About: This is now a "relatively" closed area for specimen collecting. This now lies within a Wilderness area which means you have to hike in and out to get there. A Wilderness designation does not mean that you can not collect with hand tools it just means that you should disturb as little as possible. According to Lanny Ream of the Mineral News and an Idahoan the Big Horn Crags is in tertiary granite of the Crags Batholith. He said that the western 2/3 may be closed to collecting by local USFS decision. My comment is that this may not be legal on the basis that the Wilderness Act does not preclude exploration activities - only the patenting of claims and establishment of new claims. Two thirds of the area lies within the River of No Return Wilderness. The eastern third of the area may be accessible by car and should still be open. My commentary is that it can still be "prospected". The area has a few large outcrops which may have some promising cavities from which to get some of these beautiful specimens but the collecting is difficult since there are very few exposed cavities in the host rock. All of the smoky quartz I have seen from here is rootbeer colored and facet grade. Some nice combinations occur in this region.
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