Collecting Cape May Diamonds
posted in Collecting Locations, Filming |No trip to New Jersey would be complete without visiting Cape May. This historic resort town is on the very furthest tip of New Jersey, darting out into the Atlantic Ocean. Although a playground for the wealthly during much of 19th century, Cape May is now one of New Jersey’s most visited tourist spots.
Many of the beaches in Cape May are made up of ocean polished quartz pebbles of various sizes and quality. Many of the best pieces are water clear, or have the translucent look of moonstone. These quartz pebbles are actually prismatic quartz washed out of veins along side the riverbed of the Delaware River. They are refered to as “Cape May Diamonds”, and have been used for jewely by local artisians for years.
We drove past the touristy down=town area, and out to Sunset Beach. We parked the car in the public parking lot, and followed the trail out to the water.
Right away we saw the water polished pebbles on the beach.
So we walked along the water looking for gravel bars washed in by the tide.
A little further down the beach, and we found a large gravel bar, so we looked through it for awhile.
With minimal effort we both found quite a few nice “Cape May Diamonds”, and then headed back to the parking lot.
At the edge of the parking lot was a RockShop on the beach.
As we were leaving, the sun was setting over the Atlantic Ocean.
