Why hunt rocks?
People who hunt for rocks usually identify themselves as "rockhounds". They find pleasure in collecting their own natural objects. While the most valued rocks among collectors are shiny (or hard enough to be polished an shiny) have interesting shapes, or biological history (e.g. fossils), a "good rock" is any stone that attracts your eye. Once collected, the rock is entirely yours; you can hold it, stroke it, display it, throw it --- whatever.
For some rockhounds, the search for rocks satisfies a desire to explore the unknown, something like fishing – you never know what you will find. It is perhaps a type of prospector's fever. Hunting for rocks can involve backcountry navigation, maps, compasses, dead-reckoning, and the truth in a special rock site that an old codger told you about. In the age of electronics, mobile phones, instant information, and man-made environments, rock-hunting is a throw-back to the basics.
Rock hunting can be clean, such as looking for pretty pebbles on a beach or the surface of the land. It can be downright dirty, muddy, and wet, requiring hours on your side or back in a hole you've dug. A hunting trip may include rain,snow, freezing temperatures, or be brilliantly sunny and hot. It can involve heavy-duty shoveling, swinging a heavy sledge hammer, and hazardous conditions, depending on how crazy you are and whether you have no scruples hanging off of cliffs.
For most, rockhunting involves both a private joy and a more public display of geological booty, and it's all yours. Bragging rights are important and "trophy" rocks are displayed in the home. There's also the stories about "the one that got way – it was too heavy, too deep, or too attached to other rock to get out".
Finally, there are many things that can be done with rocks besides diplaying them, ranging from polishing to jewelry, from collage to mosaics. There's nothing like making a creation from a rock you collected yourself.
What to Wear
Getting together suitable clothes for being outdoors is an important part of enjoying an outing, and may be a deciding factor in your survival if you can't come home right away. Depending on the type of collecting you decide to do, you should be well prepared for the weather. This includes:
- Old clothes and complete body covering (long sleeves and pants), although in very hot places shorts and T-shirts might suffice.
- In hot weather, be sure to bring hats and sunscreen.
- Work gloves and boots are usually a must, especially gloves. The gloves can be cheap garden gloves or leather work gloves.
- Raingear may be appropriate in some settings, or even wading boots if you plan to hunt for rocks in streams or at the beach.
- A complete change of clothes (including shoes and undies) is highly recommended, along with a plastic bag to put dirty wet clothes into for the ride home.
What to bring
Plan to bring tools and supplies suitable to the type of rock collecting you plan on doing. This includes not only digging or hammering tools but also maps, food supplies, and water.
- Maps and descriptions of the rock collecting site(s) are important to bring. There are gazetteers or atlases that show recreational backgroads and US Topo maps that show trails and the steepness of the terrain. In the USA, current Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management maps are extremely helpful, along with the names, numbers, or mileposts found along the roads you will travel.
- Several books (like the "Gem Trails" series) have good descriptions of collecting sites and the rules and restrictions (like permits) that are required. Bottom line: Bring clear directions to your rock sites if at all possible, along with , supplementary maps, a GPS if you have one, a compass.
- Be sure to familiarize yourself with the restrictions or laws (permits) pertaining to the site; private land or "claims" cannot be searched without permission.
- Plenty of water and food are essential for keeping your energy up and staying hydrated in hot weather. Unless you plan to be a long ways from your car, you can bring several gallons along. You should also carry food and water in case you get lost or stuck in the backcountry.
- Leave information with a dependable person about where you are going and when you'll return. They'll need that info if you fail to come home on time.
- Collecting buckets or bags should be brought along with a mind to their ease in carrying, especially if their full of rocks. Many rockhounds use 5- gallon buckets, cloth bags, or backpacks to carry out what they find.
- If you expect to collect fragile rocks, like crystals, include some newspaper or other packing to get them home intact.
- For hard-rock mining bring rock hammers, wedges, chisels, eye-protection, and gloves. Some also carry crowbars, sledges, picks, and chisels.
- For digging you'll want a shovel, pick, geologist hammer, garden tools, and even a sitting pads. Many hunters also bring a spray bottle for washing off their rocks immediately after extraction to see what they look like under all the caked dirt.
- For streams or beaches you may want rubber boots, waders, shovels, or screens
Getting There
What kind of transportation will you use? Consider the limits of passenger cars versus trucks and 4-wheel drive vehicles. What type of terrain and roads do you expect to travel? Will you be walking or hiking any distance from a car? Some thoughts:
- Passenger cars can't handle heavy potholes, mud, or steep uphill terrain. How high are the axels from the ground?
- Four-wheel drive cars and trucks are needed for the steepest and roughest terrain, but there are limits even for these. Plan on hiking from a safe point on a road rather than trying to drive all the way to the site.
- Use road markers, terrain and map contours, road names and numbers, descriptions (turn left at the old farm house), a compass, or whatever information can get you there and back.
- Getting there is only part of the game; consider how easily you can get back out carrying packs, bags, tools, and buckets of rocks.
The Wheres and Whats of Hunting
Select a rock collecting site consistent with what you're prepared to do, be it digging, hard-rock mining, or stream collecting. Once you get to the proposed area:
- It sounds obvious, but look for signs of where other people have been digging or removing rock. You can work an existing hole or rock face, or start your own in a similar location nearby.
- Look around on the ground! You often can find examples of the kind of rock you can collect. These range from small chips, stones, or pieces that came out of the ground nearby. Often you can find a real prize on the ground that others have left behind. Looking around gives you a better feel for what to look for when you start hunting in earnest.
- Books and rock club maps describing the site often describe what can be found. Use pictures and descriptions to compare with what you find. Remember: whatever rocks you find attractive are "good rocks".
- Before you leave the site or get back in the car, find a way to clean off rocks for inspection if necessary. Mud puddles, streams, or a squirt bottle work great. Consider breaking open several rocks to see whether you like what's inside. Many rockhounders practice a "catch and release" philosophy: put everthing into the bucket and then sort out the less desirable rocks and leave them behind.
- Another collecting consideration is the size and weight of rocks you can reasonably get home. If you expect to tumble your rocks, anything smaller than your fist is fine. If you plant to cut slabs from your rocks, you may want some a bit larger. Remember too that there may be a maximum weight or limit to what you can remove from the collecting site, based on local, state, or federal law.
- What do more experienced rockhounders take home? Many folks prefer the harder rocks (using what's called the Moh's scale) like agates, jaspers, petrified wood, etc. because they polish well and become shiny. Sparkling crystals or curiously shaped rocks are also prized.
- You may meet other rockhounders at the site or coming and going. Most rockhounders happily will show you what they've found and even suggest where you might best hunt yourself. But, like secret "fishing holes", rockhounders may not reveal their favorite places. One great way to experience rockhunting is to go on a field trip with a local rock club group.
- Be considerate to others and the ecology of the land. Fill in small holes that you have worked and pack out all your garbage.
Cleaning your Catch
Cleaning your rocks when you get home is essential, whether you plan to display them, cut them into slabs, or tumble them.
- Clean your rocks under a faucet, preferably in a bucket, so that grit and sand don't clog your drains.
- Scrub your rocks with appropriate brushes (old toothbrushes work great) to get them clean.
- Some rockhounds even use dental picks and other tools to get their crystal specimens and fossils very clean (after they've dried).
Trips, Shows, and Like-Minded Folk
There are rockhounding enthusiasts almost everywhere. A search on the internet or your local library will reveal rock clubs in your area where you can learn about collecting, go on field trips with others, and learn how to polish rocks for display or jewelry.
There may be several annual rock shows (not rock and roll, but "trade" shows with rocks) where you can "collect" rocks for a few dollars, see examples of collections, and learn how to polish, facet, set, or otherwise use rocks in your own creations. Your local rock club will know about these shows. The internet is also useful in this respect.
Rock shops are also found in many cities and towns where you can purchase rocks, chat up the proprietor in search of secret rocks sites in the area, and buy supplies, from tools to lapidary equipment and jewelry settings.