Ruby and Emerald – Gemstone Panning
A few weeks ago I took a trip to Big Bear Lake in Southern California to get away from the city and reconnect with nature. As always, I packed my crystal travel kit with me, and my hubby and I didn’t plan a schedule with any specific itinerary. We just went with the flow and let our intuition guide us.
Prior to finding our hotel, I noticed a sign that said Gold Rush Mining Adventures. My eyes spotted the words gemstones and rocks on their signage and my heart lit up instantly! I squealed like a child about to get some ice cream and told my hubby that we should check that place out soon.
Because of my excitement, soon actually turned into quickly checking into the hotel, then leaving our room right away to go to that shop before it closed.
Gemstone Panning – Ruby and Emerald Crystals
The shop looked like a quaint log cabin with a gold mining feel that included several sluices and flumes. I’ve never been to a place like this, so it felt like stepping into past gold mining days combined with a crystal and rock playground for kids and the young-at-heart! One of the ladies who worked there was extremely helpful from the get-go.
There were different crystals and jewelry available in the shop. The shop lady happily enticed us to try out geode cracking or sift through special pre-made sand bags that contained mystery treasures within. This shop had a variety of sand bags to choose from at different price points – some included quartz, rocks, fossils, and other sand bags included ruby, emerald, amethyst and more!
Can you guess which one I tried? The ruby and emerald crystals bag of course! I wanted to make my experience worthwhile!
The shop lady took me outside to show me the geode cracking station and then we proceeded to the large sluice and flume. I was given a sifting box and she poured my goodie bag into the box where I sifted it with water until the precious goodies magically revealed themselves! Who knew such a small bag of sand would contain so many different crystals!
Watch my first gemstone panning attempt in my first (yes first!) Crystal Rock Star YouTube video:
Here’s a list of my gemstone and crystal loot:
- Ruby
- Emerald
- Gemmy garnet
- A black obsidian arrowhead
- Quartz point
- Two amethyst points
- Translucent rose quartz
- Labradorite
- Various colors of mica
- Snowflake obsidian
- Red jasper
- Crazy lace agate
- Rainbow moonstone
- Pyrite
- Bloodstone
- Banded gate
- Amazonite
- Pieces with tourmaline in them
- A rock with a fossil in it
- Sodalite
- Druze agate
- Chrysocolla
- Two green fluorite and one rainbow fluorite
- Blue calcite
- Carnelian
- Indigo Gabbro (aka Mystic Merlinite – this was a shocker for me!)
- …and a few unidentified pieces!
The $25 bag I purchased was totally worth it I must say! (Especially, if you don’t have time or want to get your hands dirty in a real crystal mine. However, one of these days, I will visit a mine in California and share some photos and videos with you!) From the shop, I also grabbed a $1 peacock ore chunk. After the gemstone panning experience at that shop, I totally felt like a kid who just cracked open an energetic piñata!
Before we left, the kind shop lady told us about a Native American sacred spot on top of a hill near Big Bear that was called the “Eye of God”. She mentioned whenever she would bring her horse to this spot during trail rides, its behavior would magically change to a calm demeanor. She gifted us each with some of this sacred white quartz from this location and told us where it was located so we could check it out. The moment I held the quartz in my hand I felt it’s strong vibration!
I pondered… perhaps there was a reason this trip happened. Things were magically occurring synchronistically! I never planned to ever try gemstone panning (especially for heart chakra love crystals!) AND I never thought I would be directed and intrigued to go visit a sacred site, let alone one that used to be a giant quartz dome!
Stay tuned in my next blog post where I divulge on my own personal experience to this sacred crystal site!