Goodsprings, NV Trip June 2015
This trip had been in the planning stages since February when Cliff and I saw each other last. He had been telling me about how we should go to Goodsprings together. He had some great spots as he had been throughout the area plenty of times. He's retired and has a database of abandoned mines with GPS in his car so I don't doubt him! Can't deny that great collecting opportunity!
When the time came around the first thing I noticed was the heat. It was, according to Cliff, "Not as bad as previous years! My car's thermostat maxes at 125ºF and it's hit that several times." This time around the peak was only 113ºF. Phew! Glad I made it on a cool Summer year! Needless to say that 2.5 gallon water jug I brought with me was empty by the end of the day. Throughout the day we visited many lead, zinc, and mercury mines, the first of which was the Pilgrim. Boy did that slightly spoil the trip. One of the things I find earlier on are the rare hydrozincite crystals! Cliff himself was surprised as I had found a specimen that was on par with some of his best despite having been around the area many times. Heh beginners always get the luck. I've seen it too many times on the trips that I host! However, because of this great find, I ended up being slightly infatuated. Every subsequent mine we visited had me asking how likely I was to find even better hydrozincite crystals.
All of that excitement subsided once night rolled around. That's when fluorescent collector me started to get serious. No more tarps to view small sections of the ground. Our night stop was the Addison mine. Cliff wanted to find some of the rare yellow fluorescing willemite that he had seen mentioned in a report. That's when I shifted my focus from finding crystals to a nice bright specimen. Needless to say I wasn't disappointed. The night became alive under shortwave UV (253.7nm) light. So much there was fluorescent. It could have easily been called a field of blue with how much massive hydrozincite was on the ground.
That wasn't quite the end. I had to make one last stop back to the Pilgrim Mine to try finding some more hydrozincite crystals. Probably wasn't going to be very likely as those are much easier to see in daylight but I did it anyways! Overall lots of interesting minerals found and great memories made.