Southern Arizona is place that is unlike any other in the United States.  If you've never been here before it is well worth the trouble to get here - maybe not during the summer months but during the winter there is no place like it in the west.  I spent most of yesterday on a hike in the nearby hills to get away from the computer, emails, and yes, even rocks.  The past couple of days have been somewhat cool and wet with snow in the higher mountains.  The air has been crystal clear and the views have been fantastic!

Following out Speedway Blvd. to the west you enter the hills and quickly find yourself in a pristine landscape.  I took my camera, some water and pent up energy and set out on foot to capture some images of the surrounding area with the old growth saguaro (pronounced: sa-whar-oe) cactus which is indigenous to this region.

Here is downtown Tucson from about 5 miles away looking east.

 
Here are views of Tucson from about 10 miles west of town and on the right is a view of the south Tucson area.

 
Here are views from one of the nearby peaks looking west out over the vastness of the Sonoran Desert.
The picture on the left was shot on the other side of the peak in this photo on the right.

 
Here is a close up of a photogenic saguaro cactus with budding branches. The picture on the right is of a pear cactus species.  The flowers are electric with their color. 

 
On the left is an ocatillo with cholla cactus below it.  On the right is a costas hummingbird that I spotted on a small shrub.
You may be surprised to know that there are 14 or more species of hummingbird that live in the
Sonoran desert - more diversity for hummingbirds than anywhere else in North America.

Back to the minerals here at the show.

On a tip from Keith Hayes (kqminerals.com) I went to the Pueblo Inn.  There I found a German dealer with some very fine crystal specimens of gem grossular from Meralani, Arusha, Tanzania.  This is the world famous locality for tanzanite.  It is also well known for producing these spectacular crystals of gem grossular.

Here are two of the grossulars I obtained.  The one on the right is very gemmy and very lustrous.

At the Executive Inn Jordi Fabre had some specimens of a new and very rare mineral - cobaltarthurite from the Dolores prospect, Pastrana, Mazarron-Aguillas, Murcia, Spain.  This locality, also the type locality, was written up in an article published in the Mineralogical Record last summer.   Jordi's specimens are co-type material and all of them come with handwritten and signed labels by the author - J. Vinals.

Here is one of the three specimens I obtained from Jordi.  The cobaltarthurite is the olive green sprays in the close up.

I visited Dudley Blauwet at the Raddison Hotel.  This was a good move on my part as Dudley had lots of really great new material. The Raddison is a jewelry show only but Dudley had 100 flats of new material from Afghanistan and Pakistan in one of the rooms there.  I found some new specimens of etched fluorite with and without topaz on albite from Yuno, Shigar Valley, Pakistan.  The fluorite is very reactive under SW UV light and also phosphoresces several seconds after the light is removed.  He also has some fine specimens of crystalline Amazonite from Madan Shar, Kabul, Afghanistan. Amazonite from there has an almost gel-like translucency. I found three that were well crystallized.  I also found a unique specimen of schorl with tabular habit and unreal crystal patterns on the pinacoid from Kollona, Sri Lanka.

Here are several shots of one of the bluish green fluorite specimens I obtained
from Dudley. The fluorite is undamaged but has been deeply etched.  

Here are several shots of the Sri Lankan schorl specimen. Note the patterns on the basal pinacoid. 

 
This is one of the specimens of amazonite I obtained from Dudley.

I stopped at the Inn Suites to meet up with Steve Perry and found out that Steve obtained what has to be one of the most unusual specimens of spinel anyone is likely to encounter. He found a Burmese ruby spinel that is dominantly dodecahedral in crystal form. 99.99999% of all spinels are octahedral in form.  Period. That is how they come.  Steve found one at the gem show that is dominantly dodecahedral with octahedral face modifications.  When he first showed it to me I assumed it be a red pyrope garnet.  I was totally surprised to learn that this was spinel.   It is hard to convey just how remarkable this crystal is - just that it is very, very rare and extraordinary.  Steve says this is not for sale for the time being...

Here are two views of this 1.5 cm crystal of ruby spinel.