A Tour of Deming and Rockhound State Park

Cathy and I were extremely tired from the trip yesterday and we slept like out of the pages of rip Van Winkle. We got up refreshed and bright eyed this morning. Our first thought was to get an idea of the area. That will have to wait until after coffee, of course. Nothing seems to happen without coffee in the morning.

We found ourselves at the Deming visitor's center on Pine Street. It is a converted railroad depot that was moved to its current location from another spot in town. We piled up a collection of fliers and pamphlets and talked with the volunteer on duty. One of the pamphlets was of a self guided walking tour of the downtown area. That was what we did for the rest of the morning.

Built in 1886, it was used as a stable and meat market.

I always like these self guided tours of towns. I take them when ever I visit a town that has them. It is hard to believe there are places that don't have a self guided tour. But they are all over the place. It seems to me it is the easiest, most economical way for a chamber to highlight their community.

Residence of the US Customs Officer, built in 1889.

We finished up with the tour shortly after noon and made a point to return to visit the museum in the converted Armory. We slated the Rockhound State Park for a walk and to get out into the outdoors. Rose hasn't really had quality exercise since our last hike a week ago when I found the potsherd. I needed it too!

All the State parks in New Mexico require a $5.00 day use fee per vehicle. We stopped at the visitors center at Rockhound and gathered some info while paying our usage fee. There is a nice RV park here and we wanted to get some details. The volunteer at the desk is also the RV park host part of the time. We got some good info on this place and the State Park system in general.

A cookie!

We were pointed to a picnic area. We packed a lunch before we left this morning and were hungry by now. There was a couple at the next picnic table flying kites in the gusty winds. They kept us amused while we ate our sandwiches. They each had a kite, and before we finished lunch, they strung them, launched them, lost them, hopped back in their car and left! They whole episode couldn't have been more than twenty minutes! Cathy and I got a chuckle out of it.

Rose helped out with finding the good stuff.

The rock collecting area is on a hillside behind the RV park. It requires hike of about a fourth of a mile to get there. It ends at the park boundary another fourth of a mile farther up the hill. The park allows you to collect as much a 15 pounds of rock a day. We really didn't know what to look for so we weren't expecting much. We just wanted to be outdoors more than anything else.


I did find some samples of jasper. I found an agate and I think a geode. Cathy found some jasper too. She found some crystalline type rock that we had no idea what it was. The view was incredible. I understand why this park is popular with RVers. It is only 15 miles southeast of Deming. So it isn't way out in the boonies. Deming has a large grocery store and a Walmart Supercenter too.

We finished up with our little treasure hunt and grilled some chicken on the barbie when we got back to our trailers. We were as tired this night as we were when we finished up yesterday!