Psst! Winter Rock Hunting in Northern Michigan is Incredible

This article first appeared in Traverse Northern Michigan. Find this story and more when you explore our magazine library. Want Traverse delivered to your door or inbox monthly? View our print subscription and digital subscription options.

You’re walking along your favorite Northern Michigan beach, not a soul in sight. On a sunny summer day, this stretch would be dotted with beach umbrellas and sandcastles, but today, it’s speckled only with icy treasures washed up from the depths.

As daunting as an off-season hunt may sound, with the proper planning and preparation, it could easily become your new favorite cold-weather hobby.

Most local rock lovers know that the best source for rock-hunting tips and advice is the beloved Michigan Rockhounds Facebook group, a geological-based community and organization with a prolific following. So that’s where we started our search—how would an expert rockhound plan a winter trip?

We caught up with Midland resident Cody Wiedenbein, who founded the group in October 2020, to hear how he approaches the season, his advice for rockhounds going out for their first winter excursion, and why he feels it’s such a special time of year for rock enthusiasts.

Allison Jarrell: Can you walk us through the benefits of winter rockhounding?
Cody Wiedenbein: One of the biggest benefits is the lack of tourists, and in some regions, the lack of locals as well. Fewer rocks being picked is a no-brainer, but you will never be alone on the beach. The diehard hounds don’t care about the cold, the distance or the weather. The fall months tend to bring a lot of harsh waves from the change in temperature; due to this, the waves tend to be more consistently powerful than they ever are during the summer. This means the waves are almost always bringing new stones to the shorelines. Not just new, but larger stones as well.

AJ: When should rock hunters plan to head to the shoreline?
CW: Usually a couple of days or so after a consistent storm. During a storm, the beaches themselves tend to disappear, and this disappearance can persist for days at a time, especially if the storms become more frequent/the sands haven’t had time to wash away. This tends to leave the beach conditions extremely inconsistent. Truthfully, there isn’t much of a golden rule on when to head to the beaches. The best piece of advice I have is to look online for beach cams that could represent the region you’re heading to. Our website (michiganrockhounds.com) includes a whole list of beach cams from all over the Great Lakes, as cameras are heavily used for checking nearby beach/weather conditions.

Related Read: Michigan Rock Hunting is the Best on Earth

AJ: Are there certain areas where people generally have success in the winter?
CW: The conditions are never predictable, and one beach can bring great treasure one year with none the next. Success is heavily dependent on beach conditions, and as we know with Michigan weather, such things can never be predicted. While I often travel to Leland for rock collecting, I’ve found the conditions to be too inconsistent to be worth my time.

AJ: Are there specific types of rocks people might have more luck finding in the winter? Or are hunters just likely to find more of them?
CW: There really is no rhyme nor reason to stones that appear more often during the winter. If you’re finding a rock more often during the winter than you ever would during the summer, this would primarily be due to the waters indiscriminately churning up the shorelines, leaving new stones that go unpicked because few people tend to hound during the winters.

AJ: Let’s talk safety. What should folks consider when planning a winter trip? Do you recommend bringing any specific gear?
CW: Rock scoops help keep your hands out of the water, and they also save your back from the discomfort of constantly bending over. Waders will keep you dry, but this tends to be situational because you never want to challenge whitecaps with a wader on. Hand warmers are hand-y (pun intended). Boots are a no-brainer, but you can manage without them if you’re careful. But the biggest thing you want to protect during a winter out on the shoreline is your ears.

Ears do not have insulating fat and are made almost entirely of cartilage. They’ll freeze faster than your fingers, and if you’re out too long, you’ll eventually feel it in your head as the lack of circulation will cause severe pain. Wear a nice warm hat with ear coverage, grab some earmuffs, or throw on a heavy hood.

And finally, never venture onto the ice. There’s a thing called “shelf ice,” where mounds of snow and ice buildup look deceptively like a solid form. In reality, these mounds of shelf ice can cover unstable ceilings that would lead to a nasty, cold fall into a pit of ice and water with no way out.

AJ: Where can rockhounds go for more information?
CW: Our website is host to a variety of digital tools and resources that have been custom-built for rockhounds all over Michigan! Our map has 111 publicly accessible locations across the lower and upper peninsulas, with rockhound reports detailing what you can find on some beaches versus others. It’s a great place to get started when you want to get into rockhounding. We’ve recently implemented webcam data into the map itself, so locations with nearby webcams will have them listed in their descriptions. Not every location has data on our map, but each one has a button at the bottom for folks to submit photos and descriptions, and to report their own finds as well.

Related Read: The Lure of Michigan’s Petoskey Stone