Evan waded through the creek with the water covering his boots. He dipped the sieve down into the water, pulled it up, and shook. Gold! Well, not really gold, but pyrite. Pyrite is a mineral that’s called fool’s gold, because it is the color of gold. Evan had learned the definition that morning at Geology Camp.

Evan had learned about all kinds of rocks at camp. He had learned that rocks are classified based on how they are formed. There are three kinds. Igneous rocks are formed from cooling magma, like after a volcanic eruption. Sedimentary rocks are bits of other rocks that are compressed and cemented together. Metamorphic rocks start as other rocks, but they transform when they are exposed to heat and pressure.

Evan thought all the rocks were pretty cool. After learning about them in the mornings, the campers spent the afternoons out in the nature park trying to find them. So far Evan had found mostly quartz. Quartz is an igneous rock. Evan liked how the quartz looked, kind of white and crystal-like. He had found other colors too. The rose quartz was pink and the smoky quartz was gray and black.

The Geology Camp counselor had explained about pyrite this morning. It wasn’t a rock itself. Instead it was a mineral that showed up in other types of rocks. It often formed in sedimentary rocks. She said that when the rocks wore down from the water in the creek, flakes of pyrite would break off. That’s what Evan had just discovered.

He held up his sieve and yelled, “gold!” Then he laughed at himself. He felt like some old guy out West during the time of the gold rush. But the other campers came over to see his pyrite flakes. Some of them had found flakes too.

Eventually it was time to head back to the nature center. The campers washed and dried the rocks that they wanted to keep for their collections. The counselor let them each pick out one that they wanted to put into the tumbler. That would make them smooth and shiny. Evan didn’t want camp to end. Geology rocks!