2026 Field Trips
current active members only
Sept. 25-27, Keokuk Geode Festival, Keokuk, IA, and Hamilton, IL:
This annual festival, about five hours from La Crosse, features guided hunts for geodes twice a day on private land at over 10 different sites in Keokuk and Hamilton. A five-gallon bucket of rock costs $25. Be sure to bring buckets, a shovel, and cash to pay to the landowners. Sites vary in difficulty, but come prepared to walk in creeks and lots of sticky mud. The festival also attracts a parking lot full of rock venders at the local church. You must buy a $28.52 ticket in advance. Tickets go on sale June 15.
Oct. 3-6, Hawk’s Ridge Bluff/Haunted Ridge/Mary’s Lake, Near Cadet, MO:
A four-day trip to hunt drusy quartz and crazy-lace agate. Haunted Ridge is a pay site. We will use a private guide to access the other two sites. Cadet is an 8-hour drive from La Crosse.
Oct. 6-9, Cave-in-Rock and Rosiclare, IL:
Nine hours from La Crosse or 3 1⁄2 hours from Cadet, MO, Cave-in-Rock is a small town with a natural cave near the Shawnee National Forest. Nearby, Rosiclare, another very small town, is home to the annual Fluorspar Festival (Oct. , to an abandoned Fluorspar mine (the Minerva #1), and to a Fluorite museum. Another gem and mineral museum is 35 miles away via the ferry that connects Illinois and Kentucky. Purple and yellow fluorite can still be found in the forest and in the Minerva Mine tailings.
