Rock and Gemstone Hunting

After my first foray into Rock Hounding activities, I would have to say it will be more involved than I first expected. I thought I was going into it with little expectation only to see how much I had unconsciously built up around the experience. While it is interesting that we found quite a few small crystals lying around from previous dig spoil piles that were washed by the rain, the larger ones remained elusive while we tried to dig to find more. If we had been searching for a specific gemstone, it would have only increased the difficulty.

As it was searching for signs from quartz and mica veins was challenging since the soil around the areas that we were digging in had a very high clay content, making it harder to spot some of those markers. One thing that was poor planning on my part was not accounting for the heat and the hard labor of digging. If we had been searching for a specific gemstone, it would have only increased the difficulty.

We did come back with some good finds and my daughter especially got a kick out of sluicing the dirt off of the stones. Some of the different rocks will be pictured below.

The Emerald Hollow Mine is definitely somewhere I would recommend for people to visit, with a wide variety of knowledgeable staff, frequent visitors, and a variety of creating your own adventure opportunities. How would anyone not get a kick out of digging around in the dirt for some precious gemstones and minerals?

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