Sentinel Butte – August 2021
This spot is mentioned in a Panorama Gem Club newsletter. The article’s author mentions coming out here around 2005. Since then, the area has significantly changed, especially as of 2015 when a wildfire came through.
Luckily, rocks are fireproof so we figured we could still maybe find something good. The Panorama Gem Club article talks about quartz crystals, smoky quartz and tourmaline. This site is right off of Boulder Creek Road, then half a mile down a dirt road. When we were here in August it was cool and raining so we didn’t risk driving the road and instead walked it.
We easily found the spot we were looking for but didn’t easily find the vein as mentioned in the newsletter, or anything of much interest. There definitely was quartz and tourmaline but nothing of great quality or quantity. On a less rainy day, it could be worth investigating the hills in the area or doing some exploratory digging.
