Winter Rockhounding - Gravel by Mail!

Last winter we discovered that frozen dirt and snow doesn't necessarily mean the end to our mining season. There are several mines that offer gem gravel by mail. I was particularly pleased with Spectrum Sunstone mines. They have a sidebar on the right side on their website (http://www.highdesertgemsandminerals.com/html/spectrum_sunstone_mines.html) offering contact to get gravel, $135 with shipping for 5 gallons of gravel. I ordered mine from their winter caretaker, who was posting on a facebook rock group, but the material and price is the same either way.

Here's what the gravel I got looked like:

The easiest way to find the sunstones was to get the gravel wet and use sifting pans and pick out anything shiny. Fun sidebar; the larger lava rocks sound like Rice Krispie Treats when you put water on them!

Here's the best colors from my gravel, I still got a lot more champagne colored stones as well, but these colored pieces, especially watermelon (red and green combo) pieces are the most valued.

Here's the whole haul I got including the champagne colored stones:

Finally, I sorted through all those sparkly pieces to find some facet-able pieces and cut a simple 6 Main Round gemstone with a design from one of my mentors, Ernie Hawes. It's no surprise how satisfying finding a stone yourself and cutting it into a gemstone is, check back for my adventure with Sapphire gravel in my next post.