Maine / New Hampshire

I will be on holiday in New Hampshire this summer and was looking for some recommendations for a day collecting. Being a UK resident I am not too familiar with New England localities, other than drooling over photos of Harvard Quarry apatites and Dunton tourmaline.
As it is a family holiday I will probably only get a single day, so really looking for what anyone suggests as their top ME or NH locality. Are the Maine Mineral Adventures trips worth doing? I came across them on a web search and was thinking of taking my girls (9 &11) to have a go at sieving some of the mine run dirt, I think they might enjoy that more than chipping in a quarry.
Obviously not expecting to come home with a "Roebling" apatite or "Jolly Green Giant" tourmaline but any advice would be very much appreciated.

Maine Mineral Adventures would be worth a day trip. You quite often can find goodies when using the sluice and they do not salt the buckets. They also run fields trips so you could go on a field trip and leave the family at the sluice. There are a lot of other things to do in the area so the family could keep busy for the day. Another good option is contact the Poland Mining Camp in Poland. Maine. Mary also runs field trips in the area, these two are the only ones who can get you into Mt Mica to collect in the new dumps plus a group of other mines.
The are also a group of local areas open for collecting, PM me and I can send you a list of areas.
Tom

I live in NH near the boarder of Maine. There are many places you could adventure to. I have twin sisters your childrens age. They have gone mining with me on many occaisions. I would suggest the Moats Range in Conway, NH, have always had good luck there with out a ton of work. This locality has a large mineral list. Also would recommend Deer hill in Stowe, Me. World Class amythest. haven't had as good of luck here :(. Both localites in the National forest for the more secluded feel if you aren't into the larger professional sites that Tom K. mentioned. Send a message around the time you will be here, maybe can guide you out to one of them.
Vernon

The Poland Camp is a good choice. They'll take you to some place where you'll mostly probably find something of interest. When I was there ten years ago, I shipped many tens of kg of specimens back home. In addition, they are very nice people.

Robert,

Another consideration is joining the Maine Mineralalogical and Geological Society for access to their private quarry: [mainemineralclub.org]

Don

Maine Mineral adventures is my personal favorites. Zoltan is an awesome guy. i'm planning on getting my butt up there this summer.... haven't for a while.

-Rowan Lytle

son: -picks up huge loose amethyst cluster- "Is this what we're looking for?"
father: "Holy #$@%!

Thanks to everyone for your generosity in sharing your collecting experiences and for the exchange of PMs.

Robbie Neilson

I will be in Maine during August visiting the in-laws and would like to get out an do some digging. I would like to go to the Rose Quartz Crystal Locality (Pegmatite 24), in Newry. I was wondering what is the status of this locality as far as access. I'm not much for going to "tourist" fee localities. I like doing this on my own terms and stay away from places that are "Disneyfied." It takes away from the adventure and skill.