Glitter Mountain in Arizona is a place that crystal and rock lovers should visit if you’re in ever in the Zion / St. George / Hurricane, Utah area. This is a selenite mine that is now a place you can visit to “mine” chunks of selenite on your own. So, while we were staying in Hurricane, Utah, we took a 45 minute morning adventure across the state line, down dirt roads to spend the morning digging through literal mountains of crystal to bring home a few handfuls of treasures.

Practical Info For Visiting Glitter Mountain in Arizona

Where is Glitter Mountain? Glitter Mountain is in Littlefield, Arizona, truly just over the Arizona/Utah border near St. George, Utah.
Getting to Glitter Mountain – The journey to Glitter Mountain does lead down dirt roads. They aren’t the most extreme roads, but I would personally recommend an AWD vehicle, or at least decent clearance. I drove down without my 4WD on in our truck, but I would be nervous in a 2WD vehicle. The only other vehicle we saw was a Bronco, so another 4WD vehicle.
Does it Cost to Visit? To simply go and look around the mine or dig through the crystals, it’s free to visit. However, if you want to take any crystals home, they do cost money – a reasonable amount of money, in my opinion. $2 for a handful, $10 for 1/2 gallon, $20 for a gallon, $40 for 2 gallons and $100 for 5 gallons. This is posted on their sign with a venmo code or paypal account.
Can You Bring Tools? Yes, you can bring really basic hand tools tools, but large tools and power tools are forbidden.
Don’t Forget Something to Put Your Treasures In – Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking, but I didn’t bring a bag to put our treasures in… Maybe it was me hoping if I didn’t have something to carry crystals away in, that I wouldn’t. But, luckily, I took the toys out of a tin and we filled that with a few handfuls of crystals.

Our Experience at Glitter Mountain

CJ and I are big crystal girlies. I love the undeniable beauty of them, and I love the woo woo aspect of crystal collecting as well. So, when Matt found out that there was a mountain mine in the desert where we could collect our own selenite, he was pretty stoked to tell me about it. So, while he was working one morning, I loaded the kids up and headed to Glitter Mountain. I mean, even the name sounds magical, right?

The drive from Hurricane, Utah, was only about 45 minutes, and it was an effortless drive through towns until we got to the dirt road, which was a lot of fun! We all know that I love to off road, so this felt like a little taste of that. The kids and I giggled at the bigger dips and loved knowing that Matt’s truck was going to be covered in dirt – the true sign of an adventure. Our Google Maps took us right to the mountain and there are basic white signs that have “Glitter Mountain” written on them in black at the turns and junctions. We crossed over the state line into Arizona and continued down the dirt road to Glitter Mountain. It was so easy to find. There’s a small parking area and there were a few signs that explained a bit about the mine, selenite as a crystal and how it was formed here.

The mountainside truly does glitter as the sun catches it. From the second we stepped out of the truck, the crystals sparkled under our feet. I expected CJ and I to both be in heaven and Liam to kind-of just tolerate being there. Boy, was I wrong. He was so into it! Before I could catch up to him, he had a handful of selenite treasures for himself. We traipsed all over this mountain, pausing every few steps to pick up a crystal here and there. It only took us 30 minutes to have a few handfuls collected.

In addition to collecting the crystals, we also laid on the mountain top soaking up the energy from the selenite, the warmth of the sun, and, most of all, the sweet simple joys of being outside together in the desert. We didn’t bring any tools, we didn’t do anything extra-crazy to gather a collection of stones. We just scoured the mountainside, laughing, and running in the beauty out here.

Want to Add a Little More Adventure to Your Day Trip? Check Out Little Black Mountain Petroglyphs!

I love putting as much into a day as realistically possible. So, of course, when I saw on Google Maps that there were petroglyphs nearby, I immediately added it to our list of things to see that day. After visiting Glitter Mountain, we took a different dirt road over the Little Black Mountain Petroglyphs. This road was even rougher than the road that took us to Glitter Mountain, so I would be sure to have a high clearance vehicle.

There is a trail here that leads to petroglyphs, which if you do the whole thing is just under a mile. It goes up from the parking area and then Ts a little way up. There are petroglyphs to both the left and the right. According to the BLM page for Little Black Mountain Petroglyph Site there are over 500 petroglyphs here from several Native American groups! While we certainly didn’t see 500, we saw a lot. Some are obvious – there’s even a viewing platform for some – and others require a visual hunt. We loved the challenge of this!

I don’t know that I would go out of my way for this particular petroglyph site on its own, but I wouldn’t miss it for a visit to Glitter Mountain or something else in the area.

A Little Woo Woo Note About Selenite

Selenite is a clear, relatively soft and fragile crystal. It’s the crystalized form of gypsum. It’s actual dissolvable in water, but ironically the crystals on this mountain were formed when a basin evaporated during the early Triassic period, approximately 240 million years ago.

What is Selenite Used for?
Selenite is commonly used for cleansing, charging and activating. It’s commonly used for cleansing your mind, soul and even your spaces. It can activate or recharge other crystals’ energy and it’s a great to use during meditations, especially against your crown or third eye chakras.

I’m so in love with this adventure we had, and I cannot wait to share this selenite with the people I love back home! What do you think? Would you drive out to Glitter Mountain to collect treasures of your own?

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