Before you click the link: Go to the video settings and set the quality up to the highest level. For some reason it sets the quality at 340p and makes the video really pixeled up and gross. So yeah :D yee here’s the link! https://youtu.be/hdiOhGjGrbc —————————————————— For the 7 years my rock/mineral has existed for (Oh god I just realized how long that is... I started collecting in 2nd grade, in 9th grade now :’/) I have never gone rockhounding very seriously before! Which is kinda, if not extremely, sad. I either collect a couple during vacations, examples are some zeolites I picked up from Iceland, or I have gotten as gifts, or just kinda bought from the store or a gem show. Me and my family went on this vacation just to SPECIFICALLY go rockhounding and view an actually good night sky through our telescope (We live in a suburb with a lot of light pollution.) as the nerds our family is. This broke the record for our cheapest vacation ever and one of the most memorable! I also learned that mosquitoes can still somehow penetrate my coat, and shirt to bite my shoulder! Haha so much for protecting my skin in the middle of summer~ I might share some better photos of the agates and thomsonite in another project. But I hope this will do for now! —————————————————— TIPS I GUESS IF YOU’RE GONNA GO ROCKHOUNDING NEAR THE NORTH SHORE: - There is a heck ton of Thomsonite if you know how to find it. Try to find pinkish, banded things stuck in basalt that ISN’T smooth! Focus finding thomsonite in smooth rocks and you’re gonna get absolutely nothing. - We didn’t find too much stuff on our trip because of our timing. Try to visit there right after a big storm! Fresh new rocks will wash up onto the shoreline of Lake Superior. Giving you first dibs! - If you’re gonna go agate hunting around Minnesota’s north shore, DON’T GO TO AGATE BEACH. DON’T. The beach is literally only 5 feet wide and all the people who get fooled by the name go there. Literally a 1 minute drive away (you could walk there) is a beach that’s so much better! It’s called Flood Bay. There’s almost no people there... except for the agate hunting pros. But the beach extends really far out, and there’s a lotta agates there, plenty for everyone! Both beaches are near Two Harbors. Which is where the world famous “Betty’s Pies” is located (search it up on google maps or something). - If you have a relative or if you yourself have a cabin or house on the Minnesota north shore, I’m jealous of you. Private beaches like that or privately owned property are amazing for agate and thomsonite hunting! - There’s only so much I can explain in words and paragraphs. If you do go visit the Minnesota north shore and are rockhounding/rock hunting, ASK OTHER AGATE HUNTERS ON THE BEACH. I can’t exaggerate this enough. Many have years of experience and are super nice! Most of the pros can help you distinguish agates and other minerals from other regular rocks. And tell you the best beaches to hunt on! - Looking for Thomsonite is a little harder. There isn’t much information on finding the mineral, go to Thomsonite beach. If you plan on staying a night or two on the North Shore, try booking a room at Thomsonite Inn (Getting a hotel in Grand Marais is probably better, also, the Inn has a doggo). They have a sweet gallery of Thomsonite specimens and will gladly tell you the best (legal) places to find Thomsonite! Yeah, a lot of the places where you can find it is privately owned. So you might want to ask where it’s safe to look for the mineral first. - Minnesota’s north shore might be one of the extremely rare places in the world for finding Thomsonite, but there are so much cooler minerals out there, right? Best place for Lake Superior rock hunting is probably Michigan’s shoreline! They have over 150 different minerals you can collect around there. And you might get a nice Yooperlite if you’re lucky! But be legal kids :). They have a lot of state and national parks around the shorelines (you can’t take anything from state/national parks) and there’s a limit of harvesting less than 25 pounds a year per person. Also you should see if there’s any additional rules or restrictions you might have to follow, I went to Minnesota, not Michigan. —————————————————— Questions? Comment on this project and I’ll try to answer them! See my full collection here:
