If you can see Mt. Baker, you are part of The Experience
Pacific Northwest rock guru, artist and guide Alison Jean Cole brought us two new, and very different, books in the last year. They make a good pair nestled next to your rock pick.
Beautiful Rocks & How to Find Them (Princeton Architectural Press, 2024) is less a guidebook and more of an invitation to discover the Earth’s treasures and stories wisely and responsibly. Rocks are everywhere, and when you visit a place, Cole aims to give you the tools to understand the earth you are standing on. How were the rocks made and what are they made of? What is the story they tell of the time since they were made? She also aims to make sure your rockhounding adventures are safe, legal and sustainable by offering practical advice for trip planning and collecting, from reading geological maps to what you can take from public lands. Cole’s own intimate and engaging writing combines with quotes from other rockhounds making the book feel like dropping in to a conversation of rock lovers.
A Rockhound’s Guide to Oregon and Washington (Mountaineers Books 2005) is the guide book its predecessor isn’t, offering detailed information about 60 sites in the region, from lava flows to ancient sea floors, along riverbanks or beaches to high plateaus. The geologic history of each site explains how what you’ll find there was formed, how it arrived at the location and the story of its journey. Each entry includes a map, directions, what agency controls the site, conditions to expect and what tools make sense.
Mountaineers Books released a Rockhounding Logbook concurrently with Cole’s guide that continues their tradition of making sturdy logs for recording your outdoor adventures. X
