Boulder Hunt!

I don't know if this is a dumb question or not. I'm open to it being dumb and removed due to the particularity/specificity of the question, so mods if you want to delete this fire away...

I’ve got the use for, basically, infinite amounts of rocks/boulders of varying size. While I don’t plan to sift through piles of dirt for rocks that are softball sized or smaller, the lovely wife and I will grab them when we see them and I don’t find any pockets of gravel sized stuff, really. This post is more specifically asking about rocks that are basketball sized (in any direction) and bigger.

I've read a lot about y'all digging up rocks in your adventures and with some mostly minor digging in my yard I've also found some. I assume all areas of the planet vary wildly in the concentration of rocks to be found but I'm wondering if there are any general tips or possible patterns to find rocks when you aren't digging in an area that is just chock full of rocks that end up being annoying to you.

So far, I’ve dug around in my yard and the neighbor’s yard, about a half mile away, a bit and I find the occasional big rock here and there. For an example, I dug a hole about 16 feet deep and probably a bit wider than that across and found 7-10 good sized rocks in that dig.

Do you experienced diggers find that I’m likely to have that same ratio in an area that isn’t heavily rocked? Are there ways to look at the ground that an inexperienced digger may not instinctively notice that may lead to a greater concentration of rock (or point to more rocks over here, for example)? At no point did I hit an area where I felt like I’d find more in the same place, so that hole was pretty sparse, but maybe I didn’t read the ground very well.

I know that the biggest boulder I have came from my pond when they dug it and it’s around 4’x7-8’ so there are substantial rocks out there but I’m not sure where to look. Do I just dig?

Thanks, as usual, for all y’all’s expertise!

I live in NH- The Granite State. We have plenty of large rocks and also some ledge. In my adventures, I've gotten a similar proportion of big rocks as you.

If I wanted to find concentrations of rocks, I'd look very hard at the soil survey maps that are available online for most of the country. They show different soil types and define the amount of rock. I don't think the maps are perfectly correct but it's a good place to start. I think they are showing the surface soil but you may be able to figure out where a river or glacier left a concentration.

Sometimes I see a rock that has been pushed up ( by frost) over the years but even that doesn't garrantee there are more rocks under it.

And also... I got permission from a town to take all the large rocks they had dug up next to a dirt road. You might be able to do that.

Good luck !!

What you need to find is if there are any glacial moraines in the area. Glacial activity in the past will have deposited literally tons of rock in a concentrated area.

A large glacial moraine surrounds our farm. We have more rock than dirt in places. The bottom land by the river is pretty good but under 3 feet of soil is 200 feet of gravel straight to bedrock.

In the upland area a hole the size you dug would yield a triaxles worth of rock if you screened it. We have erratics around here the size of houses.

Around here, it seems that gravel rich areas are covered with softwood trees. But in the same breath, softwood doesn't always mean gravel. When prepping for an asphalt driveway, one thing you don't want are large rocks close to the surface. About a month ago we did a driveway, and the first thing I noticed were a couple of huge boulders in the yard. Now I'm no geologist, but most people don't have things like that hauled into their yard. They were probably dug up when the basement was put in. I dropped the ripper on my little grader, and found a truckload of rocks. Two of whick were at least 4 or 5 ton

Around here, its mostly sandstone, I think the biggest I've moved was about 800#. I have 10 or 12, down at the bottom of the driveway, hoping to snatch the oil pan offa one of the thousands of citiots, that HAVE to turn around, on my grass!

I don't have a real great answer, but just digging blindly for them seems incredibly laborious and something I spent time doing as a kid (With a mattock and a shovel). I was a weird kid.
I know here in southern Minnesota there is a heavy concentration of what you're looking for in the sand pits. I am sure there is a fancy geological explanation for it. You can buy them but they are pretty expensive.
There is a silica mine I do work at once and a while and they piled all the topsoil into a big mesa looking feature when they would clear way to mine the sand. The soil has a heavy concentration of rocks and over the years the rain has washed the sides of the "mesa" and they have rolled down the side and are ripe for picking. This is a big corporate site with too many rules to get in there on the weekends to pick them, but you might look around your area to see if there is anything similar where they are basically unwanted and see if you can buy some cheap or even get them for the taking.
Farmers often have rock piles around too from picking them out of fields. Also sometimes free for the asking.
What are you doing with so many?

Ct Farmer said:

We have erratics around here the size of houses.

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I love these. At the mine I mentioned above there is a beautiful striped erratic about the size of a pickup truck. I wish I knew how to move it. I'd love to have it at my house.

Wow, I expected this post to be met with silence, thanks y'all!

Pixie- I'll have to consider looking at soil maps. I'm not sure what, out my way, has been farm vs. woods prior to me being out here, other than there's a lot of woods around. And I'll have to keep an eye out on the side of the road. My only problem there is having stuff that I can drive the backhoe to, since I don't have a different way to move them.

Ct Farmer- I actually live on the top of the moraine, but a few miles out, from the city called Moraine (see below), that glaciers produced to create the valley part of the Miami Valley where I live! The presumption is that my biggest boulder was indeed moved glacialy due to it being big and smooth. While I'd love to have some house sized rocks moving them would be problematic...

cuttin edge- I'd love to see a couple 4 or 5 ton rocks but again, moving them may be problematic, I'd certainly love to try!

DIYDave- You sound like my neighbor! He's got people running off the side of our narrow road all the time and has tried many different methods to keep that from happening. I think his next attempt will be a bamboo wall (depending on how a bamboo wall I put up goes, and by that I mean a living patch of bamboo that creates a wall, not dead planked bamboo).

Andy- I keep forgetting about farm fields. I only have to travel a few minutes west to get quickly into farmland... That may be a good option. As for what I need them for? In the second picture below you'll see my front yard. I'm aiming to turn the pond into a pretty, serene, little Japanese inspired swimming hole. At the left side of the white block area is a hill I added to the yard, which the wife covered in softball sized rocks and some plants to obscure the view across the road. The plan is to make a fake creek from that hill all the way down the white area in the picture, then also surround the pond with as many big rocks as I can find. I'll likely do gravel lining in the pond proper but would like many varying sizes of rock otherwise. The less I have to buy the better. Diesel is cheap, as is my time, compared to truckloads of rock.

Moraine! The river is creating the valley that you can't really tell has pushed the hills out to the east and west. I live at the west point of that line, about a mile east of me is the top of the west side of the valley and I'm kind of on a plateau before it dumps out into farmland a mile or two to my west.



The white block is the planned area for a fake creek (approx. 80 feet long) originating from a small hill that is currently there on the bottom left of the white block. I plan to pump water from the pond over to the hill, where it'll run down and filter itself through plants and gravel, so the swimming portion stays nice and clear (if things go as planned, which they very well may not!). You can see my current boulders already sitting in this picture at six o'clock of the pond, I've got about double that there now.

That looks like a fun project !

I needed lots of big rocks to face an embankment and 'decorate' along my driveway. I lucked out with the free rocks along the road. Got all of them home with my 580K though some had to be chained into the big bucket and I usually needed a counterweight ( rock ! ) at one end or the other . A couple I just dragged home. You will be amazed at the size of rock you can maneuver around if you think about it. My neighbor still talks about the VW Beetle size rock I moved away from his driveway

Indeed! It'll also possibly be a very expensive project (by my standards!). So far, I've only had to drag one rock that I'll quantify at the size of a third of a Beetle and while I couldn't pick it up it did scoot nicely. I really enjoyed digging the one big hole I've done so far and I have a lot of unused space to dig in without causing much trouble. I get unreasonably excited when I'm finding these rocks, nature is cool!

DOT legal?
I hate rocks.

So pretty! I would say not DOT legal if you plan to drive them all the way to Dayton for my yard, Oldcatpusher!

My guess is I only don't hate rocks because they aren't usually in my work or life way, ever. I could see being a farmer or in construction and getting very tired of them!

We always find them while trenching for utilities and the rock is just inside the trench... removing it makes the trench four times as wide(or more) in that spot

Oldcatpusher said:

DOT legal?
I hate rocks.

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Perfectly legal thats how you get rid of the damn things just let them blow off on a corner in front of Aighead place

Used to be able to judge land by the size of the farmers rock pile but so much has been cleaned up around here that doesnt work as well anymore

Jonas302 said:

Perfectly legal thats how you get rid of the damn things just let them blow off on a corner in front of Aighead place

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Carefull how fast you let them off the trailer


Especially the more round ones

Ronsii said:

We always find them while trenching for utilities and the rock is just inside the trench... removing it makes the trench four times as wide(or more) in that spot

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I know how you feel. I dislike even breaking out the hammer. Makes for a long day and hurts to think of how hard it is on the machine.

Ooooooo that's got to suck!!! when all you want to do is get the trench done...


We have a good sized hammer for our EX120 but mostly it is used for demoing large concrete pads and footings.

Oldcatpusher said:

DOT legal?
I hate rocks.

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This is why I never really pursued getting the one I like out of the quarry. Might be able to get it into the bucket of one of the 988s.... maybe, but then how do I keep it on a lowboy in the event I find someone crazy enough to haul it for me...

Many moons ago a friend and I were out shooting woodchucks, an unheard of pastime then.
Drove past this farm, beans just coming up, 6-8 big rockpiles out in the field, we could see several chucks eating the tender sprouts from the road.

We stopped and introduced ourselves, asked if we could shoot his woodchucks. The old gent (Ivan) just gave us a blank look, "you want to shoot woodchucks?"
Yes sir.
Never had anyone ask that before......go ahead, kill every damn one.
We drove behind the barns, set up and started in....
I thought it was rather strange that ol' Ivan had 3 td25's parked there.
We eventually walked out to some of the rockpiles....it became very apparent why Ivan had 3 td25's. Mother nature wasn't kind to him, average rock size was about 5' tall on every damn pile.

Ed