McLain State Park
Michigan
Find: Lake Superior Agates, prehnite, copper ore, unakite, amygdaloidal basalt
GPS: 47.239492, -88.601207
Nearest city: Houghton, MI
Recommended Vehicle: Any
Season: Accessible year round, Winter is likely to have significant snow, ice, and frigid temperatures.
Summary:
This is a spot I visited multiple times. It has a nice campground you can stay at. It has had some recent landslides and you can see that if you end up coming down to the beach. The road was almost entirely washed away when I visited last in 2024.
Michigan is one of the few states that allows rockhounding within its State Parks (up to 25lbs per year).
If you have mobility trouble, accessing here was difficult due to the recent landslides. It was a steep sandy slope with a couple drops. There may be an easier way to access the shore now that more time has passed, though.
Video
Check out the video for a better look at what can be found when exploring this spot.
This is the 4th spot listed in the video description links.
3 Helpful Tools
Chest Waders
Chest waders are great to stay dry if you want to get in the lake.
Agate Scoop
An agate scoop is helpful to pick things up faster and farther away from you.
Classifier
A classifier is fun to sit with if you’re a fan of small agates and stones. One with a larger, 1-inch mesh would be what I’d pick.
The beach continues Northeast for quite a ways without interruption.
A decent size rock that a could be a strange Lake Superior Agate.
I came across all of these agates in a single day - in the most unlikely way possible. The video can tell the story a little better than I can. It was something I'll remember forever.
An example of many greens along the Keweenaw Peninsula. I believe this is epidote.
This one was another large oddball.
Some pits and pockets that made this unique.
Prehnite with both green and orange color.
A 2-tone granite, split right down the middle
Unakite (center), water-worn concrete (back right), and native copper (front right)