Scott Schwieder enjoyed a successful career in engineering, which included three decades with the city of Rochester, Minnesota, as a senior engineering and technical survey party chief. Since retiring, Scott Schwieder has led an active, outdoor lifestyle, with interests ranging from cycling to rock hunting.

For first-time rock hunters, it’s important to know that there are two primary types of terrain. To begin, beaches and riverbeds are ideal hunting grounds for rock collectors. Beaches are particularly beginner friendly, as a diversity of rock types are spread across large, flat areas. Furthermore, each tide brings a new collection of rocks to examine. Beaches are most often associated with hard rock varieties, such as igneous and metamorphic, while river rocks tend to be of the softer variety, especially when hunting upstream.

Exposures and outcrops of bedrock represent another great location to begin a rock hunting hobby. These instances of living rock, as they are called, can be found near beaches and rivers, as well as among hilly, mountainous terrain. Man-made structures often result in considerably sized exposures, such as those observed around mines and quarries. Exposures are also very common alongside road cuts, which is the engineering term for areas where earth has been removed to make room for the construction of roads.

As people become more experienced in the art of rock hunting, they can start to target specific rock types and search for more unique hunting grounds. Many rock hunters also enjoy hunting for minerals, which can usually be found wherever rocks are located.