Grand Circle - Rock Hunting

Watch out for rattlesnakes with the kids. We've never had a problem but it is something to keep in mind. Tell them to never reach into a dark hole, there may be a occupant.

A lot of rockhounding areas are at least somewhat off-road and isolated.

The best free source of info is the: Rockhound group

It has a lot of active users who will be happy to help you out. And I just spotted this site: Utah Rockhounding sites

I would recommend getting rockhounding books for each state you will visit. The "Rockhounding (statename)" series tend to be pretty good, also "Gem Trails of (statename)". Generally most free collecting sites will be on BLM land or specific areas of parks (Crystal Peak in CA, Garnet Hill in eastern NV for example).

That being said, some places are easy to collect and other not so much. Some will require 4wd and a longish side trip. Some minerals can be hard to spot the first time out as well.

I can provide details on some areas in Nevada, mostly the western part of the state Reno, Las Vegas, Lovelock, eastern Sierra Nevada mountains and west to about Austin NV. If you're going to be passing through any of those areas send me a PM and I can provide GPS coordinates and information.

Lastly I would recommend trying to make sure the collection location is good for kids. Easy pickin's can get them interested in the beginning, hard stuff like fossil hunting (which has other legal issues on BLM land) might put them off the entire idea.

Good luck! Wife and I enjoy Rockhounding quite a bit, often our camping is just to provide a base camp.

No artifact collecting(including rocks) in the national parks for sure and I imagine the Navajo Nation prohibits it also. Easiest thing to do is check with all the locales you're headed to.