Rock hounding

21 years ago

Do you rock hound?

When you camp and hike around, it's fun to come across interesting rocks. Either color, shape, or some other feature that makes you want to pick it up.

Kids especially like it as a camping activity.

It's really cute when a small child hands over a rock and wants you to carry it for them... Of course, you ooooh, aaah, and ohhh over it. But beware, sherpa, you may have opened pandora's box. Now, with this encouragement, you have unleashed a ROCKHOUND! They now expect you to tote every rock they think looks cool! My son is now older. He looks at the rock garden in the back yard that we built to "display" his found treasures in a sea of play sand framed out with diamond block and wonders where some of the ugly ones came from...he laughs at them and asks:

"Who picked this thing up?" I tell him those are the prettiest rocks in the garden.

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Comments (8)

carol04
21 years ago
Wow, I guess there's always been a name for people who love to collect those precious stones, that they can't help picking up & toting home! I am certainly one myself, having certain ones coming from the special places I've traveled to. We ended up buying a couple of short aprons that have pockets on them, so you can quickly stash your "keep", while keeping your hands free! This works for shells also, my other passion!!
jen_
21 years ago
Definitely a family of them here! It's amazing the things that have come home with us! You should see the driftwood that gets tied to the roof! Then we're unpacking and I find huge rocks that got packed! I just thought it was because they are such a novelty to us south Jersyans! There are NO rocks here! None at all! All summer long there is always a pile in the boat taken from wherever we spent the day! We have found some rocks that kind of have crystals in them or on them and the kids love to find these! I take the kids on boat expeditions just to find them!
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eastkycamper
21 years ago
Where I work at I come across rocks all the time with plant fossils in them. I've found some really neat ones, some really small ones, and some huge tree fossils. I think that is really neat.

Not to mention my small collection of mineral rocks I've gathered from certain places during my travels.
carol04
21 years ago
I have a dear friend who lost her youngest brother 2 years ago. They buried his ashes under a newly planted tree in the yard, & have been collecting Heart shaped rocks for the site ever since. What a heart thumping moment, when we've found one! It is quite beautiful there,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
rustyj14
21 years ago
On our camping trips, our son's would always find interesting rocks to take home! We found a shale hillside dug out by strip miners, so we dug in the shale and found plant and animal fossils, which we saved.
One day, while fishing in Tionesta Creek, in n/w. Pa., i looked down in the creek bed and found a rock shaped like an old Indian stone axe or hammer. I had the museum guy look at it, but he didn't think it was anything-just an old stone!
We had rocks around the front of our home that the boys brought home from various camping trips.
One time, we went to Herkimer, N.York, to dig in the "Diamond mines"! After setting out in the hot sun for hours, and finding a few keepable "diamonds", i decided they would have to pay me to dig any more!
Some guys there had air compressors, air hammers and power tools to dig with, and they were down about 25 feet, and still digging! I went back to our camper and slugged a couple of brewski's and relaxed!
But, i'll never forget that trip!
An interesting part of that place was this: When we pulled in and set our camper up, the creek out back was up to within a foot of the top of the bank! Next morning, you could walk across it at any spot! And, there was going to be a canoe race that afternoon, in that very creek!
Now, upon hearing that news, i figured they'd be having to carry the canoes in the race, but just about 15 minutes before the start of the race, i heard a roaring sound and the creek filled right up again! And, down came 25 or 30 canoes! And went on down the creek. How can this be?
We went down to the take-out point, and there we asked what was going on with the creek.
We were informed there was a hydro-electric station up-stream, and they'd stop the water flow until their dam was filled up again, and then release it! And, thats how the racers got the water high enough that they didn't have to walk!
by: Rusty J.
plf333
21 years ago
My many years of rock collecting have left me with many many memory stones in my garden. They bring back the memories of the neat places where they were found. Peg
jersey_ponder
21 years ago
We always brought rocks of varying color and sizes home with us from our trips. It is fun to look at them and remember the trip. I have rocks and wood scattered round the yard.
Lynda
jennmonkey
21 years ago
I always try to bring home one cool rock from every trip I go on. The problem is that I never kept track of where I got each one. So now I have a bag full of rocks and I can't remember which one came from where.

Rock hounding

Comments (8)

carol04

jen_

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