There are many locations in Idaho where you can look for rocks, minerals, fossils and gems. The most popular is searching on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) areas. Although BLM does not have any specially designated rockhounding areas in the state, you can obtain maps showing areas where collecting can be done at one of their twelve field offices in the state. They also publish rules for collecting on BLM lands in their Rockhounding in Idaho (a .pdf download) pamphlet.

There are four fee mining sites in Idaho, where you can pay a small fee, look for gems or gold and keep what you find. There are two sites for gold, one for star garnet and one for opal.

Numerous gem, rockhounding and general geology guides have been published for Idaho. Some of the more popular are:

• Gem Trails of Idaho and Western Montana by Lanny Ream
• Idaho Gold and Gems Map by R.N./M.L. Preston
• Northwest Treasure Hunter’s Gem and Mineral Guide by Kathy J. Rygle and Stephen F. Pedersen
• Rockhounding Idaho by Garret Romaine
• Roadside Geology of Idaho by David Alt and Donald W. Hyndman
• Geology Underfoot in Southern Idaho by Shawn Willsey