large smoky quartz crystal was just lying out on the open ground, measuring over six inches long, and in good condition. A couple of smaller, well-terminated crystals were also found this way, most only an inch or two long. A great deal of quartz debris was scattered around, in and amongst the talus; at first I thought it was likely that this pocket had either been completely breached or it was so obvious that it had to have been collected already.

But I had underestimated the remoteness of this area: as I first thought, we were the first to collect this entire area; no other earlier digs had been found at all. As I followed the float uphill, I came to a ledge of granite just below the very ridge crest. I climbed up and it was clear that this was where the pocket lay. I dug in carefully and immediately began to uncover hundreds of fine, terminated smoky quartz crystals. These were generally one to two inches in length, slender and tapered toward the termination, and quite dark but mostly transparent. I found several fairly large matrix specimens, which weighed a dozen pounds or more each, even up to about thirty pounds by my estimate. These exhibited one side covered with smokies, many crystals but these were too large to haul out on my back, so I had to leave them there. I dug about seven flats total of smoky quartz crystals from this pocket, and took a few pictures of the site, some of the matrices I left behind, and one of crystals lining the roof of the vug, in situ.

Having loaded myself down, I returned to camp, and headed out the next day. The total distance from the lower Devil’s Den Lake to the trailhead at Grandjean is something on the order of twenty miles, and since I had such a load, I ended up camping out below Elk Lake and taking part of the next day to make the trailhead.

The next trip to the Devil’s Den was in 1994; this time we hired the outfitter and P--- and I brought an eastern friend, E- B------. We had them haul us and our gear to the campsite above Smith Falls and at the trail fork. This campsite had been a good choice in the past, since it was near both main trails and also adjacent to Benedict Creek and an ample water supply. It is flat and a lot of dead fall provided both firewood and material to construct a small sheltered area where we did our cooking.

The first day out we all hike up the Benedict Creek Trail; after looking around near Mount Everly, we return down towards the camp and hunt along a series of glacial benches on the north side of the valley, across from the Devil’s Den mouth. We find a number of digs here, all recent; looks like a couple of good smoky quartz pockets were dug here the season or two before this. There is potential in this area, and it should be looked at more carefully next time.

The following day the three of us hike up the slope into the Devil’s Den. E- is unable to climb up all the way, be he is happy to hunt in the granite along the hillside on the way up. P--- and I go to the west side of the valley and up to the ridge crest where I had found the large smoky pocket two years before. When we get there, we start in digging and soon find that a lot of the pocket still remains. While we didn’t get any more large matrices, we did find another 6-7 flats of good smokies. We pack these carefully and head back to camp.

The following day we take time off and spend some effort cleaning and sorting through the smokies before dividing them up three ways. While doing this, I notice that just adjacent to our campsite, Benedict Creek flows over a smooth, rounded mass of glacially polished granite. It reminded me of "Sliding Rock" located near Hendersonville, North Carolina, where you can sit down in the middle of the stream and it takes you for a terrific ride down the mountainside and dumps you into a pool of icy water. This looks like a smaller, shorter version of this, but I am determined to make it work. I had to move a couple of granite boulders to clear a path, but once done, I was able to test it. Just by sitting at the top of the "slide", the water carries you downhill at a good pace and you end up in a pool of crystal clear water about four feet deep. It is not only a lot of fun, but it’s exhilarating. P--- and I manage to do this dozens of times before insulting our friend E- into doing it himself. Fortunately I was able to photograph this as he slid down the slide with a look of abject terror on his face.

Later that afternoon, a large group of adults and kids stop along the trail at our campsite to visit. They ask me how much farther to Ardeth Lake, and I tell them at this time it’s too late in the afternoon to reach there before it gets dark. I tell them that there’s a great campsite across the stream from us, one that was apparently established some time before we ever used our current site. I added that when they got through setting up, they should come see what I had to show them.

An hour or so later, several of the adults came over with a couple of the kids (there must have been at least four adults and over a dozen kids), so I took them over to our "slide" and gave them a demonstration. This caught on immediately, and for the next two hours, kids and adults were taking turns sliding down and having a ball in general. It was a real riot; only wish I had not used up all my film, as I only got pictures of P--- and E- sliding down. But it was a huge hit with our new friends; I hope that some time in the future I will be able to return here and do this again….and take movies this time!

We have now taken two days off to relax and lounge around the campsite…sometimes it’s nice to not have to do anything at all. P--- and I then hike back up to the Devil’s Den; near the top I find a large boulder with a good-sized pocket opening on its end. I excavate through it, mostly dirt and dust, but when I get one of the specimens home and clean it off, there’s a small helvite crystal attached to an albite matrix with a nice smoky quartz crystal grown in the center. Above this area is a small boulder or talus field; one large boulder has a large patch of quartz visible, usually a good indication of a miarolitic cavity, or at least pegmatite. I scale up the steep side of this boulder and find a large vug opening at the top, but ants have made a nest here, in the natural shelter of the vug, which was filled with soil and pocket clays. I dig through this and find a number of smokies with encrustations of small bertrandite crystals. None of the other minerals (microcline and albite) have bertrandite on them….a curious occurrence, but it may be due to the bertrandite "seeding" on the quartz surface, perhaps due to some kind of charge or even a reaction or catalyst between the quartz and beryllium solutions. We then head up to the Upper Devil’s Den Lake, but find nothing of significance.

We take the next day off to pack our gear; am expecting the outfitter the following day to pick up E- and our gear, but P--- and I hike out the entire distance in about 6-1/2 hours.

This was my last Devil’s Den trip, but I do plan to return here soon. I 2006 we hiked to Elk Lake and spent a week exploring around the area, up into Fall Creek, and also to the ledges where we had collected the east side of the Payette River valley back on our first Devil’s Den trip in 1986. To this day I have never re-discovered the great bertrandite pocket that I found in 1987; I would also like to finish off the 1994 helvite pocket, as this mineral is exceedingly rare. On that note, I should add here that one of the remarkable features of the Sawtooth Batholith is the occurrence of massive pods, veins, and other irregular bodies of deep blue aquamarine. Many of these areas were mapped by Roland Reid in the early 1960’s during his reconnaissance geology work in the range. While visiting one of these located about ¾ mile north of Ardeth Lake, I discovered a mass of granite virtually shot through with massive brown helvite. The rock was at least 40% helvite everywhere on the outcrop; like the beryl counterpart, the rock was very miarolitic, and I found several small vugs, some with perfect tetrahedrons of brown helvite on matrices of corroded microcline, and with small topaz crystals. Such an occurrence is fairly unusual and is an indication of the need to continue research on the mineralogy of this very unique area.

My first trip to Oreamnos Lake was in 1988, and at that time, we discovered that the entire area had not been visited by other mineral collectors. Everywhere we turned we found intact, undisturbed pockets. It was an effort well worth the time, and as a result, my partner and I found a great quantity of fine specimens. One day I opened no less than eight pockets with topaz crystals in them.

The area lies at the head of the Goat Creek drainage, which enters the Payette River about three miles south of Grandjean, Idaho. The name "oreamnos" is from the Latin word for the common mountain goat, "oreamnos americanus". The Goat Creek valley is a "hanging" glacial valley that strikes southeasterly from the Payette River valley for several miles, then turns sharply south just above the Goat Creek Falls. Our fist expedition into this trail less, remote area was planned late in 1987 and executed in the summer of 1988. Because of the difficulties involved backpacking into unknown territory, cutting through brush and undergrowth, climbing over endless deadfall, we spent the first night camped just below Goat Creek Falls, about five miles up from the Payette River Valley.

It took the next day to scale the falls and get to the edge of Oreamnos Lake, where we struck camps for just under two weeks. We spent that time exploring the various drainage basins that fed into Goat Creek, from McWillards Lake, to Packrat Lake and several un-named glacial tarns. During this time we discovered many good miarolitic cavities, and Pete found two very spectacular vugs, one huge opening he discovered under a monstrous granite boulder in a talus field above Oreamnos Lake itself. We left after two weeks burdened down with specimens, and many remained scattered around our campsite on the northwest corner of the lake.

In 1989 I made a solo trip to Upper Cramer Lakes area, late in September, but found nothing of significance. In the interim, I was told by collector L--R--- that he and his partner planned to go to Oreamnos Lake that summer, apparently after finding out we had gone there to collect. At this point I wasn’t much in favor of him, after many years of a one-sided friendship.

In the summer of 1990, after a move to Missoula, I managed to get time off from my job as a jeweler to make another Oreamnos Lake trip. I had already made a fateful trip to the Devil’s Den area above Benedict Creek with Pete & his current girlfriend, who single-handedly managed to ruin the entire expedition, throwing in the towel barely two days into the trip, so we returned to Missoula defeated (but I did manage to open several great pockets).

The second trip was made late in August, solo except for my two keeshond dogs, Orson and Sheba. Orson, the male, was about 12 years old at the time and had a tough time hiking the off-trail trip which totaled almost 11 miles from the trailhead at Grandjean. At the time, "Mountain Man" Rich Knoblock was still alive and staying at his cabin about three miles up from the Goat Creek mouth, so I had plans to visit with him on my return.

The weather was exceptionally hot, and hiking in 100 degree weather was sweaty business. From the trailhead at Grandjean, it’s a level, easy hike along the trail for the first three miles, although you now have to ford the Baron Creek since the footbridge was destroyed by the Forest Service a few years before. Where the mouth of the Goat Creek valley enters the Payette River Valley, there’s quite a steep climb up into the hanging glacial valley. There’s definitely some traffic up here, for up the side of the Payette Valley there’s a distinct trail, although not marked on any map. This is easily followed once in the Goat Creek valley for about a mile, to a small clearing just below a hunter’s campsite. Here, there used to be an old stove in pieces scattered around the campsite, but as time passed, some one apparently removed the pieces until nothing remained.

The hike from the clearing is tough; lots of huge fallen trees obstructing your path, each one requiring you to climb over with your full pack of gear. After several more miles, the north side of the valley floor is covered with loose, slabby granite talus, which slides underfoot so that each step forward takes you two steps back. In order to get a picture of how difficult it is to hike up this valley, we found two years before that you had to hug the northern wall of the valley or else you would end up at the stream where undergrowth was impossibly dense. The south side of the valley was so overgrown with pine and fir that you couldn’t possibly negotiate through it without immense difficulty. The talus slope was therefore, inevitable and no passage around it exists. Orson had an especially difficult time negotiating through this hazard, and I had to encourage him many times to keep up.

The first day was so hot, and the going so difficult, I had to camp below Goat Creek Falls, as we had done two years previous. The following morning, I began the daunting task of scaling up the walls that the falls fell over. This is another obstacle to reaching Oreamnos Lake; the sheer granite wall rises several hundred feet above the lower valley floor, where narrow ledges allow the barest of footholds. There is some minor trails you can follow up this face, perhaps from people, but most probably used by various game traveling up and down the Goat Creek valley.

At the top of the falls, the valley floor levels off again, but another obstacle must be overcome: a dense thicket virtually impenetrable leading into a swamp. On this trip I barely managed to squeeze myself, pack & two dogs through the thicket, then wading through knee-deep water to the upper side. I saw a garter-type snake here, at an elevation of nearly 8,000 feet above sea level! But I have never been able to find a way around this thicket, but it can be bypassed by crossing the Goat Creek to the western side (it is here that the valley takes a sharp turn to the south). The creek is so effluent here that crossing it may be quite dangerous and cutting through the thicket is perhaps the better way.

Above the falls and the swamp, the valley begins to rise in a series of steps up glacially-scoured benches. It is still several miles to go before you reach Oreamnos Lake, but although there are no trails, it isn’t difficult to hike, as the tree cover thins out considerably and you can plot your route in advance.

After traveling a mile or more, I spotted movement in the bushes ahead of me, only a few feet away. At first I saw what appeared to be the brown hair that elk have around their shoulders, but when I stopped, a brown bear rose up on her haunches and spotted me. She was so close I could see the red in her eyes, and I quickly spotted the very small, young cub at her feet. I was panicking, looking for a nearby tree to climb, as she was getting ready to charge, but there was nothing in the immediate vicinity larger than two inches in diameter, plus I had on a sixty-pound backpack that I wouldn’t be able to drop before she nailed me. Luck was on my side, as both my dogs spotted the bear and began to bark loudly; the bear took off up the hill with the little cub right on her heels. After that moment my heart was pounding ninety miles a minute, and I never hiked solo again without making a lot of racket as I went.

It took most of the second day to reach Oreamnos Lake and set up camp, so I didn’t get out collecting until the first full day I spent there. The first day I spent around Oreamnos Lake, trying to find a way to climb to the granite benches above McWilliams Lake. I noticed right away that an old campsite on the north side of the lake, which we had discovered two years previous, had a number of specimens left around it, which it hadn’t before; I brought one back to our old campsite, which I had chosen to stay at again, and the piece neatly fitted to one we had left at our campsite. It was clear that one: those who stayed at that campsite were mineral collectors, two: they had visited either in 1989 or earlier than me in 1990, and three: their carelessness with their fire had led to the destruction of nearly the entire north side of the lake. There was fresh charcoal or burnt wood in the old fire ring (when we saw it in 1988 it was unused for decades at least), and a black, burnt trail lead away from the fire ring about 50 yards to the nearest stand of trees, all of which had been burnt to a crisp. Later, I spoke with the collector, L—R--, who vehemently denied ever having visited the area, as a matter of fact, his denials were so forceful to pretty much prove his guilt in the incident.

I spent the next week wandering around the area, but without the success of our first visit there. We had apparently picked some areas clean, and hunting in the talus fields proved to be difficult, as the dogs simply could not manage the terrain. There was clearly many areas that still needed to be examined, but for some reason, I wasn’t finding much.

These types of "expeditions" require specific planning; that is, each meal, and every tool and piece of gear must be accounted for. Every ounce, every cubic centimeter must be planned down to the last detail. As a result, there are only a certain number of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners available, and at the end of my trip, I was down to one dinner and one breakfast, so I had to leave the following day. But it turned out to be the best day of my stay, as I finally managed to break the streak of bad luck.

I was hunting over the ridge that separates Oreamnos Lake from Cony Lake to the west. Here I found that previous geologists who had projected the contact between the Sawtooth Batholith from the Cretaceous Idaho Batholith were incorrect: on the far west side of the lake was outcrops of Tertiary-age miarolitic granite of the Sawtooth Batholith. The maps showed the contact to run on the east side of the lake, but it does line up with the very obvious contact that runs south from Warbonnet Peak, below Goat Creek Falls, and then into the area around Cony Lake.

I was headed back to the general area of my campsite, and began climbing up the divide between the two lakes, when I spotted a large boulder on the slope which had been split into two halves. This exposed a fairly medium-sized pocket, which held some of its contents, but I had to dig in the dirt between the two split halves to get most of the material, which had weathered into the soil. I found a number of nice smoky quartz crystals, wrapped them up, put them in my pack, and started again uphill.

I came around a corner to a shallow granite ridge crest, which dipped steeply downhill in the direction of glacial ice movement. Here, a second cavity was exposed on the lee side of the granite ridge, where the rock had been plucked by the ice, rather than scoured by it. This second pocket held only a few small smoky quartz crystals, one fairly nice and clear, but overall the vug was only a few inches across and about ten inches deep. Once again, I carefully wrapped my specimens, placing them in my pack, and started again uphill.

Only a few yards above the second pocket I noticed a peculiar feature that made me stop and examine it more closely: where the sheer, plucked face of granite met the more level ground, there seemed to be a cleft in the solid rock, and while it didn’t appear at first to be a pocket, I took off my pack and examined it more closely. I had to get on my hands and knees, as the cleft was at the very lowest level of the granite edge, but by peering in, I could see that inside the cleft were loose slabs of granite.

I started to excavate, digging through the dirt at first, and finally removing the slabs, one at a time. It turned out to be quite a pocket, as the slabs were pocket wallrock with crystals of smoky quartz, microcline, albite, and zinnwaldite mica encrusting one side. Several of these were at least six inches across, and clearly in excellent condition, albeit covered in dirt and clay. I spent over an hour excavating the loose material, which once the pocket entrance was cleared away, came out easily. There was quite a volume of this material, mostly matrix specimens, but some loose smoky quartz crystals and a few Baveno twins of microcline. I would say that overall the vug was only 8 inches across, but a foot or more deep into the granite, and it extended up at least two feet high. At the end, I had an impressive pile of exceptional specimens, and since it was the third pocket I found, one right after another, I dubbed it the "Number Three Pocket".

I packed up all but one exceptional matrix plate, which I very carefully carried by hand down the mountain to my campsite. When I got there I started up the campfire and put my last dinner to rest in a pot, cooking away while I began to scrub off all the crystals from the Number Three Pocket. After a while I heard a splashing and fizzing sound, and looked up to see that my dinner had fallen into the fire, leaving me nothing to eat on my last night on Oreamnos Lake! This was actually very disturbing, as there are no Seven-Elevens nearby, and the kind of activity I had been engaged in always worked up an incredible appetite. I spent a miserable, hungry night, but managed a minimal breakfast before breaking camp and packing up to leave.

Now, hiking out is far easier than hiking in, as it’s downhill all the way. I managed to make fairly good time, and the distance I traveled that day was twice what I had accomplished on the way in. The talus field was still tough, as slipping on the slabby granite was a serious hazard. And Orson began to fall further and further behind, which required a good deal of cajoling and persuading to get him to follow. I had to wait frequently to allow him to catch up, and also to take frequent breaks.

As I reached the lower clearing, about a mile above the mouth of Goat Creek, I took a longer break, and at that time, Orson was with me. I hiked out the last mile, down the east wall of the Payette River to the bottom of the valley, where I stopped on the trail. I saw that Orson was not with me, so I called to him, but still no dog. At this time I was due at Rich Knoblock’s cabin, still three miles away up trail, so I figured he would be right behind me. Orson had already made the Oreamnos Lake trip in 1988, so he had to know his way out, and there was a trail to follow from the clearing, where I had last been with him.

I stashed my pack full of gear and crystals and began the hike to Rich’s with Sheba. This took over an hour, as I was fairly exhausted, but when I got there, he was no where to be found. For whatever reason, he had been unable to keep his appointment to see me, so I reluctantly headed back down the trail to Goat Creek.

When I got there, there was no sign of Orson, so I hiked partway up the east wall into the mouth of Goat Creek, but after calling and calling, still no sign of him. I figured he may have come down and headed for Grandjean, so I hiked back to the lodge there and began to look around for him. Still no sign; none of the residents or visitors had seen him, and being such a distinct breed of dog, it was unlikely he would have been missed. By now, it was getting late, so I made camp near the trailhead and spent the night there.

On the following day, I spent the entire day looking for him. I stopped everyone who came off the trail and asked if they had seen him, but still no luck. At this point I was really beginning to worry, as I knew he was old, and he had been having some difficulty keeping up. I was unable to find anyone who had seen him, and still he hadn’t shown up at the trailhead. So I spent another night there, and early the next morning I set out with a day pack, filled with supplies and some dry dog food, up the trail for Goat Creek valley once again.

After reaching the mouth of Goat Creek, I climbed up the east wall into the valley, calling Orson’s name out every once in a while, but still no sign. I began to think perhaps he had run into one of the local bears, and the consequences were not so pleasant to think about. I continued up the valley for another mile, calling all the time, but still no sign. I eventually came to the lower clearing, where I had last seen him. I stopped and called his name again; still no sign! Then, all of a sudden, there he was, and I was so relieved we rolled around in the grass & I got a thorough tongue-licking. He ate the food I brought along greedily, and we headed out to the trail and down to Grandjean, where I took off and drove to Garden Valley to see Rich.

Rich, who was at the time at least ninety years old (I’m no exactly sure how old he was at this time). He had been involved in an automobile accident and was a little stove up. In addition, his weekly housekeeper hadn’t been able to come around, so his friends asked if I could watch after him for a while until he could get around on his own again. His place, a small mobile home planted along the lower Payette River and about 25 miles east of Garden Valley, where only one other residence was for many miles in any direction. Here, he had an incredible vegetable garden, with melons and lots of other goodies most people couldn’t grow in this climate or altitude, including a small apple orchard and a miniature grape vineyard. The grapes had been planted seven years previous and had taken that duration to bear fruit, the first of which was in large clusters but still green at this time.

I spent over a week with Rich; he needed help getting around, and taking care of his various gardening and farming chores. When I returned to Missoula (actually Clinton), I was unemployed but a week later I had a job with a local engineering firm as a technician. The first day I was to be on the job, I woke up and found Orson had passed away during the night. It was the end of a long friendship.

Smoky quartz on albite matrix, from the Number Three Pocket, near Oreamnos Lake. Size 15.0 x 14.0 x 5.4 cm.; collected in 1990.

Smoky quartz, microcline, albite, zinnwaldite mica, from the Number Three Pocket, Oreamnos Lake. Size 17.1 x 13.2 x 5.9 cm.

Smoky quartz and albite, from the Number Three Pocket, near Oreamnos Lake. Size 10.0 x 5.6 x 4.6 cm. Collected in 1990.

Smoky quartz on albite; same as picture at left, different view.