Rockhounding at Hansen Creek, a kind of hike that might be fun with kids that you’ll find an hour from Seattle

Have you ever been rock hunting or “rockhounding” as the experts call it? Before you actually collect any rocks you need to check if you’re allowed to collect them and you will definitely find more information on your local government site about all the rules of rockhounding in your area. We have never rockhounded on purpose (except for one time ages ago in Thunder Bay) but we love to hike so when a friend sent me a link to a cool place near our cabin in Snoqualmie Pass where you can look for crystals, I thought it might be a hike we’d save for a time when we wanted to try something new. We usually go to Gold Creek Pond for a quick hike/walk with kids or Franklin falls and we love the Denny Creek and Snow Lake areas for longer hikes. But the other day we finally got around to Hansen Creek and it’s definitely a place my kids will remember for a while.

How to Find Hansen Creek

First of all it’s probably best for this or for any other hike in the area to look up the trail and go exactly where it tells you to go on the All Trails website or on the Washington Trails Association Website. Both of these sites are in the know about hiking and will usually get you to the right place. I put “Hansen Creek’ into google maps and almost got us completely lost in the woods. And it’s not the first time I’ve done this with Google Maps-we once ended up lost in Texas because I put in the wrong information for the Blue Bonnet Trail.

We knew we were probably in the right area when we saw a sign that said “Hansen Creek Trailhead” and a few minutes into our drive up the hill we saw one of the train bridges that we bike over when we bike the Ironhorse Trail. Further along the hilly, gravelly road we saw a lot of cars parked near where the trailhead looked like it should start. We were there later in the day and I think this is the type of place that might always have a lot of people and I can only imagine what it might be like midday on a sunny Saturday in summer. But it’s always nice when you don’t know where a trail is and you see a bunch of cars-we knew we were in the right place.

Because we just kind of decided to ‘try’ this hike, I didn’t do a lot of research about what it would be like or when we would know if we were in the rock hunting spot. As we walked along the trail we passed 3 or 4 families on their way out carrying backpacks, shovels, and picnic supplies. We asked a man with a pickaxe and shovel how to find the crystals as he passed and he said cryptically “go as high as possible.”

We walked for about a mile on a pretty flat trail until we go to an area where it looked like there was a giant rockslide. This is where we saw and heard small groups of people crouched in various tree holes up the mountainside, digging and pounding and looking for treasures. It was very clear at this point, this is where you “rock hound” on the Hansen Creek Trail.

What to bring for Rock Hounding

If you go rockhounding and really want to rock hunt you might want to look up a few niche websites first like this one and locally there is a shop in Seattle called NW Rockhounds that even has classes on rockhounding too. But just from looking around us and seeing what other people had it looks like you need: work gloves, a heavy duty shovel, something to sift through the dirt, headlamps or flashlights and good hiking shoes. (A first aid kit would also be helpful.) Thankfully we had water and snacks and we brought a camping trowel, a hammer, work glasses and a sieve from the kitchen. And we left because we did not bring bug spray and there were a lot of bugs around.

The hill that everyone was rockhounding on was quite steep and dusty and we had two 12 year old kids and a small puppy with us and we just took it slowly. There were quite a few children in the area and some seemed very young but everyone seemed to be doing okay. Apparently people climb a half a mile or more up the hill to find bigger crystals, but we stayed close to the bottom because it was our first time. I’m not sure what the technique you need to use for rockhounding is but we dug around the bottom of a tree well and found a handful of crystals in the dirt. All around us we heard people hammering, digging and exclaiming when they found a big find and I can only imagine the treasures. In total we took about 3 hours for our adventure but we could have stayed a lot longer if we were better prepared.

Next time we will bring bug spray.

Have you ever been rockhounding?

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)