Where to Find Jasper in California
California jasper concentrates in the Mojave Desert and along the central coast. The Wiley's Well district in Riverside County yields red, brecciated, and plume jasper near the Hauser geode beds, and the Cady Mountains in San Bernardino County add picture jasper and brown landscape patterns. Stoddard Wells north of Victorville produces orbicular and brecciated jasper in fault zones. Along the coast, Big Sur in Monterey County yields the Marin/Cambria red-and-brown landscape jasper, often beach-tumbled. Most desert jasper is exposed as float in dry washes; coast jasper concentrates after winter storms.
Spot list checked against source data on April 1, 2026.
Map of 17 jasper collecting spots in California
Standout jasper spots in California
Hand-picked from the full list below, with the reason each one earns a trip.
Jacolitos Canyon
Fresno County
Jacolitos Canyon adds a Coast Range sedimentary and fossil-bearing locality to a list otherwise dominated by volcanic glass, agate, jade, and gold.
El Paso Mountains
Kern County
The El Paso Mountains stand out because BLM identifies the area as a place where rock hounds find material among dark volcanic mesas, red buttes, and fossil-bearing badlands.
Gem Hill
Kern County
Gem Hill is a focused Kern County silica locality, with Mindat recording agate, chalcedony, iris agate, jasper, petrified wood, native gold, and uranium minerals nearby.
Afton Canyon
San Bernardino County
Afton Canyon pairs documented BLM rockhounding access with a strong Mojave silica suite: Mindat lists opal, opalite, chalcedony, plume agate, agate-jasper, petrified wood, and jasper in the canyon area.
Trinity River
Trinity County
The Trinity River is a north-state benchmark because it combines historic placer-gold country with Klamath Mountains metamorphic and ultramafic source rocks.
Best counties for jasper in California
Ranked by the number of mapped jasper spots. County links open the full rockhounding page for that county.
Every jasper spot we track in California
Sorted by county. Coordinates open in Google Maps.
Before you go
Read the jasper identification guide so you know what a keeper looks like in the field: Jasper in the encyclopedia.
Jasper in California FAQ
Where can you find jasper in California?+
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Where else to find jasper
More minerals to hunt in California
Hunt jasper in California with the map in your pocket
RockHoundR puts these spots on an offline map with BLM and Forest Service overlays, geology layers, and a log for your finds.
