Red Gulch Dino Track Site near Shell, WY: 8a.) Cracking them open reminds me of opening a Kinder-Egg with a surprise toy inside. 05-01-11 Water line and fortification agate and calcite geodes and selenite phew!! Check back often as I add new places. LOCATIONS FOR ROCKHOUNDING IN WYOMING Includes descriptions and maps. Let us begin with gems. The most commonly found and collected rocks and minerals in Wyoming are: If youve already found a rock and youre not sure what it is, I would highly recommend checking out my Practical Rock Identification System. google_color_url="FFFFFF"; Check out my article about how to identify a geode. Enter your email address to subscribe to this the content of this site, some of which, we hear, is worthwhile. This website also participates in Google Adsense. Continue on the main path to Winton, Follow it. google_color_border="1B1B1B"; If youre hoping to find agates in Albany County, check around Marshall in the northwestern region of the county. To gain permits for rockhounding in Wyoming, please check the BLM website here. There is nothing quite like uncovering a quartz crystal with a perfect termination or finding a beautiful agate that has been waiting in a river bank for you to come along and take it home. Rainbow agates have been found along the Wind River near Riverton. Concretion and geodes are common in many of the sedimentary rocks in the state, but a good way of finding geodes in Wyoming is to search for the conglomerate in limestone or sandstone. Fossils in the escarpment. Wyoming is among the top rockhounding locations in the United States. Wyoming is home to some incredible jade specimens, mainly of the classes nephrite and jadeite. If you want to find geodes in Wyoming, you should look for places with many sedimentary rocks, such as in the beds of the conglomerate, which crop out throughout the state. The True Worth of Agates. Sweetwater County is located in the southwestern part of Wyoming. Gator Girl Rocks provides useful information about No, this wont make you rich. You can probably find it just about anywhere in the area, though I had good success looking along the eastern flank of Black Rock. Quartz crystals are abundant in the feldspar pits south of Laramie. Hi, do you have the gps coordinates for the peridot/ant hills? Albany County is located in the bottom easter part of Wyoming, having its border with the northern Colorado state line. HowtoFindRocks.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Note: stramatolites can be found in some washes at the base of the Pryors nearby. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Some areas appear to have kimberlite, though we havent used a diamond detector yet. If youre looking for gemstones and crystals, Wyoming is home to quite a few that will make good additions to your collection. google_color_url="FFFFFF"; Joining up with a local rockhounding club for a group trip can often get you access to otherwise off-limits locations like privately owned mines and quarries. Post navigation. In order to really find the good stuff in the main area, go on sunny day with a spray bottle, a rock hammer, chisel, and a 4-lb/10-lb sledge hammer. But sometimes you can mistake feldspar with quartz. Lots of sand. The most commonly found gems and crystals in Wyoming are quartz and feldspar, but you can also find many others including garnet, tourmaline, and opal. I have written entire articles which cover the rockhounding laws and regulations for nearly every type of public land you can think of. If youre looking to start collecting rocks in Wyoming, agates are a great place to start. Members can expect various educational speakers and a lot of group interaction. In that case, you might want to explore the Kortes Dam area and the Sierra Madre Mountains. Whether you're one of the thousands who come to Wyoming each year to admire its unique geologic features or you've come to rockhound and prospect for gemstones and gold, As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. My kid loved exploring it with me. PurpleCamping, international trips; excursions. The real gems that rockhounds are eager to get their hands on in Platte County are banded agates and drusy quartz specimens. The GPS coordinate I put up is right by a place called Black Rock, which is an ultrapotassic, lamproite volcaniclastic exposure. "Rockhounding Rules on BLM Public Lands" and High-clearance only. Zoom in for full list. Please respect the claim owners rights and stay off active claims withoutpermission. After a little bit it will split; right goes to Superior, and left goes to Winton. Rockhounding is incredible, but its even better when youre a member of a club or society. The Absaroka Mountains are an excellent place to explore. TIP:Dont forget to follow all the safety recommendations when rockhounding because your health is always the most important. Simple Explanation, 8 Factors Why Opal is Valuable (Prices for Different Types), How To Cut & Polish Petrified Wood: Follow These 3 Steps, Recommended tools and equipment for rockhounding, Commonly found in the Paleozoic rocks, the Permian Phosporia formation, and the Mississippian Madison limestone, The northwest city of Cody and the Lovell town in Big Horn County, The Spirit Mountain Cavern, located west of Cody, along the Yellowstone Highway, The Eocene Green River Formation of southwestern Wyoming, or the town of Green River, Very common in all of the Precambrian mountain cores of Wyoming, On the west of Jay Em in Muskrat Canyon area of Goshen County, about 15 miles west of Wheatland, in the Marble Canyon area of Platte County, in the Medicine Bow Mountains of Albany and Carbon Counties, the Bighorn Mountains, near Douglas, in Converse County, and from the west flank of the Black Hills in Crook County, The Copper Mountain, Freemont County, in the Laramie Range of Albany and Converse counties, the Lewiston area of Fremont County, and the Bighorn Mountains area of Washakie County, Almost in all of the Precambrian pegmatites of Wyoming, Albany County, Carbon County, or 23 miles southwest of Wheatland, Platte County. If you want to find sapphires, you may go to the Palmer Canyon in Albany, or go to Fremont, to the Grizzly Creek and Sweeny Basin. Membership is only $15 for adults 18 and up. Natrona County is in central Wyoming. The prominent minerals found in Wyoming are agates quite a variety of them, jades, opals, chalcedony, and other varieties of quartz crystals, among others. or Forgot password? If you sign up for GaiaGPS (free, takes about 2 clicks, and Ive never gotten mail from them, as its a husband+wife team that runs it), you can download the GPS data in the map to use on your phone or to import to Google Earth. She said she was looking for Sand People.. This is missing a ton of great places, but I do update it every few months with a new location or two from my past explorations. Rockhounding Site And Information Near Me (Clickable Map) - Rock Seeker Rockhounding Site And Information Near Me (Clickable Map) Must Have! LockA locked padlock You can even find geodes in Wyoming. Follow the dirt roads toward and past the water tower on the ridge. You can also find agatized and opalized wood specimens here. Though there are many locations listed here, this list is far from exhaustive. When you look for it, it often just looks like ugly, whiteish or greyish rocks. And of course, nephrite jade can be found in such abundance that it is Wyomings state gemstone. The state fossil Knightia-fish is located in the Green Fiver Formation of Wyoming. Wolsey Shale yields abundant articulated trilobites (Albertella helena, Kochina gordonensis, Strotocephalus gordonensis, Ptarmigania gordonensis, and Vanuxemella contracta), as well as brachiopods (Acrothele colleni and Micromitra scuptilis) and hyoliths (Hyolithus convexus). Feldspar vs. Quartz: Whats the Difference? Zirkel Mesa to the west is actually remnants of exposed cinder cone volcanoes. Youll learn so much and get the experience you might miss out on if you were on your own. Check out the table down below to see where these specimens of sedimentary rocks are found in Wyoming. The Triceratops was designated as the official state dinosaur of Wyoming in 1994, while the Knightia Fish gained the status of state fossil in 1987. Of special note, a very interesting surge-flow outlet for a creek is found in the V section of the road by the pullout. TIP: Geodes can form anywhere in the world, but they do not form at random. First of all, check the Tertiary igneous rocks in the Wood River and Sunlight Basin areas of Park County and the Black Hills area of northeastern Wyoming. Modern Rockhounding and Prospecting Handbook $19.73 A must have for every serious rockhound! Posted on Published: September 29, 2020- Last updated: July 26, 2022. Find out where to find minerals in Wyoming down below. There are several excellent rockhound locations all throughout the state. Rockhounding in eastern Wyoming offers a lot of opportunities to find a wide variety of rocks and minerals. It will turn slightly left for a short, steep incline. Albany County is in the bottom eastern portion of Wyoming and borders the northern Colorado state line. Exploring the Laramie Mountain Range can lead to finding specimens like amphibole, epidote, plagioclase minerals, garnet, magnetite, and mica. On top of that, weve created a resource page to assist with answering all of your gem and mineral collecting questions. google_color_link="000000"; Other sources include: North Carolina Rockhounding Location Guide & Map, Montana Rockhounding Location Guide & Map. google_ad_format="120x600_as"; BTW: Check out this amazing metal sign (Amazon link) which is perfect for everyone who loves rockhounding in Wyoming! There are a couple of metamorphic rocks that you can find in the state of Wyoming. what are the host rocks associated with watermelon rock and the labradorite? You can follow the formations exposure along a great length of the escarpment. These public lands administered by the BLM are open to everyone to take limited amounts of rock material for noncommercial purposes without charge. So, this saves us precious time. Check out the table down below to see where these specimens of sedimentary rocks are found in Wyoming. Guide to Prospecting and Rock Hunting in Wyoming I f you are a rockhound and don't live in Wyoming, you may want to move here! Hello, I am John.As a little boy, I was fascinated by stones and liked to take them home. //-->,