If dealing in agate is your game, then you might want to consider doing some business just Northeast of Eureka. Lots of reds, yellows, blacks, and whites, and then even some purples and blues. You’ll find jasper as well (sometimes it is hard to tell the difference–at least for me anyway ha ha).
This area is super fun to explore in general. There are abandoned mines and mine dumps scattered everywhere. If you are looking to collect rusty old horseshoes, railroad spikes/nails, and other random bits of metal, this would also be your place.
Some of the roads might require a higher clearance vehicle once you leave the highway, but I would recommend just setting up camp and hiking around. The further away from the roads you get, the better the stuff you find. I’ve found some nice botryoidal, mossy, and plume agate, but one of my favorites is the yellow dendritic agate. Something about those black patterns on the yellow background just looks really cool.
Of course, you don’t have to be limited to just agate in this area if you don’t want to. One of the best azurite/malachite combo specimens I have ever seen came right out of this area. The number of different minerals and gems you can find in this area is astounding.
If you have time, you may want to consider a visit into town. The Tintic Mining Museum is right there on the downtown strip or, right as you get into town, there is a small restaurant called the 3 Prospectors. You’ll find some killer burgers and some proud Eurekans who are always good for a story or two.
This is a great place to go since it is so close to home for me. It is probably only a 45 minute drive (max) from Orem. Needless to say, I’ve frequented this area quite a bit 🙂
Directions to Eureka Agate:
From the intersection of 800 North and I-15 in Orem, Utah
1. Drive South on I-15 for 26.7 miles to Santaquin exit 244
2. Turn right (West) on East Main Street for 16.6 miles to Elberta Slant Road
3. Turn right (North) for .68 miles to a fork in the road where you will hang left for another .32 miles to another fork
4. Drive on a small connector road for about 270 feet before taking a right (North) on the road to the destination for 550 feet. It will be on the left
Hey y’all! Is this still a good spot to find these rocks:) I am wanting to make a list of places to try for this summer 🙂 we started today geode beds in dugway 🙂 beautiful place! This is the next place I will want to do but just checking before the drive with three kids lol. Thanks and be careful out there 🙂 ☮️ peace ✌ and love ❤️ to all!
Hey Jess! Curious if you ended up going to this site and if it’s still a good spot?
Junipers have a deep taproot. In an area with many junipers they use the available ground water before other vegetation can access it. So the BLM sends out crews to cut the junipers.
Funny story! My brother and I went to remote area in SE Oregon. I used google earth to look at the terrain. When I zoomed in it looked like there were buried logs all over the area. I thought “Woohoo, an undiscovered petrified forest!”. When we got there it was cut Junipers!
Struck out at Jerico Black Agate so i stopped here on the way home. Road was wet and muddy in places, i used 4×4 to stop sliding around. A couple of things….googlemap shows more roads than still exist. Several of the roads have been closed likely when they chained the cedar trees. I did see some ” no trespassing” signs off Elberta Slant Road. The route i followed to the map pin was definitely 4×4 only. But i had more fun collecting down lower in the washes. Probably could get there in a van when the road is dry.
Also, the chaining pulled up some nice material. Way more than i could ever carry or use.
Im not an expert, and maybe i need to visit a rock shop for a lesson….but i think i was picking up jasper or chert, not agate.
http://m.minerals.net/mineral/agate.aspx
Anyone been here lately? It’s October and I’m thinking I’d like to go before the snow. When does it snow down there?
I went there yesterday with my scouts and we found a bunch of neat looking rocks of mostly reds yellows and several pieses with chicken scratch. We found most of ours along the sides of the revine. Following the directions where it says go right /north for .32 miles there is a rockslide at .3 miles blocking the road so we parked right there and walked the rest of the way. Also I didn’t see any “no trespassing signs”
We just went today, no snow, (2/17/18) it was easy to get there in our truck. We found so many awesome agate pieces! I can’t wait to go back, we want to try to find some malachite/azurite next time! We have family in mammoth, going to check around there too!
We never saw any no trespassing signs. FYI
their are no trespassing signs all along the road
I can confirm this. Went out there today and all along the west side of the road are “Private Property, No Trespassing signs”. I didn’t see any on the other side of the road. I tried calling the BLM office to find out if they’d sold the land and to who. Left a message but haven’t heard anything back yet.
Thank you Jeremy! Let us know what you turn up!
If you check the parcel map on this web site it shows that everything is BLM land and the no trespassing signs are bogus. http://www.utahcountyonli….asp?av_serial=611180001.
Misti
I went about 3 months ago and it was safe enough for my 2 year old as long as I held on to his hand there is really only one steep hill you have to go up and down the up is easy going down you need good shoes because it is very slippery. You will find a lot more jasper in this area we don’t do much with jasper but were able to find a few nice agates. There are a lot of trees so you can find plenty of shade which is nice
Has any one been to this location recently I’m wanting to go with my husband and 2 kids my 2 yr old son lives rocks and I’m slowly teaching/learning about rock my self. When I was little my mom and dad and I would go out to rock hound all the times but being young I don’t remember alot of it so even though I did it alot when I was young and knew what I was looking for then today I feel like I’m starting all over lol many years went by that we stopped so still learning spots and rocks. Anyways just wondering if this is still open to public and any good advice how steep is the hike cause of my 2 kids safety first in my book want to make sure it’s something they can handle. And any good tips on certain area up her to go thanks in advance
Hi Misti! Sorry for the delay in response. I went out a few months ago and it is still a solid location. Almost all of the mine shafts in this particular area have been covered, but I would still keep a close eye on the kiddos. Also, it is super hot and many of the vegetation was cleared out a year or so ago I think so I’d prepare for that as well. You can find great stuff here though!
Any news since April 5th? I live in Idaho and I’d like to head down that way, but not if it’s for nothing.
thanks.
I went out today and was still able to get in. Great stuff out there!
Thank you for sharing this site! My two elementary aged kids and I had a great time here today. I think last week’s rain must have stirred things up because so many specimens were laying in plain site- perfect for my kids.
As a city dweller not from the area, it’s helpful to note that Main St is US Hwy 6 (west.) Our vehicle’s GPS recognized Elberta Slant Rd (ESR) after we missed the first turnoff at this dirt road and went down the west side of the mountain on the paved road. The ESR green road sign is set back off the road but there to confirm your decision once you have committed to the road.
The left “fork” at .68 mi is really just staying on ESR. After the left at about .34 mi the right turn is marked by a couple of posts. We went slow and made it over the big bumps in our Pilot. Once we parked we walked westward up a couple of hills on a wash and were soon met with the smooth, black rocks especially on the left hand side away from ESR.
Especially fun was finding two large mossy pieces of agate that resembled petrified wood, I think. So many colors in the rocks we found.
Hi Ryan! So good to hear that you and the kids came out with some great stuff! Also, thank you for the clarifications on the directions. A lot of the time I find myself having to go back and track these in Google Earth where I can accurately measure distances, but I can’t always remember all the landmarks, signs, etc. so I’m glad you brought up more details on the directions. I’m curious what color the mossy pieces were. I know we pulled out a couple that were a deep yellow, but I know the variety of colors here is quite extensive. I’ve actually also heard of some really nice pieces actually coming from inside the mines around the area. Thanks again for your comment!
My family plans on rockhounding in Eureka. Just curious if you encountered people who practiced target shooting nearby? I read some blogs about the rockhounding activity in Eureka, and it seemed that this place happens to have people coming for target shooting. Any information will be very much appreciated. Thanks.
Hi Yiwen!
We were actually just out here again a week or two ago and didn’t really encounter any other people. Just a few ATVs on the roads. I think the majority of shooters generally go over to the Lake Mountains up North or maybe further out into the West Desert. I’m guessing this location is just too close to town and to other active mines in the area for shooting. We ended up going to several of the mine dumps in the mountains just East of town (really nice stuff!) and also re-visited the agate location above. The trees and vegetation have been leveled in several areas as the previous comments mentioned so the collecting is prime!
I belong to the R.O.C.K. club in Salt Lake City. We are doing an expedition to the Eureka Site this coming Saturday. My understanding is that they put in a new road. It leads to a great find of Chicken Scratch Jasper. The site is so rich that you can’t walk 5 feet without stepping on jasper. I went there last Tuesday with the person in our club that heard about the new road. When we got to the site there was jasper all over. About 25% of it was Chicken Scratch Jasper. Most of it has a golden tan background with black ‘chicken scratches’ There was also f few red background jasper with ‘chicken scratches’ In 2 hours I found one stone with a pink background and chicken scratches. All the jasper I found was nice, with good coloring. but the chicken scratch was the most interesting. We are meeting across the street from the Family Tree restaurant in Santquin at 9:00. I am conducting the expedition and I am inviting you to come with us. The R.O.C.K. club is a teaching club. we teach about any where we can get people to listen. R.O.C.K. stands for ‘Rockhounders Outreach for Community Knowledge.’ The only problem with coming as a guest is you won’t be covered under our club accident insurance.
Hi Rich! I was wondering if the jasper there had a specific name so I’m glad you shared that. I’ve met a couple of people from that club and they were good people and it sounded like a great club to join for anyone who is interested. Thank you for the information!
I would like to come to your aria to look for gem-rocks and ! I have been given a bunch of polishing stuff and bucks of rocks from a find that his father pass-away . I like to learn to use it . Thanks Bill
We went out to this site yesterday. They’ve had heavy equipment in there tearing up all the lower vegetation – trees, bushes, rocks – everything. I wonder if anyone knows what they are doing. We were still able to find some really great stuff including black and red jasper pieces.
Hi Jeremy! I’m so glad to hear that you were still able to get some great stuff. One of my friends did go out there recently and he said a couple of guys had their trucks blocking the road and told him he wasn’t allowed back in there. This is super unfortunate because this is one of our favorite go-to locations for when we only have time for a quick run close to home. In asking around and reading some stuff online it looks like the area has been reopened for either some drilling operations or cleanup (or both). I’m guessing it is either that big deal some people have been talking about with Rio Tinto coming in and drilling for copper and gold or maybe it is still the Chief Consolidated Mining Company that was there before. Either way, it might be bad news for rockhounds for the next little while. Were you able to drive right up to the location or did you have to hike around?
We were able to drive right up – only had to move one tree branch out of the way. The first day we went, we hiked around. We ended up going again the next day and found our way to the road at the top. I suspect that if you go on the weekends you’ll have better luck. I really hope it won’t be closed for good. As you said, this is a great close location.
They are uprooting all the juniper trees so the “water table” is higher. I asked a local
Why are they wanting to raise the water table?