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Off of highway 50 you can visit Topaz Mountain. Kappele's book, Rockhounding Utah, gives directions to the sites and rockhounding there. Bob and I have been there a couple of times. One time it was cold and we nearly froze to death, and the other it was so hot we nearly died of heat stroke! I am not sure this place is worth the grief.
The quest to topaz and garnets We found some and worked hard to get them. Mostly we sifted the sandy washes with a screen to find some chunks and pieces. Finding them in the rock walls requires a great deal of skill and labor to dig them out of vugs or overturn boulders.
The mountain is made of an extremely hard light colored igneous rock that reflects light like a sandy beach. The digging area is shaped like a bowl so the parabola focuses light perfectly on your body!
Hot Bob
Hot Michael
There are roads around the mountain where you can encounter other kinds of outcrops. There are some that are round swirls with garnets in the core and others with colorful minerals. There are some mines in precarious places with roads up hillsides that seem impossible.
When we were first looking at this whole area I am not sure we had eyes for anything other than what was advertised. In another visit I might be on the look out for interesting rocks that have no name.
There are plenty of chips in the sands of the washes in the Topaz Mountain region.
Garnets can be found in the pink/red matrix around the mountain.
The stones of topaz or garnet will be found in. vugs created by large or small gas holes in the gelled rock.
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