Taylor Jeffers and Johnny Miller sunk their hands into loose soil, carefully scraping the dirt away.

Miles up a dusty trailhead, sitting on their knees under the hot sun of California’s San Bernardino mountains, they dripped sweat as they cautiously poked into the dirt. And then they saw it: a rock with a certain shine. A quartz crystal. Actually, quite a lot of “teeny, tiny, little, clear crystals,” says Taylor. It was the first cache of crystals the couple had ever found. After that fateful day in 2012, they immediately wanted to find more. “We couldn’t stop. We went there every day.”

From their home in Big Bear Lake, the couple and their dog, Ghost, frequently hike out into California’s mountains in search of quartz, topaz, amethyst, and other semi-precious stones. Their backpacks are filled with water, snacks, and basic hand tools—Ghost has to carry his own food in his own little backpack. They call their company Magic Miners. And their lives do seem charmed, by magic, good luck and a spiritual connection to the land.

As prospectors, Taylor and Johnny spend their days on public lands looking for “good signs”—indications from the geology and landscape that the topsoil might hold crystals. “We’re reading the land. And it’s almost like we’re talking to Mother Nature, subconsciously,” says Johnny.

When they find a spot that looks promising, usually they can dig just a few inches and find quartz … but not always. Some days they find astounding stones, some days they find nothing at all. “It’s like the Wild West,” says Johnny.

When they’re done for the day, they fill in the holes, load up their backpacks with whatever they’ve found, and hike back out. At home, they clean off the crystals in a series of complicated water baths and, if they can bear to part with them, either sell them to collectors or create jewelry to fit the natural shapes of the stones. Unlike jewelers who refine stones into several well-known, angular cuts, Taylor and Johnny embrace the wildness of each stone.

“We just leave the crystals naturally in those shapes. We’re mostly focused on the rawness,” says Taylor.

Taylor and Johnny, who both grew up in the Big Bear area, first met in a coincidence that seems like a cosmic rom-com: During a seventh-grade school dance, they accidentally swapped backpacks. Luckily, Johnny’s had his address written inside it (thanks, Mom). Taylor showed up on his doorstep to return it. The pair remembered each other years later, when they both wound up living in Salt Lake City, where Johnny had become a professional snowboarder. Taylor, an artist, wasn’t much of an outdoorsy person. But that changed when the duo started hunting for crystals.

“I never would have pictured myself camping and digging crystals. We get beat up out there, and our clothes get shredded,” says Taylor, who was surprised to find that meticulously sifting through soil felt meditative. “It feels like we’re kids digging in the dirt still. When we’re out there, I can clear my mind. It really brings you into the moment. It’s rejuvenating.”

The couple’s biggest crystal also has a strange twist of fate. Before a camping trip for Johnny’s birthday in August 2018, Taylor had a dream of finding an enormous crystal over a foot long. Johnny had a camping spot picked out, but at the last minute decided to look for somewhere that might be a little cooler in the summer heat. “I pulled up Google Earth, and I just scrolled to a really high point on the mountain. I started looking closely at the Google Earth images, and I was like, is that quartz? It looks like quartz.” They drove to the spot Johnny had seen on the map, started digging, and found a huge pocket full of smokey quartz, including a crystal over eighteen inches long swirled with wisps of cloudy colors, which now sits on their mantel. They dubbed the find The Dream Pocket.

“It’s a big natural sculpture. It’s unreal,” says Johnny. “I feel like we are kind of a facilitator for bringing this energy to where it belongs. It feels like we help the crystals make their way to somewhere they’re appreciated.”