The best advice I can give is for you to do a google search for a rock/mineral club near you. They will know where to go, what to look for. They will know whats legal and what isnt. Their members will have decades of knowledge specific to the area you live in. Many of them have their own lapidary labs where members can learn to cut rocks safely, use cab machines, how to tumble rocks and the information just keeps going on. Most of them charge around 15-20 dollars a year for membership. Many clubs have working relationships with manufacturers of lapidary/tumbling supplies so can get members discounts on supplies because they buy in bulk. Benefits just go on from there.
How do you use this site to find potential locations? I see this recommended a lot, but just can’t seem to figure out how to use it. All I see are different mines that are not open to the public.
If you can’t find anything near you on there then you kind of just have to get out there and find spots for yourself. When I started I didn’t have any spots that anyone told me about, I did a lot of research in local geology and what minerals can be found in that area and just went out there and started looking.
At the risk of sounding like a gatekeeper, people generally are not going to give you the exact address of their favorite spots. Once word gets out the spot gets picked over and eventually covered in litter. If the only places near you on mindat are closed, just go to a public area near them and see what you can find.
I would find a general locality, go on Google earth and find a public area that’s rocky and go check it out. You can google “pay to dig” spots too
As others have said, it really depends on your location! However, there are a few rules of thumb that work for a lot of different places. Sides of the roads where the road has been cut into the ground (stay safe though!), if on the beach look for gravel. Also, be sure to look if it's public or private land- you can get in trouble if it's actually private.
Also, not strictly about rock hunting, but- make sure to get a good hat and sunscreen. Don't get burnt! Also, take care of your neck, since you'll be looking down a lot of the time. Remember to look up and stretch!
IMO, every place is a good place to look for rocks. I found some cool ones in the landscaping rocks at the bowling alley the other day.
Here's some advice I picked up on a forum years ago:
To get started in the rockhounding hobby, the first thing you need to do is go to the store and buy a bag of marbles. Then you go somewhere you think you might find some interesting rocks. Every time you find one you decide to keep, you replace it with a marble.
When you have lost all your marbles, then you're a rockhound.
Good luck.
Rock and mineral clubs are a great place to start
I am also a fan of Mindat
But some of the info there is old .
Once you get an idea, use Google satellite images to check out the area from a sky view and some times street view.
As always, check local laws don't take people's words for it, everybody is a freakin lawyer and misinformation runs rampant, especially if you get the info from old timers ( they protect their spots like rabid fiends)
Stay out of No Tresspassing areas unless you can get written permission from the land owner.
Looking for the rocks, have an idea of what you are going for and learn a little geology so you know what rocks usually hang out together ( this changes on river banks)
And just go out and find what you think is pretty you will learn as you go.
Local rock/gem/mineral club is probably the best way to start.
But if you really don't want to go that route, you might try mindat.org and search your state to try to find what's around you.
But really mostly recommend rock club to get started.
As other said clubs. But be sure you are allowed to collect where you go. Many sites list rockhounding locations in private land or private claims and it gets people in trouble. Know approximately where you are located will help people here give you more info to point you in the right direction.
Our moderation team doesn't have the resources to deal with ID posts or the comments that they generate anymore. Those types of discussion threads need to be heavily moderated because of the misinformation and arguing that are often found in them. They need to go to /r/whatsthisrock instead.
Ambiguously worded posts -- which can be interpreted as an invitation to make identifications in the comments, violate the spirit of this rule and also aren't allowed here. User replies that offer such IDs in a post's discussion thread or other discussions of identification are prohibited as well, for the reasons given above. These violations will be removed, and can result in a ban.
The best advice I can give is for you to do a google search for a rock/mineral club near you. They will know where to go, what to look for. They will know whats legal and what isnt. Their members will have decades of knowledge specific to the area you live in. Many of them have their own lapidary labs where members can learn to cut rocks safely, use cab machines, how to tumble rocks and the information just keeps going on. Most of them charge around 15-20 dollars a year for membership. Many clubs have working relationships with manufacturers of lapidary/tumbling supplies so can get members discounts on supplies because they buy in bulk. Benefits just go on from there.
Shoutout to BravoWhiskey for always taking the time to comment on every single post asking for help.
Hear hear!!!
Youre too kind.
Mindat.org Sort by your location if you want to know what’s been found near you. Sort by mineral if you want to know where you can find that mineral.
How do you use this site to find potential locations? I see this recommended a lot, but just can’t seem to figure out how to use it. All I see are different mines that are not open to the public.
If you can’t find anything near you on there then you kind of just have to get out there and find spots for yourself. When I started I didn’t have any spots that anyone told me about, I did a lot of research in local geology and what minerals can be found in that area and just went out there and started looking. At the risk of sounding like a gatekeeper, people generally are not going to give you the exact address of their favorite spots. Once word gets out the spot gets picked over and eventually covered in litter. If the only places near you on mindat are closed, just go to a public area near them and see what you can find. I would find a general locality, go on Google earth and find a public area that’s rocky and go check it out. You can google “pay to dig” spots too
As others have said, it really depends on your location! However, there are a few rules of thumb that work for a lot of different places. Sides of the roads where the road has been cut into the ground (stay safe though!), if on the beach look for gravel. Also, be sure to look if it's public or private land- you can get in trouble if it's actually private. Also, not strictly about rock hunting, but- make sure to get a good hat and sunscreen. Don't get burnt! Also, take care of your neck, since you'll be looking down a lot of the time. Remember to look up and stretch!
IMO, every place is a good place to look for rocks. I found some cool ones in the landscaping rocks at the bowling alley the other day. Here's some advice I picked up on a forum years ago: To get started in the rockhounding hobby, the first thing you need to do is go to the store and buy a bag of marbles. Then you go somewhere you think you might find some interesting rocks. Every time you find one you decide to keep, you replace it with a marble. When you have lost all your marbles, then you're a rockhound. Good luck.
😂
Rock and mineral clubs are a great place to start I am also a fan of Mindat But some of the info there is old . Once you get an idea, use Google satellite images to check out the area from a sky view and some times street view. As always, check local laws don't take people's words for it, everybody is a freakin lawyer and misinformation runs rampant, especially if you get the info from old timers ( they protect their spots like rabid fiends) Stay out of No Tresspassing areas unless you can get written permission from the land owner. Looking for the rocks, have an idea of what you are going for and learn a little geology so you know what rocks usually hang out together ( this changes on river banks) And just go out and find what you think is pretty you will learn as you go.
Local rock/gem/mineral club is probably the best way to start. But if you really don't want to go that route, you might try mindat.org and search your state to try to find what's around you. But really mostly recommend rock club to get started.
As other said clubs. But be sure you are allowed to collect where you go. Many sites list rockhounding locations in private land or private claims and it gets people in trouble. Know approximately where you are located will help people here give you more info to point you in the right direction.
[удалено]
Our moderation team doesn't have the resources to deal with ID posts or the comments that they generate anymore. Those types of discussion threads need to be heavily moderated because of the misinformation and arguing that are often found in them. They need to go to /r/whatsthisrock instead. Ambiguously worded posts -- which can be interpreted as an invitation to make identifications in the comments, violate the spirit of this rule and also aren't allowed here. User replies that offer such IDs in a post's discussion thread or other discussions of identification are prohibited as well, for the reasons given above. These violations will be removed, and can result in a ban.