How to play hide-and-seek – with a rock – and win every time

A game of hide-and-seek is taking place around Modesto.

No one loses.

Some people – they stumble upon a decorated rock, pick it up and carry it home – may not even realize they’ve played.

The game is led by the Modesto Rocks! group on Facebook, and the rules are few, simple and very flexible.

Group members (1,000 and growing) paint rocks with pretty images or uplifting messages, then put them in places like parks and shopping centers. On the Modesto Rocks! page, they typically post photos with clues, like “Hiding corner at Briggsmore and McHenry. ... Where I get my energy on,” or “Just waiting for the bus after ‘Corralling’ our appetites. Two here.”

For added fun, they sometimes rhyme: “In Davis Park, right by this tree, find the painting rock STARS and that is where I’ll be.”

That last clue was posted by Yolanda Newell, who founded the group in July 2016. She put it up as a small group of members was gathering for a rock-painting session at the park on a recent Sunday afternoon.

Among those gathered was new member Linda Hicks, brought into the group by daughter Ariel. Hicks, who was about to go back to work teaching preschool, said while painting, “I was kind of anxious starting a new year, with a new boss, new this and new that, and this is very relaxing, this is awesome.”

There are as many reasons for joining as there are members. Tifanny Toledo lives in Washington state, where her husband, Jesus Angula, is stationed at Fort Lewis. She joined Tacoma Rocks. “I had a really rough time with postpartum depression,” said the artist and mother of three, “and was looking for an outlet.”

While her husband is deployed with his Army unit in Jordan, she’s back in Modesto, where the couple are from. She found the Modesto Rocks! page and joined this group, too. She told fellow members that when she returns to Washington, she’d love to put out some Modesto rocks there.

Facebook groups that have made communitywide treasure hunts using rocks are popping up across the nation. In the Northern San Joaquin Valley, groups include Waterford Rocks, Atwater Rocks, Winton Rocks, Livingston Rocks and Merced Rocks, which has a whopping 6,000 members.

Newell got the idea at the funeral for a friend, who had a relative from Bolivar, Mo., which has a rock-painting group. Newell dedicated Modesto Rocks! to that friend, Dorthea Blaylock, a longtime Modesto resident who valued family time and her community and loved the outdoors.

Painting, hiding and hunting for rocks is a way to spend quality time with family, said Newell, who was joined by daughter Kalea Jackson at the Sunday session. The benefit to the community is simple and sweet, she said. “You paint a rock and hide it somewhere in the community. The painting can be something special or unique to you, or a special message that you’re hoping somebody will come across in their time of need.”

The rocks typically have something painted or taped on the back that directs finders to the Modesto Rocks! Facebook page, where tips on what to do are posted. “Sometimes people post that they found a rock, they talk about why they’re keeping it, why it’s special, or that they’re rehiding it and give a hint.”

Members love to learn their rocks have been found.

Ariel Hicks recently put out her first piece and told herself she wasn’t going to obsessively watch the Facebook page for a post that it had been discovered. “I’m just gonna live my life,” she said, laughing as she recalled what she told herself. But she was delighted when, just hours later, the finder posted a picture of it. “My little owl has a new home,” Hicks said.

More often than not, though, painters don’t hear what became of their little artworks, said Newell, who also has the Facebook page Yo Knows Modesto. “You’ve got to be ready to let go of that rock,” another member chimed in.

Heidi Paulsen called painting, hiding and finding rocks a “circle that keeps giving.” And that circle isn’t broken just because someone doesn’t report what’s become of a rock. “It makes me happy to see pictures on Facebook,” she said, “but it also makes happy to go back and see my rock missing. You know it made someone smile.”

This story was originally published August 25, 2017 at 12:49 PM.