If you have not had the chance, I highly recommend you do this...

Plan a trip to Western Montana.  While you are here, take a detour through Philipsburg, MT, and then head about 10 miles up the Skalkaho Pass Highway (much more of a paved cattle trail than a highway) to Gem Mountain and do a little sapphire mining!!  Go to www.gemmtn.com to check out their site!

Gem Mountain is one of the only places in the state where you can screen gravel and find your own sapphires, garnets, and rubies.  (Rubies are simply red sapphires, by the way.  Just in case you didnt know...)

 When you arrive, this is what you will see...You buy buckets of gravel for $12.  A bucket is about 2.5 gallons and takes roughly two or three hours to screen thuroughly.  You are provided tables to sift on, tweezers, a vile to keep your treasures in, and a huge water trough to wash your gravel.  Experienced 'screeners' are on site to teach you how to wash the gravel and the 'shanke-n-bounce' needed to make the gems, which are more dense than that surrounding rock, to settle to the middle of the screen.  There is also a gem shop, gift shop, picnic area, and grandeous mountains to keep you entertained.

Its amazing that some little colored rocks like this....
Can turn into this! 

Ive come here my entire life and it is a routine weekly trip for me and my family.  I encourage everyone to come experience it for yourself.  Bring a picnic lunch; Bring the family; Get a little dirty...Who knows...you may come way with a few hundred dollars (or, if your like me, a few thousand...) worth of gems that you and yours will treasure forever.

If you want more information about www.gemmtn.com or about www.recr.com, call Clint at 800-977-7058.