Rock Hound State Park Deming NM

We are now near Deming New Mexico staying at a place called Hidden Valley Ranch RV Park about 10 miles north and east of Deming. Sunday, February 10th we took a ride to see some country and take a look at Rock Hound State Park. which is a park and campground south and east of Deming.

This is a view of the campground area from a ways back. It is nestled up against some hills. They have water and electric hookups, some sites you can reserve, some first come first served, day use area, and dry camping sites. New Mexico State Parks seem to be fairly inexpensive. Water and electric sites are only $14 a night here. Most of the sites had a covered area with a table for use in the warm summer sun.

This is one of the signs announcing the entrance to Rock Hound they have several such signs. This is a unique park in that you can collect rock specimens from the surrounding area and there are gem stones and geodes and such found here. Several years ago you were allowed to take 15 pounds but that allowance has been discontinued and now alll you can take are some small specimens from various designated areas. There are still reported to be nice gems and specimens to be found.

This is the visitor center. A nicely done southwest style adobe structure. There is some fascinating information and displays here and rocks that have been collected from the park. There is some history about the Indians that were once in this area and of course souvenirs to purchase. The people staffing the visitor center are volunteers and they said they had been coming here for 12 years. They pretty much stay here year round leaving for about one month of the year to get away for a bit.

This was another sign that gave you a perspective on the area and pointed out some interesting things to see. It is only about 37 miles from Deming to Columbus which is on the border with Mexico.

The Greater Roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico. We saw 4 or 5 of them in our brief tour around. We must have really startled one roadrunner because that is what he was doing, running down a road, really fast.

About two miles from Rock Hound is Spring Canyon. It is a day use park and in a rather steep canyon. It is very nicely done with various parking areas scattered up the canyon and hiking trails. Obviously it is affiliated with Rock Hound for management and maintenance purposes.

This is a big rock mountain to the right at the head of the canyon. This is where the road ends and the trail begins.

Here is a trail marker at the very top of the canyon. Since the only direction from here is up, one can clearly understand why it would be steep. We did not go far along this trail.

Here is Deanna and the boys along the trail. It was rocky and steep and I will use the excuse that the boys are getting too old for such a strenuous hike. It was a good brief break for them nonetheless.

Across the canyon Deanna spotted this Red-tail Hawk sitting on a rock. Seemed an odd location for the raptor. He was really white and fluffed out as if wearing a cape.

Looking back down the canyon you get the feeling for the winding, twisting road and the day use spots with their shade shelters scattered about. This is a steep canyon.

Now that we have driven up here we need to head back down albeit slowly. The road below makes a sharp turn to the right and continues on up the hill you can see in the distance. Drive slow and be careful.

We mentioned steep. This is the road coming up and into the canyon and consequently the same road heading back down. That rise you saw in the distance of the previous image is this road going up and over the little hill. We are there. This sign is along that road just before the summit it shows a 17% grade and that may be conservative. It is really steep where the sign is located and as you will see appears to get steeper when we crest the hill.

We have just crested the hill. And to the question "Were we towing our trailer?", no we were not. There was just us and the truck and the boys. Our good friend Tom Scribner would love to ride his bike on this road. Once you crest this hill heading down it is "Wahoo the ride of your life". If you make it still upright going Mach 4 at the turn at the bottom, can you make the turn? Tom would, he would then brake to a stop and head back up for another go at it, both up and down. What fun Tom..…NOT!

Leaving the Rock Hound State Park area we headed back to Hidden Valley where we are staying. Along the dirt road on the way in there was this Golden Eagle, neat to see. The image is not the best image as it was overcast and drizzling lightly and the eagle was quite a ways off. We had seen one earlier down by Rock Hound State Park but you can never see too many eagles, not never.

So that is an initial and brief look around the Deming Area. There seems to be quite a bit to see and do around here. It will be fun.

As always if you have any questions or comments let us know or send us an e-mail.
All the best - George & Deanna