I admit to being way behind on my photo challenges, but it’s only because Hubby and I have been on a two-week road trip, from which we have just returned.  I took so many pictures on that trip that I can do all my challenges from just the photos I took!

Now, being born in April, my birthstone just happens to be diamond.  I have quite a bit of diamond jewelry, most of the stones being small since I don’t much like frou-frou and prefer simple elegance.  And no, I won’t be including pictures.

On our trip, we stayed at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, a venerable resort which has been around for decades.  They have a shop there that deals in minerals, and my eye was caught by a display they keep outside the door for people to admire when they walk by.

The rock with the attached quartz crystals is about two feet high, and the individual crystals range from about eight inches to under an inch in height.  I thought this was especially beautiful, with all the variation in size and shade.

At the end of our journey, we stayed in a fantastic hotel right on the Clark Fork River in Missoula, Montana.  In the morning, we took a precarious walk down on the rocky beach.  I kept my head down, looking for pretty rocks.

This pretty ordinary rock had a vivid band of quartz in an unusual position.  It looked like a ring!

And these rocks had different kinds of quartz bands, which were originally layers of quartz in a sedimentary rock which was broken up by gravity and water.

Ain’t Nature wonderful?

Here’s the link to Terri’s Original Post.