A Rockhounding Vacation
Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico
April 8-23, 2006
By Mike Streeter
mcstreeter@charter.net

Page 7

After four days of heavy-duty rockhounding, we welcomed Monday simply as a day of rest and travel as we drove from Gila Bend to Deming, New Mexico. We set up camp at the Deming Roadrunner RV park, mostly because it was the only campground that advertised that they had cable TV. We do have our standards for camping, you know! Our sole reason for staying in Deming was to go out to a location about 1/2-hour from town that is reported to contain thundereggs. The site, located on BLM land in the Little Florida Mountains, is just south of Rockhound State Park.

After a good night's sleep, we got up early Tuesday and made our way out to a site located in a desert canyon. Two thirds of the route was paved and the view from the road was awe-inspiring.

Florida Mountains

The last few miles of 4-wheel drive roads were very rough, to say the least, but the Dodge got us to the site just fine.

View to the South from parking spot near site

Digging Area from lower parking spot

Finding the digging area was a no-brainer as broken rock was scattered on about a 1-acre plot that was dotted with numerous shallow abandoned pits and cuts. It didn't take long before Chrissy and I were breaking ground. Our goal was to find and recover thundereggs that were buried in a relatively-soft and easy to dig volcanic material.

Closer view of digging area

As we dug, we found more thundereggs than we could count. However, we discovered that 99% of them were not or barely hollow. Since we are both into crystals, we had hoped to find more hollow ones with quartz and other minerals. We must have ended up busting a couple hundred thundereggs throughout the day, and found only a few really decent geodes. We were treated to a huge bonus after we got home and tested the thundereggs with a short-wave ultraviolet lamp.

Rather than bust them all in the field, we opted to drag a few home to cut on our rock saw. As you will see below, it was a fortunate move on our part as the thundereggs are screamingly fluorescent.

We also collected some ornately patterned rhyolite that contained small pockets lined with highly fluorescent chalcedony.

By mid-afternoon, we were satisfied with our take, so we decided to follow some nearby 4-wheel drive trails to see what else the area might have to offer. We discovered a few other digging spots that we plan to further investigate the next time we travel to the area. We were also treated to more "postcard" views of the Florida Mountains.

Florida Mountains

By late-afternoon, a half moon loomed over the landscape and signaled to us that it was time to end our day and head back to camp.

New Mexico Moon

Report continued . . . . . . .

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