One thing I LOVE about Rockhounding is it is NOT exclusive. ANYONE with a desire to explore the earths treasures can have at it. You dont have to be super wealthy or of a specific social class, gender, age, political party to have access to it. It is literally as simple as “if you have the desire, you can do it!”
It is a MYTH that you have to have a degree in geology, archaeology, or paleontology in order to find valuable rocks or treasures. Truth is, you will learn as you go. I am a firm believer that experience is our greatest teacher. Even when I felt defeated in the beginning, I was learning valuable lessons.
Alright, Alright……BEFORE you get all excited and start writing me about WHERE I should send you….a lady never kisses and tells……I will NOT share these locations with you, so dont even try ;)
I WILL however, give you the tools that will Empower and Inspire you to GO EXPERIENCE YOUR OWN MAGICAL DIGS. ‘Cause aint nothin worse then being robbed of the whimsical, magical feelings of exploring and discovering a place on your own by following a cell phones alerts and demands on how to get to the dropped pin…..uuuuck! (more on THAT on a later day)
I get asked all the time… you can just go dig anywhere?!
how do you know where you can dig?!!
How do you know where they are?
Well, before setting foot out in the abundant lands, do your own due diligence. Make sure the spot you are going to be scoping out isnt an active claim and that you are in fact going to be on public lands (either National Forest or BLM).
There are TONS of resources on the internet these days to double check yo’self . Kinda funny to have to spell it out, but you can ACTUALLY ask google whatever you want, and it will give you ACTUAL answers, go figure!! Ususally this method is used just to draw a broad understanding for whether or not these minerals are even in the area.
Play around with it and specify WHERE you’d like to mine and WHAT kind of minerals you are looking for, youll obviously only find something if those minerals are found in that area.
Mindat.org + Minsocam.org are reputable sources that are pretty slow to learn but excellent resources to do some fact checkin!
When you are first starting out, Field Guides are an excellent resource! You can find em all over Amazon, just type in whatever State you are looking to mine and “Rock Hounding” and see all the books that come up.
You can also check out magazines that focused on rockhounding, from now all the way back to several decades ago! Old magazines like “Rockhounds” and “The Mineralogist” are great resources, as well as old and current issues of “Rocks and Minerals” and “Rock and Gem”.
These Field Guides can lead you on adventures to exact locations but don’t expect to strike it rich there. These locations have been shared with the public which means they have most certainly been picked through. Now, this is the important part to pay attention to!
If you follow the field guide, give all of your attention to where these minerals are coming up and out of the earth from. Take notice of the macro and micro. Draw correlations between the different locations where you are seeing crystal evidence and apply this to virgin territory!
This is precisely how Jay and I find our Crystals. We have learned how to read the land and actively found our very own diggin spots. It takes time, dedication, experience + patience. BUT when you find your very own spot and unearth Crystals there in Virgin ground, there is nothing more satisfying IN THE WORLD. Pure magic.
The REWARD when you hit your very own pocket is worth the several “failures” - because you will come upon clusters and rare growths unlike any other picked through pile.
I DO WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE that mining, if done in an unconscious manner, can actually cause quite a bit of harm and disrespect to the natural environment. Jay and I make a conscious effort to be respectful of mother nature's treasures and do our best to honor these minerals without harming the land. I take the time to feel into each stone, asking for approval to remove from the land before I do so. Often times, we leave behind waay more than we take. It is a beautiful part of the process and one that warms my heart to honor. Another way to respect the process is when we find clusters with nice big crystals on them, we don't even conjure the idea to try to break the crystal off. Instead, we leave it whole and honor it in the form it was offered to us. There are plenty of beautiful single points to go around without having to bash the clusters to get nice points (as we often find marks from novice miners).
So, Ready to try it out?? What you’ll need to bring with you is minimal, but there are just a few essentials.
You can, of course, hunt rocks, gems and fossils with nothing but determination, but there is only so much that you can find just lying in the open for you to just amble by and pick up. Some types of stones are easier to find loose than others of course, but you will need some simple basic equipment to hunt for the Motha Load.
Heres what we carry and use, but feel free to adjust for your own needs:
A backpack, pick axe, chisels, toothbrushes, paint brushes, a sift screen, LOTS of recycled paper (news / mail/ grocery adds/ whatever you have access to that usually gets thrown out), containers (used coffee cans or repurposed tupperware work well) food, water, and whatever survival essentials feel necessary for the situation.
Prospecting isnt all that glamorous, in fact its actually pretty rugged, but……different strokes for different folks! Wear something comfortable, bring layers to protect you from the sun and for gods sake wear boots that are already broken in!
Disclaimer: this isnt a luxury hobby for the city slicka - day dreamer (not talkin trash, love you too, but for real, this wont be fun for you). It is a hobby for the passionate, rugged, fearless and dedicated.
This journey has brought us across many deserts, traveling hundreds of miles on dirt roads, and all that goes along with that….blown tires, overheated radiators, blisters, sprained ankles….you get the point.
so you STILL want to make a trip?!!!!
ALRIGHTY, LETS GOOOOO
I want to clarify the two different ways to actually find the Crystals.
Grazing the top soil (or tailing piles) Which I LOVE to do. You wont find the most spectacular crystals and/or the quantity equivalent to opening a pocket this way BUT they are CLEAN AS A WHISTLE from the hundred or thousands of days exposed to the Sun + Weather. They are true beauties these surface Crystals.
Way number 2:
Mining Virgin Earth aka Revealing Pockets.
When you can actually accomplish this it is AHHH-MAZING. But, you could spend Days/Weeks and never find what you were looking for. The upside is, once you find one….you find MANY. SO, if you are truly determined, this is a good way to go. You end up with many points AND clusters.
Iv’e included some photos crystals chillin in the clay deposits (this’ll be what your looking for once you get there!)
the pup isnt particularly excited about sticking around in one spot….
As for the cleaning process, there are dozens of ways and forums online on how to remove the clay, iron and rust deposits from these crystals. We have tried a few different ways, including the most highly suggested using oxalic acid in crock pots. However, the process was a huge turn off for us. Cleaning crystals with toxic chemicals seems like an oxymoron. Instead, though it may take MUCH much longer, we have found a solution that we prefer. We simply scrub them down over some warm water with a toothbrush, then leaving em out for the summer monsoon. Turns out, there are natural acids in rain that can break down these deposits on their own. Lucky for us, living at 7,500 ft in the mountains, just a few miles from the desert, we get plenty of summer rain from the mild summer monsoons. This method may take months or even years with specific clusters, and not clean them "as good" as the crock pot method but I prefer to keep their energy vibrations high, than for them to "look nicer". Plus, whats the rush?! these crystals have been hanging out under the soil for hundreds- thousands of years, whats another year or two to them anyway? For me personally, the small amount of orange deposits leftover on the crystal using the rain method, only gives them a truer representation of where they came from. I choose to honor these stains and perceive them as beauty marks.
I hope you feel INSPIRED with all the knowledge you’ve acquired to plan a trip and get out there!!!
they’ll be waiting patiently for you, and if you dont get to em this year…..you’ll be another year older when you do :)