Post by NMRockhound on Sept 28, 2005 21:16:19 GMT -5
Last weekend I took my family on a rockhounding trip to northern New Mexico. We all had a great time and to top it all off, brought back some good stuff! Thought I’d share some pictures and give a little report.
The area we went to is just south of Coyote, New Mexico. If you have the Gem Trails book for NM, it’s site #23. We got a bit of a late start, which is not unusual for me. Seems like the phone always rings just before we get ready to pile into the truck. We arrived in the area in time for a quick lunch. The site is not really a single site, but more of a broad region. On our first stop, we picked up a few nice white and gray agate chips, but nothing really substantial.
We did a couple more stops further down the forest road, but found nothing. Oh well, if nothing else, the weather and the scenery were beautiful. As the road headed generally south, it also climbed and pretty soon we started seeing aspens, their leaves just beginning to change.
Finally, after about five miles or so and at nearly 9000 feet we struck paydirt. Next to the road were some promising pieces of dark grey agate. We found some lighter material as well, but it was mostly dark grey. Some of the pieces turned out to be just the exposed part of a much larger chunk. My son spent a good half hour digging out one chunk that probably weighed 25 pounds or more.
I’m not sure about the quality of some of the larger pieces, but the material seems hard and I’m hoping they’ll be good food for the tumbler when broken up. As for the boulder my son worked so hard to dig out—well, I’m not going to even try breaking it up. It will probably become a display piece for the courtyard or patio.
Anyway, it was a great time and all week my daughter has been talking about going on another trip. That’s what rockhounding is all about!
Enjoy!
- Robert
Lunchtime antics…
My son, working on his prize agate boulder…
Finally got it!
Here’s some of the stuff we brought back, cleaned up. The big one on the right is the one my son dug out.
A nice piece of lighter agate
Some of the smaller stuff
The area we went to is just south of Coyote, New Mexico. If you have the Gem Trails book for NM, it’s site #23. We got a bit of a late start, which is not unusual for me. Seems like the phone always rings just before we get ready to pile into the truck. We arrived in the area in time for a quick lunch. The site is not really a single site, but more of a broad region. On our first stop, we picked up a few nice white and gray agate chips, but nothing really substantial.
We did a couple more stops further down the forest road, but found nothing. Oh well, if nothing else, the weather and the scenery were beautiful. As the road headed generally south, it also climbed and pretty soon we started seeing aspens, their leaves just beginning to change.
Finally, after about five miles or so and at nearly 9000 feet we struck paydirt. Next to the road were some promising pieces of dark grey agate. We found some lighter material as well, but it was mostly dark grey. Some of the pieces turned out to be just the exposed part of a much larger chunk. My son spent a good half hour digging out one chunk that probably weighed 25 pounds or more.
I’m not sure about the quality of some of the larger pieces, but the material seems hard and I’m hoping they’ll be good food for the tumbler when broken up. As for the boulder my son worked so hard to dig out—well, I’m not going to even try breaking it up. It will probably become a display piece for the courtyard or patio.
Anyway, it was a great time and all week my daughter has been talking about going on another trip. That’s what rockhounding is all about!
Enjoy!
- Robert
Lunchtime antics…
My son, working on his prize agate boulder…
Finally got it!
Here’s some of the stuff we brought back, cleaned up. The big one on the right is the one my son dug out.
A nice piece of lighter agate
Some of the smaller stuff
