What Really Goes into One of Our Rockhounding Trips — Pt. 1

After one of our recent social media posts, a jujujemster asked us a simple question: “What exactly do you do when you go on these rockhounding trips?”

That made us laugh a little, because the short answer is a lot more than people think — and sometimes more than we think too.

If you’ve followed us for a while, you know we don’t spend all our time in the shop.

Whenever we get the chance, we go rockhounding. It’s something we’ve always done, and it helps us understand the stones we work with a little better.

This first post, in a series of three, is about what really goes into one of these trips, because before a single rock ever makes it back to the shop, there’s a surprising amount of work involved.

It starts long before we leave the house

Most people picture rockhounding as walking around and picking things up off the ground. It looks like that in the photos, but the planning starts way before we ever get to a location.

First, we have to figure out where we’re even going. That means maps, routes, coordinates, and a lot of research, such as:

What is the geological makeup of the area, and what kind of material is found there?

Is it public or private land, and are there any collection rules?

How far in do we have to travel, and can our vehicle traverse it safely?

Will it be worth the trip, or a waste of time we could spend elsewhere?

Sometimes we have answers to those questions. Sometimes we don’t. Either way, once we think we know enough to try, we start packing. Often, it’s a gamble, and we don’t know until ... we know.

Depending on where we are and how long we’re there, our gear usually includes sturdy boots, gloves, kneepads, backpacks, plastic bags, buckets, hammers, chisels, spray bottles, toothbrushes, a first aid kit, protein bars, and more water than we think we’ll ever need.

Hydration is non-negotiable, especially when you’re in the desert, up in the mountains, or miles from the nearest paved road. And if it’s going to be very hot, we also bring salt tablets, a cooler of Gatorade, cooling towels, SPF, and wide-brimmed sunhats.

If we’re rockhounding in the water, we have our water gear and tools for picking things out of the water fairly easily.

Then everything gets loaded into Beastie, our trusty 4WD truck that hauls all this madness around. Without her, most of these places wouldn’t even be reachable unless we felt like walking and climbing for the better part of the day. Wait, we already do that ...

Beastie at the Dragoon Mountains, Tombstone, AZ

Then comes the part people don’t see — the getting there

Before heading out, we check the weather. Flash flooding, muddy roads, extreme heat, or sudden storms can turn a simple trip into a bad idea super-fast. Even close to home, the forecast matters. Let’s face it, nobody wants to get stuck in the mud while looking for rocks.

Once we’re on the road, the driving alone can take hours. A lot of these “roads” are barely more than trails, and they seem to be designed for mountain goats, not trucks. Tight turns, steep drop-offs, boulders, ruts, and one-lane trails can make for a long, arduous journey just to get near where we want to be. Add in the jarring bouncing, rocking, sliding, and hanging on for dear life, and by the time we get there, we feel like we’ve already put in a full day.

Truckin' through Mineral Mountain, Florence, AZ

And then the hiking begins.

Precarious path at Saddle Mountain, Tonopah, AZ

Slow and steady wins the race out there! Sometimes the path is flat and easy. More often than not, there isn’t a path at all. So, we climb hills, amble along washes, and pick our way through loose dirt, sharp rocks, cactuses, thorny bushes, and whatever else the terrain decides to put in our way.

Jim on Saddle Mountain, Tonopah, AZ

There have been trips where we’ve walked for over an hour just to get to the spot we wanted to check out, only to wonder if the rocks we passed along the way were better than the ones we were heading to. Add in the wind, dust, and the occasional mouthful of desert grit, and we really hoped the trek was worth it.

And yes, the wildlife is present too — bears, snakes, coyotes, hogs, cows, mountain goats, creepy crawlies, flying stingies, and the occasional set of eyes we feel watching us. We’re just temporary visitors in their world, and we think they know that …

Coyote strolling in Estrella Mountain Regional Park, Goodyear, AZ

All of this … before we even get to pick up a rock?

That’s right. The planning, packing, driving, hiking, weather, wrong turns, and the “are we sure this is the right road?” moments … and sometimes coming home with far less than we hoped for.

But we don’t see that as a negative, because any trip outdoors is a win. The adventure, the scenery, and just being out in nature for a nice grounding recharge is enough.

Right now, Beastie has buckets tied down in the back, all labeled so we remember where they came from. Once the truck was full, the rig started holding the overflow. Beastie is a little scratched up, bruised, and dusty — and so are we — but that just means it was a good trip!

Some of jujujems' boxes in the back of Beastie

Soon we’ll be back at home base and going through everything we found on this we-should-probably-stop-picking-up-rocks excursion. That part takes time, too, because every bucketful has to be cleaned, scrutinized, and sorted.

In the next post, we’ll talk about what happens once we actually start finding rocks — and why that part is not as easy as it looks.

Stay Sparkly! ✨

The jujujems Team