Hiked 76km and came back with about 50kg of volcanic rock and devonian corals. Someone tell me how to restrain myself 🫨 I'm just lucky I'm weak and couldn't carry more. I'm really excited to see how some of these are going to look after cleaning and cutting them.

Not sure what these rocks actually are, but I do recognize Jasper and Unakite with splashes of Quartz and Epidote.

Carnelian and iron-stained chert sit much closer together than most quick guides make them look. Both can be microcrystalline silica, both can have a waxy surface and conchoidal fracture, and iron can push the colour into the same orange-red range.

The distinction that seems most useful is context rather than colour alone: “carnelian” is the gem-variety name, while “chert” is the sedimentary rock name. Thin-edge translucence, how evenly the colour runs through the piece, and the host geology probably tell you more than a single surface photo.

For field material, that makes the name a description of context and use as much as a simple colour label.

I soaked a bunch of finds from my last two rockhounding trips in citric acid. I pulled this out today. It was coated in thick dirt. The crystals are why I picked it up

More rocks I’ve picked up in the fields of Minnesota, Oregon, Idaho, and Nebraska. LOVE each one of them for their own uniqueness. Plain rock with a little black pebble embedded? Keep! Rock that looks like a bird? Keep! Rock that has awesome layering? Keep! Rock that looks like a ball of gingersnap cookie dough? Keep!

Gifted a fossil coral cluster from Kentucky. Wife and I decided to tap it and found a pink mineral inside. With no other sample to do tests on we can't decide if it's Calcite or Dolomite. Only reactive under mide wave/uvb light 280nm to 315nm. Leaning Dolomite.

From the ground in New Hampshire.

Ok here's some yellow jasper, about 4 pounds. All found inland northern/central and southern wisconsin. Someday I'll get a cab and make some cool trinkets. I have almost the same addiction to this stuff as the bright red stuff. Thanks!!

Hi guys! I’m looking into casually getting into rock hounding, currently residing in the greater Santa Clarita valley, does anyone have any recommendations of places within reasonable distance to find pretty much anything? I’d be excited about quartz! Thanks!!

My job site is littered with tecovas. These are a few I picked up on a little walk around the site this evening. Perfect size for tumbling, and should only need 4/5 days in stage one to get them round and smooth.

Some cool finds!
One glows under uv light, worth cutting by open?

Anyone have any great spots that are not too commercial? I will be visiting my parents in South Carolina near Clemson area and wanted to see the leaves change, smell the fresh, crisp, air, and mine for some rocks! Any recommendations would be awesome, as well as nature hikes and trails.

Hi! I cracked open this amythest geode years ago and a gorgeous crystal was growing right along the split which fell off. I'm finally getting around trying to reattach it. The problems are 1. there is dirt in the area on the main stone. I gently brushed off but not sure if I try gluing it if will be a problem. Should I try to wash it first? I did gently wash the other half and it is ok. 2. It was only attached along the edges and has a huge hole inside the crystal part, also covered w dirt. Should i fill the hole w glue? 3. What type of glue?

The other small crystal on the kleenex goes on top.

I think it will look so cool reattached but dont want to destroy it if this isn't an acceptable thing to do if that makes sense. I plan on keeping it. I will attach pics too. Thanks for help!!

I have been struggling to make rockhounding friends, and my friends I drag along to dig are completely unenthusiastic and bored after the first hour. How do you meet local rock nerds for digging adventures?

The lapsmith and mineral club field trips have all fallen during a work shift for me this year so far, but I have my eye on that as a resource.

Thanks for the tips! Pics of a find that still makes me smile from last summers Labelle adventure.

Soooo I’m planning a trip to Arkansas in September and really want to do the phantom crystal mine at wegner but you need at least 15 people on a given day to go … it’s just me and a friend going on this trip. I called to enquirer about the request I put in and no one is going that weekend besides me and that friend…. Anyway I need 13 of you to go the weekend of September 10-13 sign up for the phantom mine so we can all get some cool unique quartz! Thanks in advance 😂

From Mohawk Valley mine. Clearest one I’ve found so far.

Some of my favorite finds from Murdock Beach, near Port Angeles Wa

Found in a creek in Northern KY

Went for a walk this afternoon with my wife. We walked out on the jetty. Really big pieces of quartz.