Rockhound without wrecking the site

Colorado has places you can collect and places that will fine you for a pretty pebble. National parks: look, don’t pocket. Many state and BLM sites: limited casual collecting. Private land: that’s theft with extra steps. Read the sign. Then read it again out loud.

The three rules

1. If a sign says no collecting, the answer is no — even the “tiny” one
2. Fill the hole you dug. Always.
3. No glass, no fossils that look official, no “just this crystal cluster the size of a loaf”

How to leave it

Give someone a job: photographer, map holder, or official namer. The rock that stays can still have a name. People remember the name longer than the weight of the bag.

When in doubt, buy a small specimen from a shop on the way home and tell the truth: “This one was for sale. That hillside was not.”