Pack River

The Pack River drains the Selkirk Mountains and flows into Lake Pend Oreille near Sandpoint, Idaho. The DB coordinates for this entry land on the upper river, close to the Bonner-Boundary county line, rather than near Sandpoint itself. This is Belt Supergroup and granitic-batholith country — the Idaho Panhandle broadly is documented for quartz, feldspar, mica, and garnet in its Cretaceous granitic intrusions, reworked by Pleistocene glaciation that exposed fresh mineral-bearing rock. That's regional geological context, though, not a site-specific confirmation: no source in this research names a specific outcrop, gravel bar, or trailhead on the Pack River itself for garnet, feldspar, or mica collecting.

The upper Pack River is reached via Pack River Road, running north from Highway 95/Colburn area into the Selkirk Mountains, in the vicinity of the Bonner-Boundary county line. No specific collecting access point was confirmed in this research.

General regional inference only: if present, these minerals would most likely turn up as loose float in stream gravel or on exposed granitic/metamorphic rock faces along the drainage. No site-specific method could be confirmed.

Land manager for this stretch of the Pack River is UNVERIFIED, though much of the surrounding terrain is Idaho Panhandle National Forests land. For collecting on National Forest land generally, hand-tool surface collecting for personal use is typically allowed, but confirm current rules with the Idaho Panhandle National Forests office before visiting, since public-land rules vary by parcel and some ground here may be private. This is not the same location as the well-known Emerald Creek Garnet Area (which is much farther south, near St. Maries) — don't confuse the two.