Arizona and New Mexico Trip

Finally, the day has arrived!

So excited! Packing bags, loading buckers, gathering tools, making sure ice chest and snacks are loaded (snacks are very important).

Our trip to Arizona to hunt for peridot has started. Meeting up with everyone so we could travel together. Traveling thru Oklahoma, Texas we stop at Encino, New Mexico at the Flying C Trading Post for a short break. While buying souvenirs Larry meets up with a bear (stuffed of course). On the road again we drive for several hours stopping at Chaco Canyon trading post taking time for a photo op and shopping again for souvenirs, we grab a water and fill up our vehicles (yikes! Almost $5 a gallon) we headed out. After driving for a total of 12 hours we

finally reach our destination: Holbrook Arizona. We grab a quick lunch (McDonalds of course) and we meet up with our guide Jodi Brewster and her friend Marvin. We stopped at Gray’s Petrified Wood Co. and tour their store. It had so much to offer.

Rocks everywhere!! And don’t forget about cactus (just a FYI I love cactus).

We are headed to DoBell Ranch. It is such an amazing place. Everywhere you look is rainbow petrified wood. It is very beautiful. Rhonda the owner has 5 generations of her family helping her.

Her ranch has every size of petrified wood from pebble to log size. After gathering buckets of petrified wood Rhonda and her family cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. What a fun time and an amazing family.

We check into our hotel

and try to get some rest: goodnight. Grabbing a quick breakfast, we head to the peridot mine near San Carlos. We are so excited. The peridot mine was the center of our trip. We arrive at the office and then the worst possible news. No one is allowed in the mine! No exceptions. We regroup and Jodi our guide gets directions to an abandoned copper mine. That has azuritemalachite. It is deep in the San Carlos Mountains. We start our way up the mountain; it is a very steep climb. The view is breathtaking, you can see for miles and cactus everywhere (I think this could be my happy place). Then Bobby hits a sharp rock and punctures a tire. Another truck gets stuck, a member of another rock club gets a flat time and punctures another tire. The hazard of being a rock hunter. We fill buckets up with azurite and malachite, head back down the mountain, starting to rain and lightening all around us.

After getting back down the mountain we say goodbye to Jodi and Marvin from the Gila Mountain Gem Club. We are ad to part with our new friends.

Tired we back to the hotel.

We are up early and, on the road, again heading back to New Mexico on a direct route. We stop at Capitan New Mexico at the Smoky Bear Historical Park. What a neat place! The park has the story of Smokey the Bear in pictures, memorabilia and even Smokey’s grave.

On the road again we are headed to Roswell New Mexico. We tour the town, hunting not rocks but aliens, taking a picture with the aliens. Checking out rock shops and buying a chilie (from Hatch of course). We have lunch at a local Mexican café. Sitting around the table, listening to the laughter, sharing stories about our rock finds, planning our next adventure. I realize that sometimes it’s not about finding the perfect rock, it’s about seeing the view from a mountaintop, a beautiful sunset, a rainbow after the rain, smelling the damp forest air, the scent of pine lingering. It is about looking thru the windshield or the rearview mirror seeing the person that’s traveling with you ahead of you or behind you that whatever happens they will be there to help you. It’s the belonging to a family group, the fellowship.

The members that journey with us are: Bobby Freeman, Bob Warren, Bob Kempson, Saundra Bingham, Melody Ulanowski, Larry and Marilyn Storts, and guest Doug Briscoe.

If you would like to join our group or want more information about trips, rock hunts or membership you can reach me at marilynstorts@yahoo.com.

Until our next adventure be safe, enjoy the journey and look under every rock; you never know what you’ll find.