Utah is home to a variety of gems and minerals that rivals any other state in the U.S. For best results, try searching in local washes and draws where fresh material is most likely to be exposed. Black Rock – The area surrounding Black Rock is one of the best places in the country to find snowflake obsidian.Keep your eye out for unique minerals such as aragonite, bloedite, glauberite, halite, and thenardite. Great Salt Lake – The shorelines all around the Great Salt Lake are a great place to do some rock picking.
This attractive variety of feldspar is highly sought after by amateur rockhounds.
Sunstone Knoll – Yet another location whose name leaves little to the imagination, Sunstone Knoll is one of the very few places in the United States where you can reliably find sunstone specimens. For the best luck, try the remote area about 3 miles west of town. Hanksville – The entire area surrounding Hanksville is known to contain specimens of agate, jasper, and petrified wood. Agate – The entire area surrounding this appropriately named town is a good choice for rockhounds looking for specimens of agate, chalcedony, chert, jasper, opal, and any other quartz-family minerals. San Rafael River– The gravels and bars of the San Rafael River south of I-70 are a great place to search for quartz-family minerals like agate, jasper, and chalcedony, as well as anhydrite, carnotite, gypsum, and selenite. You may also be able to find some chlorite, corundum, rutile, and spinel. Moses Rock & Comb Ridge – The sandstone outcrops that dominate this entire area are well known for containing a beautiful variety of pyrope garnet, which are locally known as ‘Arizona Rubies’. Almost any creek, mine, or wash will have a good possibility of holding specimens of cinnabar, alunite, Calcite, chlorite, fluorite, amethyst, quartz, selenite, opal, and other minerals. Marysvale – The entire area surrounding Marysvale makes for a great rockhounding trip. You can also find specimens of beryl, calcite, fluorite, hematite, and other minerals nearby. Topaz Dome Quarry – The aptly named Topaz Mountain is famous for its topaz specimens which, in this location, are naturally a light yellow color before being turned clear by exposure to sunlight. Here you can find geodes in great supply, and nearby you can find other specimens such as quartz and amethyst crystals. Dugway Geode Beds – One of the most famous rockhounding locations in the entire United States, the Dugway Geode Beds are a mecca for rockhounds. This article will dive deeper into the many great rockhounding sites across the state (along with maps), but I’d like to highlight a few standouts here. Almost 70% of Utah is BLM land open for recreational rockhounding. The most popular rockhounding sites in Utah are the Dugway Geode Beds and Topaz Mountain. 
In general, the best places to rockhound in Utah are the gravels of streams, washes, and draws, as well as old mining dumps and rocky outcrops. BLM land and National Forests account for a huge percentage of the land ownership in the state, allowing casual rockhounds to collect (within reasonable limits) in many locations without a permit. One of the best perks of rockhounding in Utah is the enormous amount of public land open to recreational use. From the expansive sandstone mesas in the south to the rocky mountains and Salt Flats to the north, there is an almost limitless supply of rockhounding sites awaiting the casual rock and mineral collector.
Utah is virtually unmatched in the variety of gemstones and sheer number of rockhounding locations ready to be explored. Utah is one of the most rugged and beautiful states in the entire country, and its epic landscapes contain a wealth of rocks and minerals that call to rockhounds around the world.
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