Second time mining, but first at this location. You can mine here until sunset unlike other locations that have a set time to close. Earlier in the year gives you a longer opportunity to mine! $28 per person to enter. There is equipment to rent or buy, I suggest renting compared to the prices of buying, or bring your own! Compared to another mines, this one is smaller with three different areas, we chose the black diamond mine. Being newly excavated, we had a chance at unearthing more diamonds in this location versus cracking open the stones. Unfortunately, we stopped in during a mining competition so one mine was pretty much off-limits but we were still able to find a lot of cool diamonds and rocks read more

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Knowledgeable and welcoming staff, cabin was clean, bathrooms were clean, camp showers were hot. Cabins have windows and an overhead fan, but if you are going during the hot season, bring an extra to help move air through. We went at a rough time with a brutal heat index but came back with a decent collection of stones. My son wandered and found a few stones loose in the dirt of the mine. Definitely suggest bringing a pop up canopy for shade while mining. The sluicing option (buy a bag, pour in sieve, rinse) produced some great stones and fossils that we can't wait to tumble and polish. Most of the lot is gravel, which makes for difficult terrain for wheelchair users. The beds in the cabin are rough sleeping, especially after a day spent mining. If you can, pack extra padding for a better sleep. Overall, a good experience. We'll be back when the temps aren't so cruel and see what we can get when we aren't risking heat exhaustion to pound rocks. read more

Awesome place! Super friendly staff! Hugely knowledgeable! We went mining for a bit in the hot sun, had fun and will def camp there someday soon! read more

Wow. I can't say enough about this campsite! The owners are wonderful, helpful and nice. The campsite is clean and adorable, no critter problems and a beautiful creek runs through the back. But the best part? This is a GREAT place to mine Herkimer Diamonds! Wow! Just visited for a three night camping trip on the grounds. We initially thought we would only mine one day but we got totally hooked! YES you find Herkimer Diamonds, and beautiful ones at that. Within the campsite there are spaces for, tents, RV's AND they have cabins. There are two mines onsite and my husband and I found quartz in both. My husband lucked out and found one that's about an inch and half. Which made us just want to keep looking! YES- you can rent tools here, but make sure you are dressed properly! Closed toed shoes are best! Overall an incredible experience, can't wait to go back! read more

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BEWARE! Terrible, Terrible, Terrible! I'm coming from the Mid West. I booked 4 sites in February for the end of June, for our friends and I to get together. I Paid the deposit, and was sent a confirmation for the sites. We called yesterday about adding an additional site, and found out that they double booked our sites and the reservation we had did not exist. (Proof Below of our confirmation). Thank god we all didn't show up for our reservation. They basically told me to piss off, returned my deposit, and now will not return emails, or phone calls. I travel all year, coast to coast and have been to dozens of RV parks/campgrounds, this is the worst experience I've ever had! Not 1 I'm sorry, we messed up, nothing! As you all know... Trying to get in somewhere last minute is near impossible! Crystal Grove... you have cost us dearly. read more

Crystal Grove Campsite - Campgrounds Near Me - Saint Johnsville, New York

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This place was so amazing !!! What a great experience , we had such a great time . We had so much mining amd we can not wait to go back . read more

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If You Are Looking To Actually Find Nice Crystals & More Than Just 1 or 2 Don't Go here Our first trip to New York to dig for Herkimer Diamonds was back in 2010. We dug at the Ace of Diamonds mine. Great time & loads of herks to be had. Smashed rocks, sifted through dirt amongst the piles, and walked around plucking them off the ground. We returned multiple times until suddenly the landscape changed and the rock pile was not the same. All there was were rocks from the cliff that the claims people had sheered off to hopefully find pockets in the walls. We find out that the Ace of Diamonds is in a lawsuit and it cannot dig up new material/loads of rock and earth from deep in the mine areas to dump for all of the daily customers to prospect. The place is a waste of time and money now. We return two more times hoping for change but none came. Still not producing anything but a few small chipped pieces. This year, we decided to try somewhere different. We watched tons of utube videos that were dated within the last year. Wow! Look at Crystal Groves Mines and all the fruitful finds! We decide to go there July 22, 2023. Spent the entire day 9am-4pm with four of us working hard trying to locate anything... We have done this before elsewhere and know to try different locations, depths, rocks etc. We found a total of 5 herks between us. Small broken and worthless. Warning... no one else was finding much of anything either. We talked to loads of people that day. So, I no longer believe utubers. Suspect that they faked finding them. Final thought...don't waste your time and money at Crystal Grove Mines. read more

Great campsite! We stayed at #12. I'd recommend this one. There's a good amount of space for a tent and canopy along with nice real estate along the creek. During the day, the sun was shining and we were able to take a little dip in the creek behind our site. The current is a little strong so make sure you have good footwear... RIP my flip flops. There's also a diamond/crystal mining area. You can rent gear from the office and be an archeologist for the day. We didn't go that route, but we found a couple little crystals in the ground walking around. You can score some cool gemstones if you spend some quality time in the mines. Our neighbors spent the afternoon mining and came back to the site with huge crystals the size of baseballs. We also went on a little hike along a trail by the playground. It's about 3/4 a mile, maybe? It was nice trek through the woods. It was so quiet and peaceful, but the trail was a bit muddy from the recent rain storms. Speaking of rain... It rained both nights of our trip. Boy, was I glad our tent was new and waterproof. It was a damper on the fun because we couldn't hang by the fire like we normally do. Luckily, the site is surrounded by trees so it blocked the downpour. On the second night, the rain came a little earlier so we drove up to Beardslee Castle for a beer (worth it if you're in the area!). Later after we got back to the site, we went to hang out in the pavilion to stay dry. There's fooseball (takes quarters) and ping pong (you might have to get paddles & balls from the office) so we stuck with playing our game of Would You Rather?, sipping PBRs. All in all, it was a great trip (minus the rain) and the grounds are quiet with a handful of tent sites, cabins, and RV spots. Tips: - Bring lighter fluid. Since it rained all the kindling from the forest was wet and we needed it to get the fire started. - If you plan to cook over the fire, bring a grill grate if you can because the fire pit doesn't have one already attached. - Don't leave things along the creek. If it does happen to rain the water pools in that area and will whisk away your belongings. - Bug spray is a must since you're in the woods. - Bring a volleyball - there's a net! read more

Crystal Grove Campsite - Campsite #12 along the creek - Campgrounds Near Me - Saint Johnsville, New York

This campground is so cute! it offers tenting and also small cabins with a fire pit and a picnic table in each site. It's $27/ night which pays off because there are free showers and bathrooms. The mine is literally a few min walking distance from the site and if you look carefully enough, you will DEFINITELY find some Herkimer quartz. Once we started finding pieces, more just kept coming. It was really exciting! Definitely recommend this place. read more

My BF and I visited last summer with our 10 year old boys. The campground is very pretty and natural and conveniently located to the mines. There is a pretty stream, wooded areas, and a grassy field with a small playground. The mines were easy to navigate. The boys found nice stones by scavenging through the piles. We would have had more luck with heavier tools, but without them we still found some pretty and unique crystals. Definitely a nice place to camp. If you're serious about finding Herkimer diamonds I would recommend Ace of Diamonds, but if you want the overall experience of camping and mining, this is the place to be. read more

My boyfriend and I had only a few hours to dig / bust rock .We loved it and can't wait to go back . This was our first time searching for Herkimer diamonds. It took us the first couple of hours to to get into the grove of things . We did come away with some nice pieces . read more

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I went there just to dig some quartz. They are abundant, and can be picked all over, even though most of them are fragmented and small. But this is a simple place. You need some patience to find nice crystals. One note of caution. They rent tools, such as hammer, chisel, screen, shovel, and rake. But if you use hammer and chisel, you really need to bring eye protection goggles and gloves. Their visitor restrooms were very well maintained and clean. read more

My boyfriend and I visited this summer, mining for the first time. Although we were new to the experience, we were prepared & for the most part knew what we were about to do. We brought eye protection & lots of tools. The initial impression of the campground & its employees was less than impressive. The owner had an attitude and made us both feel pretty unwelcome. There are a lot of rules & they seem pretty stingy with the water....the bathrooms & showers have those nozzles that you have to keep turned on to stay on. Almost impossible to wash properly. We are experienced primitive campers, so we opted for no water/electricity & it costed $27 a night....just to pitch a tent :-/ The mining was way more difficult than we anticipated. Those are some tough rocks! We worked VERY hard and got some pretty amazing specimens. If you bring the right tools & work really hard, you will absolutely find something. Overall, we had a great time. Our tips: brings LOTS of water (more than you think you'll need) and eye protection. And even though its hot, you'll probably want to wear pants. Those rocks go flying. *******************NO CELL PHONE SERVICE read more

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MINING REVIEW ONLY: I used to come here all the time in the 70's. At that time, you could find many crystals without having to use any tools but your hands. There were so many crystals attached to rocks that I could be choosy and I only took home unshattered crystal clumps of a 1/2 " or more in size. I also would find many whole crystals on the ground. My family and I went yesterday and we were told the quarry had been dug & turned about 3 weeks ago, so there still was "plenty" to find. There was *nothing*, really. My kids found shattered 1/2" or smaller crystals, and there were plenty of pieces of rocks with smalls globs of tiny crystals, but it was *nothing* like what I was expecting or paid for. When you enter the quarry, you see so many shimmering rocks, you are sure there is a bunch of crystals, but most are small or so shattered or attached it's impossible to get them off. The only nice crystal I found was about 1/4" within a pocket in a large rock, so I took the whole rock home to try to chisel it later. I didn't believe other reviews I saw online that this place was picked out and not to go here, as I had **pockets full** of quartz in the 70's. I came home with sparkly rocks for my garden and zero crystals in my hand. At least it was a nice overcast day and we didn't roast. Staff was kind & helpful as always. I really wanted to ask for some money back, or at least an explanation of why it is SO much worse than it used to be. It is still exciting for the under-12 set, just disappointing, I guess- as many of the younger kids in the quarry were bummed about not finding much. If you have balance issues like I do- take a walking stick as you will be walking over very uneven, jagged and wobbly rocks. There isn't a path through the quarry once you are in the pit. Bring hat, sunscreen, cloth gloves, water to drink and more to wash mud off rocks to find crystals. I was so hoping this would be awesome...spent about 3 hours there. read more

Woodsy and shady, embraced by a delightfully burbling stream, this is the most comfortable and comforting campground at which we stayed. With a large play area for kids across the little footbridge, this place would be fun enough, but WAIT! There's MORE! (I love being able to say that) The new management team are miners, themselves, and have put a lot of caring and work into opening up new material to enrich the Herkimer-Hunting for all skill levels. We'll be back, the sooner the better! Thank you, Joel and Billie Jo! read more

This past weekend was our first time at this campground. 5 stars! Beautiful grounds and lovely stream runs through it. The mining was pretty cool too. Staff was really friendly and helpful especially with advice on how to mine. Kids loved it. read more