About Club Field Trips
The club hosts a number specimen collecting trips every year. One major benefit of becoming a Bristol club member, is that we are able to access exceptional dig sites, many of which are closed to the general public.
Less experienced rockhounds benefit from digging alongside our long-tme members who know the sites and have expertise in finding and extracting specimens.
Field trips are a key element in building the strong sense of community that we encourage at the Bristol Club. Field collecting is a healthy, fun, outdoor, family friendly activity. And the rush of adrenaline and shared excitement when the hard work reveals buried treasure is unforgettable!
​The sites we visit vary somewhat each year. A few regular locales include CT DEEP sites* such as Clark Hill Quarry, CCC Camp Prospects, and Case Quarry. A favorite is the privately owned Hewitt Quarry in Haddam CT with its spectactular and productive pegmatite formation. We travel as far north as Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, and South to New Jersey for fossil hunting and to collect the state's incredible UV reactive minerals.
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The club also has its own private claim in Herkimer county New York, home of the world renowned Herkimer Diamond double terminated quartz crystals.
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The up-to-date field trip schedule and related information is published each month in the club newsletter, "Down in the Dumps", and is also available in the Members section of this website.
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*Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection