Our columnist finds the ancient process of laying down stones to make a flat surface to walk upon to be a pleasantly contemplative one.

Keith Krizan
Learning to Struggle Well
Boulder Crest AZ offers support, training, and respite for veterans and first responders and their families at the former Apache Springs Ranch. Meet the people who make it work.
Notes From the Briefly Underground
The PRT advises that nobody enter abandoned mines or caves without the proper training or equipment. But that’s never stopped our columnist.
Let’s Go Get Stones: Beyond Alto
Some adventures can be started and completed within the same day. Some, like this one, can take decades to come to fruition.Â
A Most Mysterious Rock
Our columnist stumbled upon a mysterious rock while out hunting for geodes. What caused those holes?
Let’s Go Get Stones: Rolling Stones
During these cool and breezy months, I have decided to embark upon a new area of interest: Rock Tumbling. Rockhounding’s afterthought.
Let’s Go Get Stones: Predictions
Yogi Berra and ChatGPT, rattlesnakes and donkey power: a meditative trip to the Buena Vista Mine, thinking about the future while exploring the past.
Where the Gold Settles
The PRT’s resident rockhound reflects on his low-key search for gold — and the search that brought him to Sonoita-Elgin in the first place, two decades ago.
Let’s Go Get Stones: Past Prospects
It is in the black sand that gold can sometimes be found. The fact is, though, that I have yet to authenticate a single flash in my pan.
Let’s Go Get Stones: Animas Valley
Finding carnelian quartz, called the sunset stone by ancient Egyptians, in a sunlit and beautiful place in the borderlands.