After doing some more research on this subject I ran acrcoos this web page that gives directions on making fake rocks and stone walls. This is the first site i had run across that actually tells you the easy way to get finer details into the rock. Another thing that you could use to coat the poly from what I have read is use tile grout. I was thinking of doing something of this sort then cover it with an epoxy clear coat for a final sealer. Please let me know what you think.
i used styrofoam and a marine epoxy. you can carve the styrofoam and paint it whatever color you want. i actually coverd the last coat of epoxy with small stones on a waterfall i built. it turned out nicely.