Topaz is open to OHV traffic with very few restrictions and is increasing in popularity for that purpose. The BLM can provide you with free maps that outline the exact restrictions. It's important that those who intend to use the area realize that the fragile Topaz ecosystem is typical of Utah desert ecosystems. Everything grows very slowly and won't recover quickly from damage of any kind. Juniper trees, in particular, will not recover quickly from having limbs damaged. It takes 75 years for a juniper to grow from seedling to the point where it can produce seed of its own.
Enjoy Topaz but "tread lightly" and remember that almost no trash items will decompose in the dry desert environment. This sign pretty much says what needs to be said in regard to trash.
Here's
the turnoff from the paved road to the Topaz Rockhounding area. This turn
takes you North. They grade the road every century or so whether it needs
it or not. It usually gets about a C- or a D+. (Sorry... bad pun.) Follow
the road until you see the sign below.
"Open
to digging with hand tools only. Closed to new mining claim location. Please
respect existing mining claims." There may be people working existing claims
but I haven't seen any lately. To reach this sign you turned left (West)
a bit from the first dirt road. Keep going west until the road leads you
into Topaz Valley.
The road
gradually turns right (North) to lead you into the valley. Topaz Mountain
is composed of light-colored rhyolite flows from ancient volcanic activity.
Near
the center of the valley is a hump of material that contains some of the
best topaz specimens in the valley. In this picture you can see the light
grey areas where lots of work has been done. There's still plenty of topaz
here.
Here's
the "hump" up close. There are several campsites within just a few yards
of this area.
Topaz
mountain is made mostly of light colored flows from an ancient volcano.
The light colored rhyolite is often honeycombed with softer areas that
weather away to make some interesting rock surfaces..
The
flows often produce quite striking formations. This outcropping high on
the west wall of Topaz valley is about twenty feet tall.
This
is a newly exposed outcropping next to the main road/wash. The prospects
looked promising here. (I visited with the guy working here and saw him
collect 15-20 fairly nice specimens in about 10 minutes.) To mine topaz
one simply breaks up the parent rock with a hammer and chisel. The rhyolite
has softer pockets of material that can be broken up and explored with
a screwdriver or ice pick. The topaz crystals are found in these softer
areas.
Here
is an older, well-worked outcropping on the west wall. You can see holes
where the softer portions of the rock yield topaz crystals.
Another
approach to finding topaz crystals is to follow any of the washes found
in the canyon.
The
bottoms of the washes are filled with white rhyolitic sand.
Sifting
through the sandy washes by hand or with a 1/8" to 1/4" wire mesh screen
can yield an abundance of crystals.
The
color in this photo doesn't do the crystals justice but the one on the
left is sort of a salmon-pink color and the one on the right is colorless.
The crystals you mine directly from the parent rhyolite will be pink. The
crystals retreived from the washes will have been bleached by the sun to
a colorless state but they're still pretty.
While
taking the above photo, I saw a glint in the sand and within about two
minutes we found the crystals you see here. We were standing in the middle
of the main wash/road. If finding topaz is that easy, nobody ought to be
disappointed.
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This page was created just for the fun of it by Evan Whitaker and was last updated on February 14, 1998. If you have comments, questions, additions or corrections please e-mail me at evanwhitaker@alpine.k12.ut.us.