Find Rockhounding Spots Near You

Rushmap pulls from over 250,000 confirmed mineral sites logged across peer-reviewed geological formation maps, historical mine patent records, and decades of published geochemical assay data. We cross-reference it all with a mineral occurrence probability model based on host-rock geology. Think of it like having a buddy who’s already done all the homework on where the good ground is.

Geologists and field surveyors have been writing down where minerals turn up in this country for over 140 years. Rushmap is built on top of the public record of all that work. Old mines, played-out prospects, one-off occurrences some surveyor walked a creek bed in 1962 and bothered to mark down. The earliest entries go all the way back to the gold rushes in the mid-1800s, and people have been adding to it ever since.

On top of that confirmed-site layer, we layer in a second dataset. It’s field-collected rock and stream-sediment geochemistry. Basically, somebody panned the creek or chipped a rock, ran it through a lab, and recorded what showed up. We filter that data hard. Only the top 1% of gold, silver, and copper readings make it through, and only if the sample also carries a real mineralization signal. What you see in Rushmap from this layer is the stuff that actually lit up the assay, not background geology.

The third layer is our own prediction model. It looks at co-occurrence: when the same host rock keeps producing the same mineral across hundreds of documented sites, that’s a pattern. So we score other exposures of that same rock formation by how confident we are you’d find the mineral there too. We label these as predicted in the app, plain as day, so you always know which is which.

Plenty of rockhounding apps will pin random GPS coordinates on top of someone’s ranch. We don’t. Every spot on Rushmap can be cross-checked against public-land boundaries (BLM, Forest Service, designated wilderness) before you ever leave the house.

Last updated May 2026.

The most common rockhounding finds across the US are quartz crystals, agates, geodes, gold (both placer and lode), garnets, tourmaline, fossils, jasper, obsidian, and copper specimens. What you’ll actually turn up depends on the geology where you’re hunting. Around here people say “the rock tells you what’s in it” and that’s basically the whole deal.

The geology calls the shots. Quartz crystals come out of pegmatite veins and stream beds. Agates wash out of old volcanic gravel. Gold collects in stream gravel and the cracks down in bedrock. Geodes weather out of limestone country. So if you know the host rock for the mineral you’re after, you don’t need to chase a single pin. The whole area around the right kind of rock is usually worth a look.

Below is a quick rundown of the most-asked-about finds, where they’re commonly documented, and what the rock and ground actually look like once you’re out there.

Yes, rockhounding is legal on most BLM and National Forest land for personal, non-commercial collecting. You can grab rocks, mineral specimens, and common fossils in reasonable amounts with no permit. National Parks are the big exception. Touch a rock in a National Park and you’re looking at a federal ticket. Old timers will tell you “if you’re on BLM ground and you’re filling a bucket, you’re fine.”

The longer version depends on whose patch you’re standing on, so here’s the agency-by-agency rundown.

BLM land. Personal, non-commercial collecting of reasonable amounts is generally fine. No permit needed for rock, mineral specimens, and common invertebrate fossils. The word that matters is “reasonable.” If you back the truck up and start filling the bed, expect questions.

National Forest. Same basic rules as BLM. Personal use is fine. Commercial collecting needs a permit, and active mining claims trump your surface-collecting rights, so check before you dig.

National Parks and National Monuments. Off limits. Picking up a single rock can be a federal misdemeanor, and rangers will write the ticket. Same goes for designated Wilderness Areas where surface disturbance is restricted.

State parks and state trust land. This varies a lot. Some states will sell you a permit. Others ban collecting outright. Don’t guess. Look up the state agency that manages the unit before you go.

Private property. You need permission, every time. A dot on a map isn’t an invitation. Plenty of historical mining and prospect sites that show up in the public record are now sitting on private land.

Rushmap shows public-land boundaries right on the map (BLM, Forest Service, wilderness), so you can check land status before you commit to a four-hour drive.

Rushmap is built on the same public survey data that working geologists and state survey offices use. We just cleaned it up and made it searchable so weekend rockhounds can actually find spots without spending half the day on Google. 250,000+ sites, all 50 states, updated monthly. That’s the whole pitch.

250,000+ documented sites. All 50 states. Updated monthly. Same public geological survey records the pros work from (state survey offices, university geology programs, working geologists), just cleaned up, indexed, and made actually searchable for the field.

We built Rushmap because finding spots shouldn’t take an afternoon of Googling, picking through 2004 forum threads, and trying to triangulate a fuzzy screenshot somebody posted in a Facebook group. The data has always been there. It just wasn’t in a form a weekend rockhound could use. So we put it in one.

One subscription, one map, all 50 states. That’s it.

The RushMap Rockhounding Team maintains this database using peer-reviewed geological formation mapping data, historical mine patent records and claim filings, and lithostratigraphic unit classifications, plus land status data from the Bureau of Land Management. We pull from the same sources that working geologists and state survey offices reference in the field.

Every site gets cross-referenced against public land boundaries, lithostratigraphic unit data, and geochemical assay results from published field surveys so we can surface the spots that are actually worth your time. We also run mineral occurrence probability modeling based on host-rock geology to flag additional ground. Data is reviewed and updated monthly.

Sources: BLM General Land Office Records · Peer-reviewed geological formation maps · Historical mine patent records & claim filings · Published geochemical assay data · State geological survey offices