Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.

John Muir

Rock collecting is like mushrooming or bird watching. There is something of the treasure hunt in going out into nature with the purpose of finding rocks and minerals. Once hooked - it's hard to stop.

If you are interested in some hands on experience collecting rocks there are books with maps and descriptions of rock collecting sites within a given geographical location. Often abandoned quarries on public land, or locations that offer good examples of rocks formed from a particular kind of geographical event are hard to find places off on dirt roads or on old untended trails. It's often hit or miss but the finds can be truly remarkable. Outside an old lithium mine in New Mexico we found large chunks of quartz and dramatic sparkling purple lepidolite covering the ground.

On an agate hunt we found a hill strewn with fiery red, orange and milky white striped agates in every conceivable shape and size.

Quarries, road cuts and natural cliffs all provide good potential rock collecting sites.