Stone 'scavenger hunt' captivating community

SANDPOINT — Painting, hiding, finding, re-hiding and posting picture of rocks on social media is quickly gaining popularity.

The Bonner County Rocks group, which was started by Jamie McCoy in February, in fact, has more than 500 members, and the North Idaho Rocks group has more than 1,100 members.

Rachel Osborne with Bonner County Rocks said the purpose of the local movement is to get people outside and moving, and also to spread “love and joy” around the community.

“It’s like a huge scavenger hunt,” Osborne said in an email to the Daily Bee. “People give clues through pictures or words, and people are to go out and find them.”

A good rule of thumb, she said, is to turn the rock over. If something is written on it, such as, “Post to Bonner County Rocks on Facebook,” or “ North Idaho Rocks Facebook, keep or re-hide,” then the rock is OK to pick up and take. Some keep the rocks and some re-hide them. Some people even exchange rocks with another they found.

Osborne said people are hiding rocks throughout the county, from Clark Fork to Blanchard. In Sandpoint alone, rocks have been hidden everywhere from Memorial Field and the Kinnickinick Native Plant Society arboretum, to outside of grocery stores, and even in the window of the Bonner County Daily Bee.

North Idaho Rocks is another local movement that covers Boundary County as well as Bonner. Lynn Walters, of Sandpoint, paints rocks and hides them in both counties. In the day’s leading up to Monday’s solar eclipse, she used her artistic talent to create an eclipse series of painted rocks.

“What I like to do is find rocks that have a natural eclipse pattern in them already,” Walters said.

Walters hides rocks from Blanchard to Priest River, Sandpoint to Bonners Ferry. One rock she painted, not for the eclipse series, was a fossil she found in Clarkia, Idaho. It had a leaf imprint, which she varnished and then painted a frog onto the fossil. She “hid” it in plain sight at the Farmers Market at Farmin Park. Walters said probably 150 people walked by the rock before a young girl picked it up and passed it on.

Her next series — because she does everything in a series — will be “Idaho,” which will consist of bear and moose and other local wildlife.

The rock movement was started by a woman in Massachusetts as the Kindness Rocks Project, with the purpose of spreading “inspiration and a moment of kindness for unsuspecting recipients through random inspirational rocks dropped along the way,” according to thekindnessrocksproject.com.

Since then, it has become a grassroots kindness movement as it spread across the country.

There are several things people should keep in mind when painting and hiding rocks, Osborne said. First, a lot of children hunt the rocks, so keep it “clean.” Also, do not attach anything to the rocks that could fall off and become litter or a choking hazard, such as googly eyes. Be respectful of private property. Do not hide rocks anywhere a lawnmower is used or in cemeteries.

Anytime a rock is found, it should be shared on Facebook to let the artist know it was found. Hints as to where the rocks are hidden can sometimes be found on the site as well.

Bonner County Rocks: facebook.com/groups/321274908270400/

North Idaho Rocks: facebook.com/groups/1376843079016718/

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.