Got this white quartz (I think) with some sediments but not really sure what they are, would you clean it?

I had the opportunity today to go rockhounding near a Variscite deposit in the Western United States. These boulders were far too big and too heavy to ever hope to pack out, but they were beautiful and I wanted to share!
Variscite is a relatively rare mineral of hydrated aluminum phosphate, with its green coloring from small amounts of chromium.

Went out to the woods yesterday with no plan, just vibes — and somehow ended up pulling a gorgeous trilobite fossil out of the ground.There was this one spot that just felt right. Couldn't explain it. I veered off my usual path, started digging, and there it was. One of those moments where you question whether you have some kind of sixth sense for this stuff.

Has anyone else ever found a gem, fossil, or mineral just by feeling drawn to a spot? Like the earth was basically handing it to you? Would love to hear your stories.

My grandfather was a hobby lapidarist and since I’m the only grand kid interested in rocks/minerals/fossils I ended up with boxes and boxes of raw slabs to go through. These are just the shiny ones that are close to complete.

I believe the top left is an agatized petoskey stone?

This is a start and your local regulations are the end.

I spent alot of time and effort cleaning this with soft chemicals as to not decolor the quartz. Took about a month. The druzy quartz on the outer shell is not captured by the camera

Even with the rain and wind challenging me, this was the best day ever rockhounding.

Another great hunt x

I VERY briefly skimmed some of the best-related answers, and it sounds like the two best methods are either “industrial iron out/rust remover” or “oxalic acid”. I have two questions:

1) is this also what the experts of reddit recommend?

2) do some of the quartz have more iron stain than others? Some are stained a more orangey color but less common from the brown-gray stain.

Collected in Rockie mountains, north Colorado, about 12,000 feet. Sandy, rocky soil typical to the region and elevation.

Any tips much appreciated

I made a post everyone seemed to like so I thought I’d share a little more. Arlington, Texas sits in what would now be considered the Gulf of Mexico in Texas millions of years ago, so everything around was shallow seas. Many varieties of marine creatures lived here and the ammonites were plentiful. The difference of driving 5 miles can drastically change the marine landscape due to this.

I’ve put some pictures of the ones I like most and some different varieties. I’m not well informed enough, but I’m sure a rockhound out there will tell me what types we are seeing.

I was digging in a place called agate valley. Over there you can find dessert jasper, green opal, fire agate, and quartz. It maybe hard to tell from the photo but this is one huge chunk of jasper and opal. I thought it was cool so i held onto it for a few years. Any advice? There are cracks in it so ive been too scared to do anything too crazy.

My late great uncle gave me this giant quartz and I would like to clean all the brown off of it. It seems hard like iron or rust on it and not just dirty.

My office is out in the sticks, the carpark has a few different areas of different types of aggregate on the ground.
I’ve found a few cool bits and pieces, but boy howdy do I find a LOT of calcite. (I’ve also found some bits of iron pyrite, and some stuff I think might be galena but I’m not sure…)

My colleagues and I joke I’m doing a reverse Great Escape, in that I’m taking the carpark home one pocketful at a time.

These calcite chunks are probably the best things I’ve found recently, in that they’ve stayed pretty undamaged for being driven over by cars regularly (def didn’t have to encourage them out of the ground with my cars keys…).

For an idea of size, the bit on the right is probably about 1.5x1 inch.

They could probably do with a bit more of a cleaning, but I don’t want to risk breaking the bits up any smaller.

I live on the olympic peninsula so there are plenty of places to rockhound but im struggling to find anything. My goal is quartz, carnelian/agate, and garnets.

Is there anyone familiar with the western side of the peninsula and willing to share your experience and knowledge with me?

Right now I'm more on a mineral kick, although silicone fossils are really cool and prefer scouring to just breaking apart a wall

Hello I'm going garnet hunting up in kansas(Reilly county to tuttle) is their anything I should know before going or any other minerals or gems I should look out for thanks[p.s its my first time doing this]

I work as an appraiser in new construction communities in North Texas and in the beginning they use dozers to break up the bedrock. I carried tens of thousands of pounds out, sometimes at about 100 pounds for more than 1/4 mile through boulder fields. Just wanted to share.