I was that child that picked up every sparkly rock and saved it in an old ice cream bucket that I kept under my bed. What about you?

Fast forward to a few years ago when I was scrolling through Instagram and came across the most colorful accounts. Instagram accounts that completely revolved around crystals, gems, and minerals…I was hooked. I enjoyed the colors, the shapes, and the unique people that created the interesting feed. After following all the crystal accounts I could find, I came across one called “The Crystal Collector”. This account was a little different than the others. Instead of posting crystals he had bought from other sources, he was posting video clips of crystals he has discovered himself! What?!?!? Who knew that was an option in the USA? So after watching a lot of his Youtube videos, I started researching gems and minerals native to my local area. Unfortunately in the mountains of West Virginia, there aren’t any options for digging crystals. So I went to the closest place I could find information on at the time, Diamond Hill Mine in South Carolina.

We planned our first trip to go crystal hunting! We loaded up the Jeep and started making the 5 hour drive to Abbeville, SC. We took things like buckets to carry our tools and crystal finds. We brought tools like hammers, long screwdrivers, hand rakes and shovels. Once we arrived, we signed a waiver, paid $20 each, and got information on what kind of crystals could be found in certain areas of the mine. Then we chose a spot and started digging! We kept digging until dusk and when we were finished, we had buckets full of crystals. We found clear quartz, milky quartz, skeletal quartz, quartz with heavy orange iron coating, and even a few small pieces of amethyst. It was a really great day and we were surprised at the amount of crystals we had found!

And that was the beginning of a brand new hobby, Surprisingly,even my fiance is hooked on crystal mining. Now we have a hobby we can enjoy together and a reason to unplug and enjoy nature’s gems.

Make sure to follow my blog so you don’t miss any of my crystal mining adventures! I have so many more interesting trips to share!

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