We headed out of Melrose around 9:00 am, taking the Frontage Road north to Divide, Montana and then west on Highway 43. About 100-200 yards past the small town of Dewey, take the road heading south that is plainly marked by a National Forest sign as Quartz Hill. Within 100 yards the road turns into a semi good condition gravel road. We parked our truck in a pullout just as the road turned to gravel, unloaded the Arctic Cat ATV and were on the way up into the mountains by 9:35 am.
Ghost Town Coordinates: 45.715551, -112.901037
The road heads straight south into the Pioneer Mountains and gains elevation rather quickly as opposed to the Calvert Mine road. The scenery was wonderful so we took our time and soaked in the pine tree smell and cool air as we puttered up at 10-15 mph. At about the 5 mile point we came upon a old mining town (ghost town?) with about 5 or 6 weathered and decaying wood buildings. We spent some time looking over a few of the old buildings before heading north up a road just past this ghost town.
Free Standing Chimney Coordinates: 45.715993, -112.902250
It didn’t take long for us to find some “cool” rocks. We parked the ATV in a pull out at the old free standing chimney. There are interesting rocks just laying on the road so there is no use in digging into the road cut or disturbing the soil. I classify the rocks we found at this location as “shiny and glittery coated” quartz. Nothing that will make you rich and famous but some samples certainly will be displayed prominently in our house. Just plain cool rocks!!!!!
Fenced mine shaft – Click for bigger photo
Really Shiny and Glittery Rock Mine Tailing Coordinates: 45.731615, -112.903436
We continued heading north on this primitive and rough road better suited for ATV’s but definitely passable for a 4 wheel drive truck (Yours, not mine). There is evidence of mining all along this road and right to the top at an elevation of about 7,835 feet. There are a few fenced off mine shafts at the top of this road and mine tailings at this sight. We continued heading north on this very rough and narrow road until we found some old mine tailings and a few old building. These mine tailings contained some more very cool rocks in the “really shiny and glittery” category. Again there is no need to dig around as all the rocks are just sitting on the surface. Sure you could dig and find some even better rocks and maybe something valuable but that’s not our style. We spent about 30-40 minutes poking around this pile of old rocks before figuring we had enough.
We had planned on continuing heading further north but the road got steep, rocky and “sidehilled” so we changed plans. While researching this area before coming to Montana I discovered a small lake located off another spur road further to the East. I got out the GPS unit headed for that lake.
Coordinates of “Knoby Park” or “The Big Meadow”: 45.742554, -112.886419
The scenery along this road was amazing even for Montana standards. There are a lot of small meadows along the ridge line and each meadow was covered in wildflowers. And then there are vistas of the surrounding mountains and distant mountain chains. Stunning scenery…we thought! That was until we got closer to the lake where there is a huge meadow covered in deep green grass and views that stretched forever. We stopped along the road as close to the lake as we could get and walked to the ridge line above it. After the last few days we were concerned that deer flies and mosquitoes would probably enjoy living near the lake so we stopped about 1/10 of a mile before getting to it. The saddle we were on, more commonly call Knoby Park had a nice cool breeze and the deer flies weren’t too interested in us. So we had lunch in the middle of a wonder high mountain meadow in almost perfect weather conditions. There may be some heartless people living in this world that might not see the beauty and peacefulness of this very special place but they’d have to be just plain evil to not be at least a little impressed with Knoby Park of the Pioneer Mountains.
Click photo for bigger version of Knoby Park
More Rocks and Places
With our stomachs full from lunch and our brains filled with great memories of Knoby Park headed back to the mining district. With all the old mine tailings right along the return road, the hard part would be not stopping at each one of them. We make a few stops as we headed back towards Quartz Hill Road collecting a few more amazing “cool rock” specimens. I don’t think we had to get more than 3 feet off the road to find rocks we wanted to take home.
Once back on Quartz Hill Road we continued south looking for some uncharted rock hounding finds. The road starts heading even higher and tops out at about 8,300 feet just two road miles south of the ghost town. We found a few small deposits of opalized quartz along side the road but it wasn’t in the best condition. Maybe some other day we could explore more places along Quartz Hill Road but we had enough for one day.
Just a Side Note
We actually planned this rock hounding trip to Quartz Hill because we heard there are some quartz crystals to be found in this area. We found nothing in the quartz crystal category so if you head up there for some rock hounding, let me know what you found. Of course, I’m pretty sure anyone who reads this article will take the information I provide them and never bother returning the favor. I have just two words for this “Karma Bus”. But one can hope that common courtesy still exists somewhere out there in this rude and crude new digital age.
Link to a few more pictures of our rock hounding trip to Quartz Hill Montana:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tim.bondy/RockHoundTripToQuartzHillInMontana#
Map of Quartz Hill, Montana:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=45.731468,-112.88744&spn=0.046432,0.132093&t=p&z=14
Thanks for visiting and commenting on this Montana outdoor rock hounding adventure.
Tim Bondy
The Bondyweb.Com author