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Post by NM Stone Supply on Apr 12, 2006 0:05:42 GMT -5
Agate Jasper Apache Tears Petrified Wood
Go to Belen. Exit on the 2nd exit. Camino Del Yano. Head west up the mesa. You will pass a rock yard then a small Airport. Just past the airport the pavement turns south. Take your first right on a dirt road. Go west about 4 miles. You will hit the Rio Puerco. There will be the same rocky hills as off Hwy 6.
You can also get to the Rio Puerco off Hwy 6 west of Los Lunas. Head west about 3 miles from I-25 Just before you cross the RR tracks turn left. There is a big livestock auction there. Head south a few miles and you will cross the tracks. The road after the tracks is black lava gravel. Follow that road until the black gravel ends at two large sheds. Follow the road south for a few. It is a little sandy and rough. I made it easy in a 2 wd truck. You will hit a t in the road. Go west. You will then hit the rocky sides of the Rio puerco. I went 2 weeks ago and all the roads are open.
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WyckedWyre
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since April 2007
Posts: 1,391
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Post by WyckedWyre on Apr 12, 2006 10:17:46 GMT -5
Yep, exact same place I go - there are a couple of dirt "roads" leading West towards the "river"...I have a 4-wheel drive Tacoma so I haven't gotten stuck (keeping my fingers crossed) but the closer you get to the Rio Puerco the more blow sand there is, and the higher your potential for getting stuck. ALSO the better the rock is. I've been able to get my truck into some of those arroyos for quite some distance. Beats hiking in the heat. Watch out for sinkholes if you get all the way down to the Rio.  Susan |
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Post by BAZ on Apr 12, 2006 10:58:52 GMT -5
Hey, are there any places to hound near Gallup? The wife and I have been wanting to go hang out in Gallup for awhile, the town looks interesting, lots of antiques?
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Post by NM Stone Supply on Apr 12, 2006 20:05:29 GMT -5
Yes,
Gallup is not a great place to hang out but I bet there is a lot of cool rocks in the area. I don't know of any spots.
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cuervo73
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since April 2005
Posts: 185
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Post by cuervo73 on Apr 13, 2006 0:40:11 GMT -5
The trip mileage from Albquerque for this site West of Belen is as follows:
1. Get on I-25 and go south. From the Gibson exit to the 2nd exit in Belen is 30 mi.
2. Turn off the Interstate here and at the STOP sign, turn Right onto Camino del Llano. Go 2.6 miles
3. Turn Right off the paved road onto a dirt road. Go 2.4 miles West until the road drops down off the mesa and you can see the Rio Puerco up ahead.
4. pull off and and trockhound all around for agates, jasper and lots of pet wood.
At the hilltop, there is a dirt road on the Right which follows the mesa's edge North. This is a good place to drive along, stop and walk down off the mesa on the land "fingers" with eroded canyons between. The tops and sides of these fingers and the bottoms of the canyons are just covered with float rock.
ed/cuervo
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Post by NM Stone Supply on Apr 13, 2006 7:16:00 GMT -5
Thanks Ed
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Post by BAZ on Apr 13, 2006 11:45:38 GMT -5
Susan, lots of drunks? Are there a lot of Rez folks who come to Gallup to drink? That is how it seems to be in Flag too, being a border town and all. Hmmm. Maybe we should just go to Carlsbad Caverns and do some hounding on the way.
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Post by akansan on Apr 13, 2006 14:27:52 GMT -5
Completely off the subject, but I highly recommend the Caverns if you've never been. Wonderful, beautiful place...especially in the height of summer when it's 100+ degrees outside and a nice chilly 58 inside. There's also some really nice scenic spots around the Carlsbad area (Guadalupe Mountains, Sitting Bull Falls (the cave behind Sitting Bull Falls) are high on my list of places to visit in this world).
For rockhounding though, you'll want to do all the rockhounding at least an hour west or north of Carlsbad. We're pretty barren of the harder rocks around here.
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Post by NM Stone Supply on Apr 14, 2006 7:06:05 GMT -5
Yes, I went to the caves in July. I had a flyer from white city. Looked good on the tv and the flyer. We were going to stay 2 days. Well I must have blinked because I never found the city. It was like 110 degrees out there. Very fun in the caves cool down there. We ended up driving to sleep in El Paso. Nice drive..
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Post by BAZ on Apr 14, 2006 10:20:22 GMT -5
Yeah, never been and I love caves. We have been planning on going for years now! Just need to get up and go!
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WyckedWyre
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since April 2007
Posts: 1,391
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Post by WyckedWyre on Apr 14, 2006 19:43:24 GMT -5
BAZ - if you go to the caverns, make sure you go when the bats are there. The caves are cool, but the bat flights are spectacular. S
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Post by BAZ on Apr 15, 2006 9:47:56 GMT -5
OK, even though bats freak me out a little! Still fascinating animals.
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Susan
