October is a great month to go rock hounding in Arizona. The days are warm but not hot, and the nights cool off just right. At least, that has been my experience.
In 2010, I planned a camping trip to Hot Well Dunes. In this off-highway vehicle area, we could ride the ATVs and then take advantage of the natural hot spring that feeds the well (hot tub) to soothe our muscles after hitting as many of the 2000 acres of sand dunes and trails as we could. Of course, rock hounding while camping is a given; you can't be out in nature and not look for rocks, right? I was going to meet up with my 2 sons (who live in Arizona and New Mexico) for a week of solitude in the desert.
After a quick internet search to see what I was likely to find where we were going, I decided to go to the nearby Safford/Morenci area and look for fire agate. A great place to start is the Black Hills Rockhound Area, a site maintained by the Bureau of Land Management and open to collecting. Round Mountain is another area just across the New Mexico / Arizona line known for fire agate and was close enough to do a few hours of searching.
By the time the day arrived for me to head out, I had acquired a few more campers: my sister, her husband, and one of their sons. The four of us would drive from Lubbock to meet my boys in Deming, New Mexico, and we would all caravan to the dunes the next day. At this point, I was a little concerned that this rock hunt might not play out as well as I had hoped since only a couple of us were rock hounds.
When we pulled into the camping area on Sunday afternoon, I was freaked out by the unbelievable number of people already there. There were no camping spots available, so we were going to have to pitch our tents on a nearby dune—or so I thought. It had not occurred to me at first, but these were weekend campers, and as the day went on, the place completely cleared out. We were the only ones left and had our pick of dozens of campsites.
I told everyone that I was going to go look for fire agate in the morning and asked if anyone wanted to go along. To my surprise, everyone wanted to go. We had our breakfast by the fire and then headed north for about an hour to the Black Hills Rockhound area, which is about 18 miles north of Safford on Arizona Route 191. There is a sign that designates the entrance to the site.
My sister and I (the 2 rock hounds) identified a couple of stones for everyone else. We gave general instructions on rock hounding basics and then spread out to see what we could find. We spent the morning combing the hillside and dug a few potholes in areas we thought might produce some stone. We did not hit the mother-load but left with half a dozen nice pieces that produced flash and a bunch that we would have to put to a wheel to see if anything was under the chalcedony layer. There are no facilities at all, so we ate our picnic lunch in shifts on the tailgate. After sorting through our finds and deciding what was leaverite and what we wanted to keep, we returned to camp.
Round Mountain was a little further away, about two hours to the collecting site. After talking it over, we decided that in the interest of time, we would head back to Deming via US 70, which crosses the Arizona / New Mexico border very near the site's entrance. This would allow us to spend more time at the site since we would be continuing from that point instead of returning to the dunes.
We spent several days at the dunes with other activities occupying most of the time, but we were able to get out to the far end where the outcropping was rock rather than sand, and did some hounding there. No fire agate, but there was agate, jasper and petrified wood.
When we got to Round Mountain, we drove back through the field on the road slowly as we looked out the open windows, trying to decide where we wanted to stop. There was a spot where the brush came right up to the road and stood about one and a half to two feet high. I heard a noise and stopped to listen a little more. Have you ever heard a rattlesnake? This sounded like dozens of rattlers. In stereo, all around the vehicle. I did not wait around to look for one; I just moved on in a hurry. We got to a spot that looked good and parked to wander around and pick through the float. No digging was needed here; they were all over the place. We spent a few hours being picky about what we kept before we headed back to the highway and on into Deming.
There are so many stories about that week that will live forever in my memories, and this trip is one that I will always remember as one of my favorites. I have been back several times in the years since then, but the first time there was the best. It may only be my perception, but while we were out there looking for fire agate, I gathered that everyone came not only to enjoy their week but because I wanted to go rock hunting.
© Walter Beneze 2011
