By Cheri Sicard
Many RVers find rockhounding and mineral, crystal, and/or fossil collecting a rewarding hobby. It gets them out into nature and connected to the locales they visit, it engages the mind and body, and they never know what kind of treasures they may find. But what if you are new to it and don’t know where to begin? The beginner rockhounding video below from the team at Let’s Go Geo, provides a good first step. In it, you’ll learn how to put together a beginner rockhounding starter kit that will set your explorations on the right path.
Beginner rockhounding starter kit: What you need
According to the video, these are some of the essential items an aspiring rockhound needs in their kit. Watch the video for more additional details on these essentials.
Field guides and/or maps: These small reference guides are invaluable to help you identify rocks and minerals where you happen to be exploring. The National Audubon Society Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals is a good one.
Mineral ID kit: Let’s Go Geo did a whole separate video just on this topic, but beginners will need a way to identify the rocks they find. Get details on what you will need in a mineral ID kit here.
Sample kit: This is a small kit with rock samples that will help you compare and identify rocks.
Beginner rockhounding tools
In addition, you will need a few tools to get started rockhounding and extracting those minerals.
- Rock hammer
- A chisel can also come in handy
- Safety glasses
- Sturdy pair of work gloves
- Toothbrush for cleaning off samples
- A small bottle of water is handy to clean off samples, as well. Sometimes you will need chemicals such as iron remover, so check out the video for details.
- Buckets or other containers to carry your finds. Pack some old newspaper along, too, to wrap fossils or other delicate minerals.
- Tackle boxes make great separated storage for the rocks and minerals you find.
- Labels, as you will want to label the samples you collect as early as possible. Watch the video for what information to include on your rockhounding labels.
These are the basics. At the end of the video, they cover some more advanced and optional rockhounding tools that you will want to pick up if you start getting into this hobby. That starts at 4:07 in the video.
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