theboondork's RV blog

rock hound state Park New Mexico

11/29/2019

Rock Hound state Park New Mexico

The rain stopped sometime early this morning. I know this because when it stopped pounding on the roof it woke me up. So when I got motivated this morning I drove up to Rock Hound State Park to look around, and take a few pictures.

Rock Hound didn't look full like it normally is in fact it looked like I could've found a boondocking spot to stay at had I wanted to, and it would've been free since my New Mexico Park pass is good until Spring next year. But I had already re-upped at the Escapees RV Park for two more nights so I can leave Monday morning.

There was also some flooded arroyos crossing the roads on the way to Rock Hound and back, some had just piled a bunch of dirt, sand, and rocks in the road but one still had a foot or so of water in the road, but the Arroyo wasn't running so I drove on through without a problem. That probably wouldn't have been wise to do in a car because I think the water was deep enough to come in the bottom of the door on a car.

For those of you that aren't familiar with Rock Hound State Park, it's a unique place in that it not only allows but encourages folks to dig up the precious and semi precious stones that are in the area. To keep commercial interests from coming there they do have a limit on how many pounds of rocks your allowed to dig up, but for the most part you can probably dig up more than you would want to carry. I know they have quartz crystals, Jasper, Opal, geode's, and other stuff but I'm not a rock hound myself so I have no more hope of identifying any of those rocks than I do of identifying a flower.

I got back home just before lunch and just in time to enjoy the next rain storm that came through. So for most of the day today it rained off and on which is a big improvement over the constant rain we've been having. At least the sunshine we had this morning charged up my battery bank which was starting to get to a level where I was going to have to start conserving electricity, which for me means not leaving my amp sucking 17 inch Asus laptop on all day.

theboondork

rock hound state Park campground in Mexico

The campground at Rock Hound state Park

Deming New Mexico in the background

The Arroyo water hazard I had to ford to get to Rock Hound.

Mountains near Rock Hound state Park.

2 Comments

Barney Ward link

11/29/2019 08:32:44 pm

Thanks for the pictures of Rock Hound. I first knew of it in 1970 when my rockhound dad went there for the first of many visits and hundreds of pounds of rocks coming back to Pasadena Texas.

Tom

11/30/2019 08:06:50 am

That's a good story, it's always a good thing when kids get to do stuff like that with their dad.

Long time ago I tried to do the rock tumbling thing and had a tumbler which I think was called a Thumler's Tumbler, or something like that, I finally gave up on it when no matter what I put in it came out looking like a piece of gravel.

But I think that had something to do with me first going to Rock Hound State Park. But it got more and more crowded, surprise, surprise, and as you know it got so bad I was having trouble finding a spot to boondock there.

I noticed yesterday that the old overflow area is still fenced off and can't be used, but they've graded the area beside the road for a couple hundred feet next to the overflow apparently to make that area suitable for overflow camping.

Tom

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

rock hound state Park New Mexico

Leave a Reply.

Archives

CONTACT THEBOONDORK