Guidelines to finding rocks and minerals?

[OwenT]

From the Washington State Mineral Council Locality Index http://www.mineralcouncil.org/Washington%20Mineral%20Database.pdf I've found that there's some pretty cool stuff to be found around the state. This summer I want to get out and do some digging and find some stuff only I don't really know how. Out of all the books and articles I've read about how or where to find rocks and minerals, all of them only mention specifics of where to find stuff, like the exact spot on a hill at a commonly visited locality, not really what I'm looking for. For example, we know gold is heavy so if you know a stream that has gold in it then you can look for it on inside bends and in cracks and things. Similarly, where can you expect to find, say quartz crystals for example, in a mountain that is know for quartz. I understand that it varies with what you're looking for but what guidelines can you offer for narrowing down a search?

 

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[Eu_citzen]

There are no "guidelines" per se. But you mentioned yourself, if you look for quartz crystals you first look for quartz.
If you are looking for beryl, you might be looking for pegmatite. So I suppose the only thing to narrow down a search is research.

 

[BurntBear]

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[meMiner]

As a general rule, look for places where one type of rock has been intruded by another. Look for color changes in the layers of rock. Rock faces that show movement (the lines are no longer parallel) are always worth a look see. For me, it is "run and gun", travel light and fast checking out everything until I find a spot worthy of serious inspection/work.