Rockhounding and fossil sites in the West
Rockhounding and fossil sites across the West, each compiled from its own sources: what you can collect, how much, and the agency rule.
Point at a dot to see the place.Tap a dot to see the place.
Arizona
- Black Hills Rockhound AreaSafford · Rockhound areaA BLM rockhound area about 18 miles north of Safford, Arizona, where fire agate is dug free from the top two feet of ground, no permit required.
- Diamond Point crystal collection sitePayson, Arizona · Crystal collection sitePublic collection area for doubly terminated quartz crystals (locally called Herkimer or Payson diamonds, though they are clear quartz), weathered out of cavities in the Martin Formation along Diamond Rim.
- Round Mountain Rockhound AreaDuncan · Rockhounding areaA popular rockhounding area located near the town of Duncan in eastern Arizona.
California
- Chambless Rock Collecting AreaChambless · Rock collecting areaA Bureau of Land Management rockhounding ground off National Trails Highway near Chambless, California, where green epidote carrying metallic hematite blades lies along the Trilobite Wilderness boundary.
- Clear Creek Management Area gem collectingBLM management areaThe Bureau of Land Management's Clear Creek tract in southern San Benito County holds more than 150 minerals, among them the state gem benitoite, in serpentine that is also an asbestos deposit.
- Flattop Mountain Rock Collecting AreaNeedles · Rock collecting areaA Bureau of Land Management rock collecting area west of Needles, California, where jasper lies on both sides of a dirt route at the base of Flattop Mountain.
- Inyo NF obsidian digs (Glass Creek, Obsidian Dome, Deadman Creek)Highway 395 Corridor June Lake · Observation siteThree young lava domes of black obsidian and gray pumice on the Inyo National Forest north of Mammoth Lakes, California, dated by tree rings to a single eruption in 1350 CE.
- Savahia Peak Rock Collecting AreaVidal Junction · Rock collecting areaThe large wash north of U.S. Highway 62 just 2 miles east of Vidal Junction is an excellent site for collecting chalcedony, which can be found from Highway 95 extending east approximately 1 mile.
- South Yuba River SP gold panningPenn Valley · Gold panningModern-day gold seekers can play out the story of the gold rush using only bare hands and shallow gold pans. Visitors may keep any gold they find.
- Wiley Well District Geode BedsBlythe · Geode bedsBeautiful desert country of the Little Chuckawalla, Mule, and Palo Verde Mountains and the Black Hills; rich in history from gold rush days to General Patton's tank training during World War II; contains ancient fossils and artifacts from early Native Americans, pioneers, conquistadors, ranchers, and military troops.
Colorado
Montana
- Crystal Park Mineral Collection AreaRockhounding (crystals) areaA Forest Service dig at 7,800 feet on Montana's Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway, where anyone with a shovel and a screen may take quartz and amethyst from decomposed granite.
- Glendive Short Pine OHV Area fossil and mineral collectingGlendive · OHV areaGlendive Short Pine OHV Area is a 2,800 acres recreation area classified by the BLM as a limited area; which means operators are limited to existing roads and trails for motorcycles, four wheelers, four-wheel drive trucks and sport-utility vehicles. The vast array of trails crisscrossing the landscape gives motorists the option of an easy ride or a steep challenge.
- Libby Creek Recreational Gold Panning AreaLibby · Recreation areaA Kootenai National Forest public gold-panning area in the Libby area; visitors use picks, shovels, buckets and pans and keep what they find.
Nevada
- Berlin-Ichthyosaur State ParkGabbs · State parkA Nye County state park that holds Berlin, a company-owned gold camp of the 1890s, and a barn sheltering giant ichthyosaur bones left in the rock where they were found.
- Garnet Hill Rockhound AreaEly · Public recreation areaA Bureau of Land Management rockhound area in the Egan Range west of Ely, Nevada, where dark almandine garnets weather out of pink rhyolite and wash into the gullies.
- Ice Age Fossils State ParkNorth Las Vegas · State parkA 315-acre state park in North Las Vegas, Nevada, where a trail runs through trenches bulldozed in 1962–63 to test whether people and Ice Age animals shared the valley.
- Oak Springs Trilobite SiteCaliente · Trilobite fossil siteA site with 500-million-year-old fossils and remains of six types of trilobites, including species considered among the oldest on the planet.
New Mexico
Oregon
- Bear Creek Petrified Wood SiteBrothers · Recreational rockhounding areaA BLM petrified-wood collecting area in Crook County, Oregon, 13 miles north of Brothers, where the better wood lies a few feet down in soft soil.
- Congleton Hollow Limb Cast SitePrineville · Limb cast collecting siteA 640-acre Bureau of Land Management collecting ground in the high desert southeast of Prineville, Oregon, where limb casts and opalized wood turn up in blue, pink, and green.
- Dendrite Butte Limb Cast SiteCrook County · Limb castsA free public limb-cast collecting ground southeast of Prineville, Oregon, where agate fills the hollows left by wood that volcanic ash burned away.
- Eagle Rock Agate SitePrineville · Rockhound collection siteA 150-acre BLM rockhounding site on a juniper-covered tuff formation shaped like a perched eagle, 16 miles southeast of Prineville, Oregon, where plume agate lies in the cliff face.
- Fischer Canyon Collecting SiteBrothers · Public rock collecting areaA free BLM rock-collecting ground of 640 acres in the Crook County high desert south of Prineville, where white calcite glows pink under ultraviolet light.
- Glass Butte Obsidian Collection Areabetween Bend and Burns · Rockhounding areaA 36-square-mile Bureau of Land Management rockhounding ground off U.S. 20 in Lake County, Oregon, where the dirt road in is paved with chips of obsidian.
- Hampton Butte Petrified Wood SiteBLM public collection site for petrified woodA 120-acre Bureau of Land Management collecting ground for petrified wood in the junipers northeast of Brothers, Oregon, known among rockhounds for wood that runs turquoise to dark green.
- Maury Mountain Moss Agate BedsPost · Moss agate collecting siteThe agate beds near Elkhorn Campground have also been known to attract rock hounds.
- North Ochoco Reservoir Collecting SitePrineville · Rockhound collection siteShores of Ochoco Reservoir is a rockhounding site in Oregon. Collectors have recorded ochoco jasper.
- Oregon Sunstone Public Collection AreaPlush · Public collection areaThe BLM-overseen public collection area is in remote Rabbit Basin in south-central Oregon's high desert.
- Succor Creek State Natural Areanear Ontario · State natural areaA deep, rocky canyon and remote haven for rock hounds and wildlife watchers with limited souvenir collecting, day-use areas, and free primitive camping.
- Whistler Springs Thunderegg SitePrineville · Rockhound collection siteAlthough this site has been worked by rockhounds for many years, quality thundereggs can still be found by determined rockhounds.
- White Fir Springs Thunderegg BedPrineville · Public rockhound collection areaThundereggs filled with colorful jasper in shades of red, yellow, tan and creamy white; they can be difficult to remove from the hard rhyolite matrix, so bring hand tools adequate for breaking rock.
Utah
- Black Spring obsidian collectingBlack Rock Desert · Obsidian collecting areaApproximately 2.5 million years ago (late Tertiary Period), volcanic eruptions in the Black Spring area of the Black Rock Desert in western Utah spewed out the volcanic rocks rhyolite, pumice, and obsidian. Obsidian is a dark-colored volcanic glass formed when molten lava cools quickly. It is usually black but colored varieties range from brown to red. Snowflake obsidian, a black obsidian with whitish-gray spots (spherulites) of radiating needle-shaped cristobalite (high-temperature quartz) crystals, is also found in the Black Rock Desert.
- Crystal Peak quartz collectingDelta · Rockhounding siteIn the Crystal Peak area you can find very small white quartz crystals.
- Dugway Geode BedsRockhounding hotspotA geode bed on federal land in the north end of Juab County, Utah, where anyone may dig quartz-lined volcanic bubbles out of soft gray ground, free and without a permit.
- Fossil MountainDelta · Peak on the south end of the confusion rangeFossil Mountain is a 6,729-foot peak about 50 miles southwest of Delta, Utah, where collectors pick Ordovician trilobites and brachiopods from the surface of its slopes and washes.
- Rock Corral Recreation Area smoky quartzMilford · Day use recreation areaThe Rock Corral Recreation Area is day use recreation area located 10 miles east of Milford on the west slope of the Mineral Mountains. Nestled at the head of Corral Canyon, the site is one of the most scenic in the Cedar City Field Office. With its location being off major travel routes, the area is truly a hidden gem among Utah Public Lands. It includes a day use area offering spectacular views, rest rooms, sheltered tables, fire pits, and parking.
- Sunstone KnollDelta · Knoll formed of volcanic vents (early pleistocene eruptions)Sunstone is a transparent, yellowish labradorite (a plagioclase feldspar mineral) found as crystals in these volcanic rocks and on the flats surrounding the knoll.
- Topaz Mountain Rockhound Recreation AreaDelta · Rockhound recreation areaSome of the most productive and diverse rockhound areas in the west; visitors can collect a variety of topaz and crystals, with trilobite beds at Antelope Springs and geode beds near Dugway nearby.
Washington
- Saddle Mountains Petrified Wood CollectingMattawa · 30-mile ridge above the columbia river with recreational petrified wood collectingA 30-mile ridge rises above the Columbia River in south-central Washington, providing views of the surrounding countryside and wide-open desert scenery.
- Walker Valley Geode SiteMount Vernon · Geode localityDNR-land rockhounding site held under a valid Washington State Mineral Council mineral lease and still accessible for collecting its geodes.
Wyoming
- Big Cedar Ridge fossil plant areaWorland · Fossil siteA federal fossil plant site off Blue Bank Road southeast of Worland, Wyoming, where a Late Cretaceous landscape lies buried in place beneath a band of volcanic ash.
- Fossil Butte National Monument Research Quarry programKemmerer · National monumentA summer ranger program at Fossil Butte National Monument near Kemmerer, Wyoming, where staff work a research quarry in the old lakebed and log each find by length, angle, and depth.
More under Out of Doors: Hot Springs, Swimming Holes, Trailheads, and Spring Water.