I was asked by my friend and geology instructor, Dan Murphy, to lead his Geology class on a morning field trip to the Ray Mica Mine in Yancey County, North Carolina. Only one of the students had ever been rockhounding before, so the trip was meant to be both educational and fun.

We arrived and parked at the Forest Service Parking area around 9:00 AM. We made our way up the trail to the Ray Mine creek. From there, we continued upstream over jagged rocks and collected as we went. Some of students were eager to see some of the old mine workings, so we followed a trail up a steep slope the rose above the creek. From a safe distance, we peered down into several seemingly-bottomless abandoned mine shafts. We spent the remainder of the morning collecting in the spoil piles along the creek. Many decent specimens were found, including beryl, apatite, muscovite, garnet, thulite, tourmaline, quartz, and feldspar.

I'll let the following pictures tell the rest of the story.