Maine Mineral Adventures is located on Route 26 in Woodstock, Maine, next to the Mollyocket Motel. I took a four-year-old and a two-year-old here to an organized field trip to look for rocks. We paid $10 to dig a bucket full of rocks and sand from a big pile that had been brought from the mine (my four-year-old enjoyed this part). Then we rinsed the contents of the bucket using a strainer and large tub of water. After that, we dumped out each load and searched through for rocks that caught our eyes.

We needed a little help identifying some of them, but the goal was mostly to look for colors, because these show up much better when the rocks are wet. We found quite a few small pieces of Maine tourmaline, some green, some pink, some black. We were told one of the small pieces we found was garnet. Aside from that, we found some very interesting larger rocks -- some were ordinary-looking on one side, with streaks or spots of purple or green embedded in them. We found a few uncut crystals, and some very large pieces of mica.

My two-year-old wandered off partway through to go play with the shovel, but my four-year-old reallly enjoyed searching through the rinsed rocks, and started his own rock collection when we got home. You can keep anything you find in the bucket, regardless of value. Boots are recommended on this trip, because the ground tends to be muddy.