Top 7 Places to Go Gem Hunting On Your Next Family Vacation

Got a rock hound in the family? Consider taking a vacation to one of these geologically rich destinations and you might just find enough gemstones or precious metals to pay for the trip, because you can keep everything you find. You're guaranteed to have a good time looking—even if you come up empty.

Crater of Diamonds State Park

What: Gem quality diamonds
Where: Murfreesboro, Arkansas
Web: www.craterofdiamondsstatepark

Bring your own tools or rent them at the only diamond-producing site in the world that is open to the public. Most visitors don't get rich digging in this ancient volcanic ground, but with 40 other rocks and minerals in the area you're sure to find something interesting. Admission is $7 for adults, $4 for children.

Gem Mountain

What: Sapphires
Where: Philipsburg, Montana
Web: www.gemmountainmt.com

Gem Mountain is in the middle of nowhere, but well worth the trouble it takes to get there. Staff dig up the dirt, screen out the big rocks, and provide all the tools and equipment you'll need to wash through the gravel for rough sapphires. They'll even help you determine which stones are worth heat treating (which improves the color and clarity) and faceting. Gravel is priced by the bucket, and prices vary. Be prepared to get wet and dirty.

Herkimer Diamond Mines

What: Double-terminated quartz crystals
Where: Herkimer, New York
Web: www.herkimerdiamond.com

Nicknamed "Herkimer Diamonds" because of their striking geometrical shape, these 500 million-year-old crystals can be broken out of rocks with a hammer and chisel or collected by casually looking around the prospect area. Admission is $10 for adults and $8 for children.

Royal Peacock Mine

What: Black fire opals
Where: Virgin Valley, Nevada
Web: www.royalpeacock.com

The Virgin Valley in Northern Nevada is a stark corner of the world, but come once and you might find yourself planning a return trip. Digging isn't cheap, though. They charge $180 per person per day to dig in the fire-opal-rich bank area and $75 to dig in the mine dumps and tailings (piles of rock extracted from the mine).

Cherokee Ruby Mine

What: Rubies (plus sapphires, garnets, and moonstones)
Where: Franklin, North Carolina
Web: www.cherokeerubymine.com

At the Cherokee Ruby Mine, you're provided with a seat cushion and a screen box and shown samples of rough gemstones. Then you proceed to the flume line, where you fill your screen box and begin sluicing. This is a friendly, family-owned operation whose website lists "Mom" on a list of "Our Gems." Awww. Admission is $7 for adults, $4 for children, and shade umbrellas are available to rent for $1.

Emerald Hollow Mine

What: Emeralds
Where: Hiddenite, North Carolina
Web: www.hiddenitegems.com

Emerald Hollow Mine is the only emerald mine in the United States open to public prospecting. You'll sit at one of three sluiceways, where you can pick over buckets taken directly from the mine. It's a chance to find not only emeralds, but also aquamarines, sapphires, garnets, topaz, and amethysts. The $5 admission includes one free bucket. You can purchase additional buckets, and digging and creek prospecting are available at an added cost too.

Gold Prospecting Adventures

What: Gold
Where: Jamestown, California
Web: www.goldprospecting.com

The California Gold Rush may have been 150 years ago, but that's nothing in geological time. At Gold Prospecting Adventures families can belly up to a sluice box (which processes the buckets of gravel more efficiently than an old-fashioned gold pan) and search for flakes of gold. Guides are on hand to help, and while gold nuggets aren't guaranteed, historical nuggets are. The family price for the 3-hour Sluice Box and Pan Adventure is $155 for two adults and three children.

http://www.fodors.com/

STK’s $30,000 Pink Sapphire and Diamond Steak Knives

Celebrity guests and VIP’s of a popular Las Vegas steakhouse can now eat their meat with a very sparkly, expensive knife.

“Female friendly” steakhouse STK has collaborated with celebrity jewelry designer Jason of Beverly Hills on a set of diamond- and pink sapphire-encrusted knives. The set, which includes one $18,000 diamond knife and a new $12,000 pink sapphire knife, is only available at the restaurant’s location in the Cosmopolitan hotel.

Jesse Mancha, general manager at the Jason of Beverly Hills location in the hotel, said the new knife contains “300 full-cut pink sapphires set into a signature steak knife.” The 6.5 carats of sapphires took a craftsman 20 hours to hand set into the stainless steel knife.

“The original idea came about over drinks with Jason, myself and Tyra Bell-Holland, director of marketing and events,” said Mancha.

Jason had created a whole dinnerware set for the royal family of Saudi Arabia as a wedding gift. The dinnerware set included diamond plates and was one of the jeweler’s first big projects.

He “wanted to bring it to diners in general,” said Mancha. “After the first diamond knife was created, Tyra was telling us about issues that everyone wanted to dine with the knife but there was only one knife.”

The sapphire knife was created to complement the set and designed with VIP couples in mind. Leann Rimes and Eddie Cibrian used the knives when they celebrated Valentine’s Day together at the restaurant.

Musical group Foster the People, known for their hit song “Pumped Up Kicks,” went around sharing the knife during dinner.

After their meal, they came to the store in the hotel hoping to purchase it, explained Mancha. The knives aren’t readily available to purchase but “we could make it custom for them.”

Singer Gavin Rossdale and his band, Bush, enjoyed a dinner at STK last year after a private show at the hotel. The singer used the knife to cut his Waygu beef filet.

“We ask any guest presented with the opportunity to use either of the knives to kindly sign our knife guest list…fun for them and for us it memorializes their experience at STK,” said Tyra Bell-Holland.

Rossdale signed the book writing it “cut like a knife but glitters like the best girl.”

Who decides who uses the knives? “It’s really a combination of minds here at The ONE Group…but we’re in the hospitality business…we treat everyone’s knife like it’s diamond-encrusted,” said Bell-Holland.

Jason of Beverly Hills designed Jessica Alba’s engagement ring as well as Nick Cannon’s anniversary gift for wife Mariah Carey.


-http://abcnews.go.com/