Updated July 2026
38 mapped spots across 9 counties. New Hampshire produces a wide range of rockhounding-grade material: see the full list of spots, minerals, and access notes below.
The best rockhounding in New Hampshire is at Conway in Carroll County (feldspar, smoky quartz), Redstone in Carroll County (amethyst, apatite), and Indian Stream in Coös County (gold nugget, gold placer). In total, 38 mapped collecting spots across 9 counties produce beryl, amethyst, and smoky quartz, each listed below with coordinates and land access notes.
Representative spot and material photos from locations in this state, shown where verified public image records are available.
Map showing 38 rockhounding spots in New Hampshire
Counts reflect how many spots in this list mention each mineral.
Day-trip range. Each section lists the closest mapped rockhounding spots within about 150 miles of the city — most are inside a 2 to 3 hour drive.
6 closest spots to Manchester, NH.
Geology rarely respects state borders. These states share mapped rockhounding country with New Hampshire — useful when New Hampshire is the start, not the whole trip. Each card links to the closest county across the line.
County pages are linked once we have at least 3 mapped spots for a focused guide with coordinates, mineral notes, and nearby spots.
Hand-picked standouts from the New Hampshire list, chosen for unusual mineralogy, documented public access, or both. Each card links to coordinates, access notes, and what to look for.
Top pickCarroll County
Moat Mountain is one of only a handful of White Mountain National Forest sites where the public may dig for minerals, and it is the classic New Hampshire locality for smoky quartz and green amazonite feldspar weathered out of the Conway granite.
Feldspar, Smoky Quartz, Topaz
Top pickCarroll County
The Redstone quarries worked the Conway granite from the 1880s to the 1940s for its prized red and green building stone, and the waste piles still yield smoky quartz and the green potassium feldspar that tints the granite.
Amethyst, Apatite, Quartz, Smoky Quartz
Top pickCoös County
Indian Stream drains the remote Great North Woods above Pittsburg and carries fine placer gold in its glacial gravels, a lightly worked alternative to the busier Grafton County streams.
Gold Nugget, Gold Placer
Top pickCarroll County
Deer Hill is one of the White Mountain National Forest's designated mineral sites and is best known for amethyst, which weathers loose into the sandy soil and can be recovered with a screen.
Amethyst, Beryl, Garnet, Columbite
Top pickCarroll County
The pegmatite ledges high on South Baldface Mountain carry smoky quartz, feldspar and biotite in the Conway granite, and the site is historically important as the source of a rare phenakite and topaz find first described in 1923.
Smoky Quartz, Topaz, Phenakite, Feldspar
Top pickGrafton County
The Wild Ammonoosuc is New Hampshire's most popular gold-panning river, carrying fine placer gold from its White Mountain National Forest headwaters down to its mouth at Bath, and it was a center of the state's brief 1860s gold rush.
Gold Placer, Gold Nugget
Top pickGrafton County
Tunnel Brook is a long-favored gold-panning stream in the White Mountain National Forest, and coarse gold with the occasional small nugget has turned up in its gravels where it drops over fractured bedrock.
Gold Placer, Gold Nugget
Sorted by county. Tap coordinates to open in Google Maps, or open RockHoundR for the full map view with land overlays and weather.
Open the RockHoundR app to see New Hampshire on a real map with public land overlays, weather, geology, and your saved finds.
