Moved into Parker/Lake Havasu, AZ area.

[cragleech]

My wife and I are new to the Parker, AZ area and rockhounding in general. We are looking for any area suggestions within a 1-2 hour drive. Also, are there any resources that indicate whether an area is open to digging/collecting?

We have a 2WD vehicle, and light hiking is preferred due to physical limitations. Thanks for any guidance you can give!

[rockjunquie]

Apr 4, 2024 11:32:55 GMT -5 cragleech said:

My wife and I are new to the Parker, AZ area and rockhounding in general. We are looking for any area suggestions within a 1-2 hour drive. Also, are there any resources that indicate whether an area is open to digging/collecting?

We have a 2WD vehicle, and light hiking is preferred due to physical limitations. Thanks for any guidance you can give!

Welcome to RTH from Virginia. I'm sure someone can help you.

[chris1956]

Welcome from Missouri.  Can't help with your area but others should be able to.   There are a lot of past threads about places to go but not sure how you would search for them on the forum.  

[Pat]

Welcome from California.
It’s a good hobby.

[rockbrain]

Other people with more knowledge of the area will chime in but you're pretty close to some good spots. Less than 2 hours to Wileys Well, well less than an hour to Quartzite and Brenda.  Welcome from Central California!

[vegasjames]

Welcome from Southern Nevada.

There is some purple agate somewhere down there by Lake Havasu. Never looked for it there, so do not know the exact location.

There was also some popular spot on the other side of the river, but cannot recall the name. Rarely go down that way.

Burro Creek and Oatman areas are both great for collecting. For Burro Creek with your vehicle I would stick to the river bed by the campground. For Oatman all around the outskirts.

Kokoweef area by Mountain Pass, Southern California has all sorts of stuff.

[jasoninsd]

Welcome to the forum from South Dakota!

[cragleech]

Thanks to you all, for such a great welcome! We are excited to start our journey and perhaps someday, be a resource for this group as well.

[AzRockGeek]

The Planet Mine near Bouse is close by, lot's of copper minerals..  It is in most the Az rock hounding books, a great place to spend a weekend looking around.  Here are some coords to any area that is any walk in from the north side, lots of mines in this area, blue rock everywhere, or use to be. 34.2449321318366, -113.96957475788098

[Rockoonz]

Welcome from AZ, west valley north of Phoenix. There are literal tons of possibilities to the east around Wickenburg, the quartz crystals at Date creek, agate around Alamo lake, then north to Kingman for all the varieties of blue and green rocks related to copper. First AZ trip when we didn't live here yet was planet mine. As long as you don't go when it's wet and you have driven dirt roads before, the pastellite up on the burro creek cutoff road at around mile 11 to the creek is reachable as long as your car isn't super low to the ground.
I wonder if y'all have a club there that does field trips, if not you should join the Quartzsite club in December and join in some trips with them, Alva knows all the spots out that way and you have others with you to help if a tire blows out or something.

[cragleech]

Apr 4, 2024 18:29:39 GMT -5 vegasjames said:

Welcome from Southern Nevada.

There is some purple agate somewhere down there by Lake Havasu. Never looked for it there, so do not know the exact location.

There was also some popular spot on the other side of the river, but cannot recall the name. Rarely go down that way.

Burro Creek and Oatman areas are both great for collecting. For Burro Creek with your vehicle I would stick to the river bed by the campground. For Oatman all around the outskirts.

Kokoweef area by Mountain Pass, Southern California has all sorts of stuff.

Thanks for info! We are heading to Oatman tomorrow! The deciding factor was feeding the burros in the downtown area! I guess it's as good as a deciding factor as anything else, lol!!!

[cragleech]

Apr 5, 2024 9:13:04 GMT -5 AzRockGeek said:

The Planet Mine near Bouse is close by, lot's of copper minerals..  It is in most the Az rock hounding books, a great place to spend a weekend looking around.  Here are some coords to any area that is any walk in from the north side, lots of mines in this area, blue rock everywhere, or use to be. 34.2449321318366, -113.96957475788098

Thanks AzRockGeek and Rockoonz! We will definitely be checking out the Planet Mine area. We have seen these mythical blue rocks and must have them!

[Tommy]

Apr 9, 2024 17:55:46 GMT -5 cragleech said:

Thanks for info! We are heading to Oatman tomorrow! The deciding factor was feeding the burros in the downtown area! I guess it's as good as a deciding factor as anything else, lol!!!

How'd you do? There's an unwritten rule here that if we help you find nice rocks or burros, posting photos of such is mandatory

I'm totally kidding but yes we love pictures.

[quartzilla]

Oatman is pretty cool. It was hard not to pull over and peruse the numerous colorful mine dumps on the way in. It was fun feeding the burros but be careful, if your carrying your food they think that’s their food too and they will snatch it right outa your hands. Also there was a guy there with a little booth set up outside by the little mine tunnel at the main intersection that had fire agates and some other rocks for sale. We have a family member out that way so if we are visiting or spending time in Laughlin we always try to go to Oatman.

[vwfence]

after you go to all the offered places and want more , message me , i live by Kingman