This weekend, we visited Lucky Lake Gem & Mineral Mine to celebrate my brother’s birthday. Rockhounding got under our skin after our trip to Emerald Hollow Mine. We’ve been pining for another adventure since we returned home last month. It turns out a mine exists less than an hour from my home in Richmond in McKinney, VA. As soon as I found out the mine exhausted, I knew we had to visit it.
Lucky Lake Gem and Mineral Mine offer buckets for rockhounds to sluice through and a knowledgeable staff to help rockhounds identify their treatures. When we arrived at the site, we picked out our bucket and began sluicing. We purchased two of the larger buckets to ensure our group of five. Purchasing the larger buckets ensured everyone in our group would equally experience sluicing.
Lucky Lake Gem and Mineral Mine
At the sluiceway, we meet our rockhound guide and were education on the official Lucky Lake Gem sluicing guidelines.
The experience of unearthing gemstones from dirt never gets old. We found a variety of quartz stones, adventurine, bloodstones, and other minerals. The staff at Lucky Lake Gem and Mineral Mine were extremely informative and helped us identify our rocks. In addition to helping us recognize our stones, the staff was able to explain the usages and meanings of our stones.
The buckets we purchased included the cutting of four stones, or guide was helpful in assiting us in selecting our stones to be cut. We will eventually set some of these stones into jewelry. I can’t wait to see our aquamarine cut.
Lucky Lake is the perfect family experience. If you’re looking for a group activity or a spring break activity that is fun and educational, a little time on the sluiceway is precisely what you need! Lucky Lake Gem and Mineral Mine are genuinely one of Virginia’s hidden treasures.
Where is your favorite mine? If so, where? I’d love to visit Cherokee Ruby and Sapphire Mine later this year.
Author Profile
- Amanda is a native of Richmond, VA. She enjoys writing, blogging, traveling, shopping, and spending time with friends and family.
What fun. Sounds perfect for us to take my 9 year old great grandson.
Oh, he would love it. We can’t wait to go back.