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Can you find a diamond on a hiking trail?

Diane and Scott Darling get ready to set out for a hike up the Hanging Lake Trail last week
Contributed photo |

A Carbondale woman is looking for some extra eyes to keep watch along the Hanging Lake Trail in Glenwood Canyon for a special gem she lost there last week.

Diane Darling said she went hiking with her husband, Scott, and a friend on Feb. 6, and upon returning home to Carbondale discovered that the diamond solitaire from her wedding ring was missing.

Though not her original wedding ring, Darling said it’s meaning is just as special because her husband gave it to her on Valentine’s Day 15 years ago to replace the original band he placed on her finger when they were married in 1988.



Darling described the gem as a single, round, “brilliant cut” diamond, 1.06 karats and about one-quarter inch in diameter. It was last reset just a couple of years ago, she said.

“I know the ring was intact that morning, so it had to be sometime when we were there,” Darling said, adding she did put on gloves at the trailhead and took them off when they got back to the car.



“The prongs weren’t bent, so it must have just come loose,” she said.

After searching the car and around the house, she surmised that the gem must have popped out of the ring somewhere near the trailhead or possibly along the roughly mile-and-a-half trail leading up to Hanging Lake.

“There’s certainly an emotional attachment,” she said.

She has reported the missing stone to the police. In case anyone has found it and wonders who it belongs to, they can turn it into the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office or Glenwood Springs Police Department, she said.

“There was a lot of ice and snow still along the trail, so it would be hard to see if that’s where it is,” Darling said, adding the hike required they wear extra traction over their hiking boots.

She said they were out for about four hours, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. that day, in case anyone may have been out about that same time and noticed an extra glint in the snow.

As the snow melts it might become more visible, Darling said.

“It’s going to sparkle as the sun hits it,” she said.

If somebody does find the diamond, Darling asks that they contact the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, reference case number 15-2900.


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