Rockhound at Rio Puerco Wash near Los Lunas, NM

30 minutes south of Albuquerque, near Los Lunas, New Mexico you will find a great day trip for rockhounding! You can find obsidian, jasper, and petrified wood! 

Taking NM6 east to Dailies Road, we went south for about 1.5 miles. 

Heading south, Jackson spies "a" rock! The first find of our trip:

How he spotted this one ... I do not know. Seriously, from the car, on the side of the road. ??? 

Go about 1.5 miles on Dalies and there is a dirt road that angles to the left ... just after the house on the right. 

Follow that road to perhaps the coolest stop sign and make another left .... from there we parked and walked around. (we could have driven a bit further but I'm glad we didn't, I got some really nice photos!)

We went, maybe about 500 ft before we stopped and parked along a side road. We stated hunting around but didn't see much. (We should have gone another 1000 ft or so ... ) 

We did see a lot of animal tracks, very cool desert sand, and what looks like the imprints of a bird catching a mouse. 

We did find a few rocks....  along with flies! (lots of flies .. but as long as we kept moving, they weren't too bad)

We started to head west. I kept expecting to find "something" that shouted "HERE ARE THE ROCKS!!!" We kept our eye to the ground, meandering in the sun .. and came upon a nice open flat area. Loaded with treasure! And also loaded with rabbit poop. 

From here  ...  i forget to take a lot of pictures because we were "OOOOing!" and "AAHhhing!" about finding so many little gems! 

Over all ...  we had a great day. It was hot, so if you come in the summer, a hat, sunscreen, and water are important. It isn't a great spot for young kids or dogs .. there a stickers and thorns everywhere. Definitely wear good hiking shoes, I pulled a bunch of thorns from my tennis shoes. 

The scenery is amazing! And it SO worth the drive. We found a lot of cool rocks, plus a lot of cool non rocks! A rabbit skull, a tarantula abdomen, some weird fungus, and maybe an owl pellet... oh! and two beetle carapaces. (I like this sort of thing!) 

Our haul!! 

Rockhound with friends!!! Bring water!! Have Fun!!