Excellent service and very friendly. We had a great time and learned a lot! Can't wait for our cut stones to arrive. Will definitely be back again...and again! read more

We brought our five year old grandson and 21/2 year old granddaughter to Foggy Mountain Gem Mine and it certainly surpassed our expectations. The staff was so friendly and accommodating and the educational overview of the gems they found was soooo interesting. I highly recommend ! read more

Staff were very knowledgeable and friendly. Grandkids loved it. They loved every rock they found. Decent price for the experience.

We all enjoyed this little family adventure. No you don't go into the mine....you just purchase a bucket of dirt and hopefully gems and stand and sift them in the little water trough but it sure is fun to see your kids get excited when they get a big piece of quartz or something fun. We actually did well and got most all the rocks listed even a few semi-precious ones. They will cut them and ship them to you if you choose and even have some jewelry settings available. We spend about 2 hours here and roughly 200. it was fun and I'm glad we were able to fit this in and afford it. read more

This place is really fun. We actually found some gems that were quite rare. If you're in the area be sure to check it out!

Such a great time here. Been coming here almost every year and we always find cool gems and rocks! The staff is very knowledgeable and friendly, they helped us identify all the rocks we found. The bucket we bought also came with free cuts, so excited to get the cuts back! The staff had spaced out the different mining groups and the mining/sifting area was outside. We were wearing masks(except for our picture) and overall it felt very safe. read more

Foggy Mountain Gem Mine - Mining the gems - Jewelry Near Me - Boone, North Carolina

REALLY! A Gem Mine? Well Darn it for a small bucket a and 45 mins, I actually enjoyed doing this. Yes it is a salted mine (Meaning they purchase the chunks of semi precious stone and mix it with sand) and the sloughs are pretty cool. The wife and I went through the small bucket and found some tigers eye, Aventurine, Emerald, Garnet etc. We are having some jewelry made up out of what we found and the other pieces we kept and adding to a bowl at home as memory and maybe a stash of future gifts?? lol All in all for us it was not something we would do again and again but we will be taking the grand-kids next time are together and they are a little older. Worth the time and money to create the fun. Thank you Tate for an extremely pleasant experience. read more

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Super fun time! If those three words were acceptable, that's be it but, here's some fun stuff. I have NO idea where I used to come 30 years ago when I visited the high country of NC, but planning this road trip with my daughter, I just knew I had to do some gem mining. I searched up and found Foggy Mountain by the power of the internet and so glad we stopped! It was a Friday mid/late morning and we stopped in. The staff was fantastic! We were the only ones (at the time) there and got a nice little bucket of stuff to go through. It was enough for my daughter to have fun, and I helped too. She had her little goodies and enjoyed sluicing. Such a super fantastic time! We found a bunch of garnets, rubies, topaz, and emeralds! She's pretty jazzed about it all! After mining, one of the staff gave uss Thanks so much for a great time. An overview of what all we found. Really informative and really interesting! read more

Foggy Mountain Gem Mine - Trying to get rich! - Jewelry Near Me - Boone, North Carolina

We loved them walking us through everything we found at the mine! I was skeptical going in, but we had the best time! Definitely worth it! 1 pound per person is plenty. read more

Foggy Mountain Gem Mine - Stone education - Jewelry Near Me - Boone, North Carolina

Is this a tourist trap? Yes. It is worth it? Absolutely. We surprised our 4 and 5 year olds with a gem mining experience today, and it was the chief highlight of a whole week of highlights in the High Country. The store is not much to look at, sort of dusty and a little run down, but the experience was tons of fun. Not only did the kids thoroughly enjoy sharing a 3 gallon bucket, but we adults similarly couldn't stop smiling! This is a stop that we will never forget. read more

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A place we found on Yelp, an indoor activity for the children on a rainy day. The experience was great, the place small, yet with people who have knowledge regarding gems. The children are given buckets with rocks, then they have to search and look for gems, whatever they find, they're able to take home, with a class given by their workers, on the different gems they are taking home. Overall, an experience our whole family enjoyed and strongly recommended to anyone staying in Boone, North Carolina. read more

Foggy Mountain Gem Mine - Gems - Jewelry Near Me - Boone, North Carolina

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Whitt was very helpful and informative. Such a wonderful place and great customer service!

Great experience gem mining at this spot. Staff were courteous and knowledgeable. Social distancing enforced. Masks required and staff wear masks. Our family of 4 had a great time mining the smallest bucket ($30?) We received a thorough explanation of the gems we found. Parking is tricky at this location. Put on your blinker and be ready to slide in read more

Loved this roadside gem! Outside panning shoots. Everyone was social-distanced and wearing masks. Plexiglass shields in place. We went with our kids to top off a week of learning about Rocks & Gems and they had so much fun panning and discovering their own finds. We started with one bucket for our 3 Kids, but they're were having so much fun we indulged in a second bucket to keep the fun going. Or to take away from the fun our kids had, but I did wish the store had more variety for the kids to choose from afterwards. (Sorry - It's loads of fun, bjust want you to be aware going in!) I've seen this in other gem-finding excursions and not sure why we didn't find that here. And the giant geodes for $8000 each inside the front door next to the sign "you break it you bought it" sign without any barrier will make any parent nervous. read more

Foggy Mountain Gem Mine - Jewelry Near Me - Boone, North Carolina

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Visited the Foggy Mountain Gem Mine today and had a great time. It was a cool experience that I'd never had and it was fun panning for gems. The staff also seemed like they knew what they were talking about. The experience itself only lasted about 45 minutes, but I left with a bag of cool rocks. I'd definitely recommend this place to families looking for something fun to do with kids. read more

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Took our kids age 6 and 2 and they had a good time. The smaller bucket provided plenty of good finds and enough time they enjoyed it but didn't get wore out with it. Personally couldn't see buying the larger size buckets unless you had 4+ kids going through it. The staff is friendly and helpful in explaining the types of rocks they collected. Had some cool shirts too, wish I had bought one! read more

I loved it I've gone twice now! it is so much fun and definitely suggest. I don't live in NC but whenever i'm up there i have found so many very cool rocks! read more

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Me and my boyfriend took a trip to enjoy some of the activities in Boone and this was by far our favorite!! We got the 5 pounds bucket and it took us two hours to go through all the amazing rocks we found. The staff was more than welcoming and answered all our questions so thoroughly. The girl at the end with blonde hair was the best!! We also got a free cut and polish of one of our stones due to the bucket we bought. It was such a great experience and deal, we had a lot of fun! read more

Foggy Mountain Gem Mine - Jewelry Near Me - Boone, North Carolina

We arrived right at 10 a.m. and the place was already hopping (Spring Break crowd). This place is located RIGHT on the highway. GPS said to turn onto a road that is a few hundred feet past this but that isn't right so don't be surprised when it pops up and you have to make a quick turn in to park. I'm so glad we got there early because we were able to get a spot overlooking the river--the view and sounds of the river are so beautiful--it made the experience just as enjoyable for me as it was for the kids. Staff was so well prepared and amazing. They got us situated right away. My only tiny tiny gripe is that I wish someone would have told my boys that the vast majority of what is in the bucket is gravel. It looks like quartz and maybe some of it is so they were keeping way more than they should have and so we later needed to resort it to get rid of all the nice quartzy gravel. We were just used to the place we have gone to in the past where all the "throwaway" dirt is washed away so you don't have to remove any gravel. But this is more of a warning to others that just don't know than a true gripe, bc overall the quality and quantity was much better than what we're used to. The Motherlode bucket for one takes about an hour and a half to get through. You head inside with your haul and the staff inside really takes their time helping you sort and identify your gems. There is no pressure at all to buy cut gems or jewelry but if you choose to do so they do a great job explaining the options. There was a line around the store behind us waiting to have the staff help them sort, identify and choose gems to have cut but you never would have known it--the guy helping us was so helpful and efficient but not hurried. Finally I realized when it was time to go that I didn't have the visibility to whip my car into reverse onto the highway (when I say this place is on the highway the parking lot is JUST off the highway and you're parked perpendicular to the highway with only a few feet to spare behind your car)--and cars and huge trucks were flying down it. I felt awful asking the staff to help me bc they were so busy. I seriously debated just waiting in my car for other cars to leave hoping that would give me the visibility or room to safely reverse onto the highway. But that could have taken a really long time. I walked in to the crowded store and one of the employees spotted me and asked if I needed help. He immediately hopped out from behind the counter to help me. Everyone there had been great but a big extra thank you to this guy. Will absolutely return and recommend this place to everyone I know that loves to gem mine as well. read more

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Paid for the $80 bucket and come to find out as soon as we started that 99% of what you get is simple gravel that is most likely recycled tens of times from miners before you. It definitely gives tourists the "experience" but I have been going to these mines all over the mountains for decades and this has been probably the worst. You get almost zero actual gemstones, most are just colored rocks. One of the best mines I've ever been to is just down the road and you get tens of actual gemstones per miner (amethyst, rubies, sapphires, tourmalines, garnets, etc.) and the guy actually goes through them when you're done and tells you what you have and sorts them and will even offer to cut some of the more valuable ones for you then and there. read more

A must for children of all ages. We took our son who loves rocks, gems and stones. He had the best time as we did. We got a lot of awesome keepsakes, and love that they explained what each stone was that we found. Very clean inside with young well mannered friendly staff. read more

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Fun place! We'd never done this before and it was a cool little intro into the world of mining lite. We got the smallest bucket, which still had plenty of gems - we saw that those around us who got bigger buckets had MUCH larger gems. Everyone wore masks, most of the activity was outside, and distancing was encouraged. My family had a great time and staff was very helpful in spelling out what to do. read more

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Went as soon as they opened on a Saturday morning. Was surprised that although they had three flumes, they only had two working. Out of the approximately 60 total feet of Flume, they had three chairs toatal. Normally these types of places have long benches so everyone can sit. Here, you had to stand and sort through the gems in the waist high Flume for hours. We went to five different similar establishments in the immediate area. This one felt by far the cheapest, had the lowest gem output for the same size bucket and cost, and had the least small items in the miscellaneous gravel. It was interesting in that it was the only place that discouraged us from buying the five gallon bucket. They wanted us to buy the two gallon bucket instead. Which in hindsight would have been better as at least we wouldn't have spent as much on a cheap product. read more

Sure they're nice (the stone info people that is). Two stars for that. Went in trying to get the "motherload" bucket and was pretty much lectured by the staff that I shouldn't get it. I kept saying it was what I wanted and I was continuously met with excuses on why I don't need it. After a few minutes of back and forth I just gave up and got a smaller bucket. And as expected, I got shards and wasted my time, money and any excitement I had. Which I've been waiting years to go mining again. But they got my money so they don't care and didn't really even speak to me after that. Even getting my shards looked at took me having to just stand there until someone asked-even though they had done everyone else around. Point of the story is-they'll try to convince you to not get what you want and I know I'll go somewhere else next time. read more

Perfect for a 7yr old that walked away with a couple big rocks and thought she scored huge gems. The guy that sat down with us afterwards was very thorough and had some college courses so he was rather knowledgeable about rocks/gems etc read more

Absolutely horrible experience!!!! Employees were rude. Could it be because we're from Miami? Waiting for ove r 20 minutes to have our ROCKS separated, just to be ignored again. It's literally disgusting. We couldn't of been more pleasant, with please and thank you, and this is how we were treated. So sad. Will NEVER be back to this dump again. read more

We had a great time mining for gems at Foggy Mountain Gem Mine. Our bucket was generous and contained so many more gems than expected. The staff was kind and helpful and patient. We will return next time we are in Boone, NC. Thanks for the fun! read more

Foggy Mountain Gem Mine - Jewelry Near Me - Boone, North Carolina

SO fun!!! My mom and I went and found so many gems. Getting some turned into actual jewelry. So worth it. 10/10!!! Staff is so wonderful and knowledgeable! read more

Foggy Mountain Gem Mine - Jewelry Near Me - Boone, North Carolina

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The employees working at the 321 location are such pleasant people to be greeted by! they were so very nice and helpful and the experience of it all was just wonderful! will def be going back! read more

We loved our experience with panning for gem stones. It was wonderful going through all the stones and found some we loved and are having those polished and set. Athena, Aidan and Michael were awesome hosts! They explained everything and made our experience the best. It is obvious that they know their stones as they could answer all our questions. Highly recommend Foggy Mountain Gem Mine Thanks guys! read more

We came in today just wanting to look at some cool rocks and we met a employee named Michael and he made us feel very welcome. He let us look at any gems we wanted as well and also taught us about their properties, their names and where they came from. We've never had such a good customer experience and we're absolutely blown away. Thank you Michael. Everybody go visit Michael! read more

We didn't know what to expect- we thought it was going to be really corny and just for little kids. But we all had such a good time- all ages ( 8 to 64;); and stayed about two hours. The best part was listening to Kat explain what the rocks and gems were- she really knows her stuff and answered all our questions- we all learned so much! Thanks everyone and especially Kat! Worth every penny we spent! Five stars! read more

This is a great little piece of Americana tucked away in the hills. I love crystals and could not pass up the chance to sluice and try my luck. When my bucket was empty, I went inside to return it and the woman told me I didn't get very many so I could try my luck again. It was in this Bucket I found my amethyst. After the sluicing, we visited the "vortex" and it's real. Make sure you hold on to the rails! You will be standing sideways. Don't forget the largest Arrowhead collection in the US collected by one couple. It's amazing. read more

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This place rocks, kids of all ages have a great time here and my daughter sure enjoyed her visit here she did buy one bucket and got some beautiful jams out of her for her efforts of mining. Customer service is great pricing is reasonable lots of different activities for the kids to do and things to see definitely worth a stop plan 1 to 2 hours and you'll have a real great time here you can't go wrong. read more

We had a blast here and have absolutely no complaints. We got there a few minutes before they opened and were first in. The staff is super polite, friendly, and even took the time to write down directions to a park on the Blue Ridge that she loved. We got the $65 bucket and walked away with 3 zip locks full of gems. We found a ton of golf ball sized gems, and a large amount of rubies, emeralds, and Tourmaline. I paid to have the largest ruby and emerald cut and will update this review when those come in in about 3-5 weeks. Overall I definitely recommend this place and will absolutely come back again. Nick read more

Foggy Mountain Gem Mine - My son made out like a bandit with the $65 bucket! - Jewelry Near Me - Boone, North Carolina

Great place to spend an hour or so. Lot of cool gems to be found and staff is super friendly and helpful. After you get your gems they help you sort them and tell you all about each one. Another reviewer said 10 stars and I agree! read more

We went in the afternoon and had a blast! The workers did an amazing job! So you walk in and are immediately greeted warmly. They give you a bucket that you sort through and we found some great pieces. Overall it was a fun experience for all. read more

Foggy Mountain Gem Mine - Jewelry Near Me - Boone, North Carolina

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BEST gem mining place ever !! staff is extremely helpful and kind, and we found some awesome gems !!

Awesome service! Great family fun and dog friendly! We found gems on a rainy foggy day and it was a blast.

Great place to take young children to. I'd recommend it! Prices seem fair, especially in today's world. Kids had fun. read more