Richardson's Rock Ranch — Local services in Madras

I've never reviewed a single thing or place in my life! I read the reviews of this place an hr away after driving 5 hrs and this being a planned stop. I almost didn't go due to all the negative comments on their customer service! Well let me say thank God I didn't listen to the people that reviewed this place. These people obviously deal with every type of person in the world, most being fellow rockhounds..but I'm sure as we've all experienced w some people are just never happy! I watched this kid prob 12 yrs old up pick up at least 10 rocks out of displays and bring them to the counter saying how much is this? (Clearly marked prices on everything) they told him very nicely knowing he probably had no money! He left every stone on the counter for them to put back.. they treated him with nothing but respect even being slammed with customers, and I would have immediately said where are your parents or here's how you find the price! They bent over backwards to help every single person I saw them deal with, and I watched very carefully after all the bad reviews I read! Every person that had half a clue and those that didn't they explained the process educated the party and sent them digging! The maps were a little confusing for my 13 yr old who navigated for the first time w no GPS. Haha but we ended up at all the beds w no problem! The 4x4 needed for the opal beds is 100 percent true! Don't try it in a car! Although at 16 I would have made it in anything! Your call! But I'll say best rock hounding experience of my life! First time to ever pay to dig.. but I look at that as you're paying for access to their working cattle ranch! What you bring home is up to you! We got priceless pieces in our eyes! So well worth the 40$ for the day! The Jasper and new ledge beds hold some incredible agates and crystals and we were all by ourselves up there the entire time!!! Bring every digging tool and pry bar and hammer you own! And lots of safety glasses and water! My kids dug all day and when they got tired walked around and picked up little treasure pieces that just litter the ground everywhere you look! I will definitely be back many times over! Thank you for the great...

We are really rock hounds, so any opportunity to look for geodes is a plus for us. They sell far more than local rocks at this Rock Shop. There are rocks from all over the world. The lady at the front desk, probably an owner, is very grumpy, direct, and her face would probably break if she smiled. But she does get her point across. We are actually glad that she's so explicit about the rock digging instructions. You will find no broken agates or tossed remnants on the digging sites. You will find beautiful agates common some with crystals inside, and some with multiple layers of colors. We did not have our rocks cut there because we were only passing through. But we did dig geodes and cut them when we got home. We have some beautiful specimens. The digging sites are easy to access but you do have to drive quite a ways from the ranch to get to there. There are several sites to choose from. You will enjoy the scenery as you drive up the Canyons to get to each digging site. Wear good walking shoes, no flip-flops. It's better if you have long pants or something on your knees. You find yourself sitting or kneeling quite a bit of the time. We did not see rattlesnakes but we understand there are snakes on this site. Arrive early, so you have an easy place to park at the digging site. When we were there we only had two other couples digging at the same time but many other cars were arriving as we left. We had our own digging tools, and we are glad because the digging tools they offered for people to use were very beat up and probably not very effective. We found lots of geodes very quickly and highly recommend you...

Planned the end of our yearly family vacation to dig Thunder eggs and got our boys all excited. Showed up and instantly felt uncomfortable. We had our travel trailer and my husband read on the website they had a place below where you could park it. When we pulled up a younger gentleman told us to park anywhere in the grass beyond the trees. Well my husband parked it in the middle and left room behind him if people needed to turn around or park there. While in the store getting directions from the very dry crass lady, the husband came in yelling at whoever parked their damn trailer in the middle of his yard. My husband instantly apologized and said he would move it (remember, we were told to park there).

When our grandpa said the guy in the semi couldn’t get out that?!? The owner got right into my 83 year old grandfathers face like he was going to hit him. He did this right in front of my 3 very young boys who worship the ground their great Papa walks on. All I could do is cry at how awful that man was.

He followed my grandfather yelling at him as he tried to walk away. Screaming at him to get off his property. My boys and I were heart broken but he wanted us to go without him. I didn’t want to give these crazy people a dime of my hard earned money but my kids had seriously been looking forward to it for weeks

The saddest part of all of this, the digging and finding the rocks was actually fun. If only they could be decent human beings. I will never ever go there again and make sure everyone I know and more won’t give them their business.

Please try to find another place that...