A hillside in Stow, on the Maine side of the White Mountain National Forest, where amethyst comes out of the pegmatite in good purple crystals. The Forest Service runs it as a designated public collecting area. You need a mineral collecting permit, it costs nothing, and you pick it up AT THE TRAILHEAD rather than at a ranger district office: it covers one day at one site. Take Deer Hill Road (FR9) 2.2 miles off Route 113 in Stow to the trailhead, then the yellow-blazed trail 0.1 miles to a fork, right 0.4 miles for permit area 1 or left 0.4 miles for area 2. Bring a shovel and a sifting screen, because the crystals sit in sandy soil. Do not dig under trees or cut roots thicker than half an inch, and stay off overhanging ledges, deep tunnels and unstable slopes. PUBLIC with a free WMNF permit, Stow (Oxford County).
Amethyst, smoky quartz
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
