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Oh hey! I never knew this thread existed. I took a bunch of geology classes in college. In the mid 90s my friend and his dad used to go opal mining at Royal Peacock opal mine in Virgin Valley, Nevada, and I went with them two or three times. I can't really recommend it any more, it got a lot more expensive and they stopped offering the "good" mine sites to the public many years ago, but the last time we went was a couple weeks after 9/11 and I still have all my opals from those trips, mostly in jars full of water. I also have a lot of other random rocks. I'll take some pics and share. I wound up not being a geologist because I was afraid of the math classes, but in a different life I might have been. My mineral identification skills, limited as they were when I was actively studying, have eroded a lot more in the subsequent 20 years, but I still have enough baseline understanding of geology that I can maybe help out a bit. My wife and I like to collect when we are at random places like beaches or public land where it's allowed, but we don't actually plan trips to collect stuff. We're in the SF bay area, there's a lot of interesting geology in California, so just any random outing to an outdoor place is likely to turn up a few interesting things to look at and stuff in pockets maybe. ohhyeah posted:I’ve got some family that are taking a trip out west. From Las Vegas they’re making a loop north through Utah and Arizona - seeing Zion, Escalante, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, the whole deal. Anyone have recommendations for additional rock related sites or stores? They are well behaved and know better than to take material from National Parks, etc. Did they already go? There's a pretty good rock shop in the town just outside the south entrance to Zion in Springdale called Zion Prospector. It is high priced because of the location and the very nice setup they have I guess, but they have a significant amount of local stones, which is what I always look for at rock shops. There's another rock shop in that town called Zion Rock and Gem. I think it's a lot less "upscale" and fancy looking, it's more of the usual rock shop look & feel of tons of bins of random stuff everywhere. I went there after Zion Prospector and we picked out some stuff that was cheaper but just as good. They also have a pretty cool fossil exhibit, like a mini-museum. My usual rock shop advice is: avoid the imported stuff and focus on what the local geology is producing, because that will be both a souvenir from your visit that is relevant to where you visited, and usually lower priced because it didn't require costly shipping to get there. I believe both of these shops do their own cutting and polishing of local stuff. I particularly like the local layered sandstone, which is usually cut flat and sometimes framed that way as it has a sort of landscapey texture to it. For example: 
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Nov 8, 2023 19:53
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fuckin, rocks lying around here and there, some on like shelves in the living room, an ancient styrofoam cooler in the garage full of rocks, rocks in the plants out front and out back, I got a sterlite container with most of the opal stuff in it under some stuff in the garage, you know. Hell there's two or three specimens in the toad tank because we needed some rocks in there and what am I gonna do, go outside and dig in the dirt to find a rock when there's rocks already lying around?
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Nov 9, 2023 06:36
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IMO bryce, zion, the grand canyon, and grand staircase are all uniquely beautiful and worthwhile in their own rights and hell, throw in Arches too if you have the time. Also goblins state park is really cool. Utah is amazing.
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Nov 10, 2023 18:04
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