Vesper Peak is a 1896 meter high mountain located in the North Cascades range of Washington state. The mountain is mainly composed of quartz diorite, however near the summit are various roof pendants of skarn zones. These skarns host a variety of calc-silicate minerals, the best of which are these lustrous red/orange hessonite variety of grossular garnets. In 2021, a fundraising auction was held to benefit Oregon's Rice Museum. One of the items was an invitation to come collect at Vesper Peak, and in late summer of 2021 Scott Werschky, Scott Ankenbrand and John Gordon spent several nights on the mountain collecting. Here are a few examples of what they found!
