 Hello and welcome to the Rugged Rockhound. Today I'm actually in New Mexico. We're on our way to go visit family in Albuquerque, and then I have a business trip actually close to Albuquerque. So I'm just stopping by the way. This is a place somewhere around here along this highway down that way is where we're going to find hopefully some agate. That's in a book that I read, so we'll see. Do have to be kind of careful. There is private property scattered through here. I did see some of it coming in, but this stretch from here kind of down that way for a ways looks like it's pretty clear. So yeah, exciting. Let's go see if we can find some agate. Oh, and here's the GPS to here in case it's worth it. Just came up from the road, and there's our first sign of something, which is white. Basically just casted in the Jasper Chirt. Maybe I'll just call it church for now. But that's kind of the ag you're looking for. What I've been told is what you're really looking for is these little red agates that are really nice. So that's what we're looking for. Once I get up on top of this sandstone, I'm not really seeing anything. So I'm guessing it's probably coming out from lower. So we're going to go try lower. Just found a chipped piece of obsidian. Definitely been Native Americans here in this area. Well, would you look at that? I'd say that's some agate. All right, found a little bit. There's got to be more. Here's some with some black little like dendrites in it. Cool. You can see something in it in the bottom, like a little red spray or something inside of it. Interesting. Okay, I made it down to the wash now and I'm hoping to find some better pieces here. I think I see something right there. Yeah, that's something. It's got a pink color in it. Cool. What's that? Oh yeah, that looks like an agate nodule. That's cool. I'll take and cut that open. Yeah. Here's this one cut open. Okay. Interesting patterns in there. Once again, could be some good dendrites if I kind of grind things down a little bit. Nice. Here's this really white stuff that looks like it's different on the inside. I'm thinking the very edge of the agate is probably this white shirt basically and that when you go inside, that's when you get to the more of the agate. Cool. I'll take that back and cut that open too. There we go. So yeah, you can see how it's very wide on the outside and then you can see how it's different on the inside. Cool. Ooh, I think I see something nice. That's looking a little better. It's bigger. Well, bigger anyway. Okay, I think maybe up here at the top it might be good. Oh, again, might need to cut it to see better. Not sure. I don't, I don't think that's going to be terribly good, but I'll take it and check it anyway. Here's a large piece, but it's pretty much just white. Interesting. Oh, that one looks intriguing. Oh, it's darker. Wow. It's almost black. Much darker color. That one's interesting. I think we'll take that one and cut that one too, see what that looks like. That might be something right there. Oh, there's some better color a little bit. All right. That's a little better. Cool. Maybe we'll find some really good stuff after all. Here's this one washed off. That's pretty cool. There's some good color in there and patterns. Pretty neat. Just found that piece. Nice. Now I'm on the other side of the road. Now I'm on the north side where it goes across here and I'm walking down this little wash to see what we got here. Once again, another little nodule. I think that's maybe something there too. That one doesn't look very good. I think I'll leave that one. But yeah, they are fairly abundant. It just comes down to quality. Can you find ones that have nice reds or other colors in it? We'll keep looking. Here's this little one cut open. Oh, so some nice black dendrites in there. Okay, so there's a good chance a number of these could have really good dendrites and patterns inside them. That's an interesting looking one. From that side, it looks like there might be some color in there. Cool. We'll get it washed off when I get home. But yeah, yeah, starting to see a lot more. There's one right there. Looks pretty nice. This one right there. That's a little one. There, there's one. Yeah, starting to see a lot of them now. Hopefully we can get some higher quality. Just found this one. I thought it looked pretty cool, like the way the light comes through it. That's the biggest piece I've seen. It's a good size. This kind of reminds me of Cedar City, some of the Brian Head stuff. Anyway, not a good color though. Won't keep that one, but there's some good potential. That color's a little better. That one kind of has an interesting look to it. So the nice thing about this is how easy it is. So the road is just right up here. Goes right across here. And then just all over this hillside right here. There's a fence. I believe it's just for cattle. But if it's private property, so far I haven't needed to go on the other side yet. Because this stuff is pretty abundant. But it comes down to quality. There's a lot of this lower quality stuff. So it's all about trying to find some higher quality things. Well, that looks kind of interesting. Huh, interesting. It's like it cracked at one point and then filled in the cracks with something else. Very interesting. There's another piece that's really dark, a black. There's something that has a little bit of red in it. Okay, I think I found another big one. Yeah, it's a chunker. I'm not seeing a good color in it, but it is big. There's a little bit of granite that's here. It doesn't really fit with the layer though. The layer has a bunch of these basalt blocks. So, is there a little dikes of granite coming through here? I don't know. This one looks like it might be red jasper. I think so. I think it's some red jasper. So you can find some red jasper out here. Here's another big chunk. That one might have a little bit in it. Here's this one washed off. It's kind of got a rough, rough interior to it. Yeah, all this, it's almost like a calcite cement or something that went through it. It makes it not terribly pretty, but it is interesting. There's something really weird right here. What's this? Huh, it's a stream pebble. There might have been like a layer of stream pebbles in here. I wonder if that's where the granite came from? That would make sense. Oh, I think I found another one of those stream pebbles. Okay, so I'm guessing what's going on here is there's a layer of stream pebbles conglomerate basically underneath the salt. And then within that, you have agates that got deposited. That makes a lot of sense to me. Yeah, look at that piece. Got orange and black. Here's this one washed off. Yeah, a number of these agates seem to have this stuff going through them, this webbing that's pretty ugly. Hmm, good thing to keep in mind, but it's still cool in its own way. Looks like it has a little bit of red on it. Yep, just a little bit at the top. Now what we got here, oh, that might be better inside. I really want to cut that one right across there. That red is looks like an interesting piece. Cool. Another decent looking piece. Here's this one washed off. White splutches. Hmm, maybe looks like just a little bit right at the top. Oh, this one actually looks a little better. Oh, okay. That's probably the most colorful piece I've found so far. That's better. Okay. Here's this one washed off. This one I really liked because of these little agate layers right here where it's red and colorless. It's actually not too bad in there. You know, this stuff is so abundant. I really need to be picky and just grab the better looking ones. Oh, look at that, maybe. That's a better looking one. Yeah. Hmm, that looks like maybe a jasper. That is interesting. I do really like the look of that one. I think it's jasper, maybe a little agate. Very different color. I really think I should take that one and cut that one open too, although it might be a little while. That's too big for my current saw. That'll have to come later. Here's this jasper nodule cut open that broke off there. And brown again, but it does have a little bit of a kind of red purple inside of it. At least that's interesting. I'm going to go ahead and say not worth keeping the jasper nodules. When you go out there, don't worry about the jasper nodules. Focus on the agates. Another piece. Just picked this one up. The inside though, it looks like it might have some color. Should see some light coming through that a little bit. So, hmm, that one might be worth cutting. Just found another one of these kind of brownish greenish jasper nodules. And it looks like there's a fossil on it. I'm going to cut this one too. If these prove to be really nice looking, this is great because there's actually a lot of these here. Like you can see one right there. You can see another nodule right there. They're pretty abundant. In the book mostly it just talked about the agate, not the jasper. If this turns out to be really nice looking stuff, may have stumbled across something pretty cool. I don't know. It doesn't look that great, but who knows until you cut it open. That one looks interesting. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, maybe some of these jasper nodules are really cool. Here's another decent looking one. It's like a heart shape. Yeah, this stuff really is all over the place here. Something looks red from this point of view. So from the outside, this doesn't look like anything, but I'm intrigued. So I think I'll take it and cut it just because I'm curious. Here's this jasper nodule cut open. Yeah, this is brown. You can barely even see any patterns in it. Of course, if I were to grind it a little bit it would look a little better, but yeah, not very good. That's too bad. Okay, here's three more I found. I didn't actually show myself picking each of them up, but yeah. They're looking pretty good. Kind of just started picking things up. That looks cool. Another one of those jasper nodules that I'm intrigued about. They may not really be anything, but I don't know. Give it a shot. Here's this one washed off. A lot of these kind of have this peach color. Very interesting. Here's this one washed off. This is really cool right here. It's got some nice color and patterns right there. So I'm back up here on the road and I just kind of wanted to show you how easy and close this is. So here's the road. I'm just parked up there and yeah, here's the curve in the road. So I'm giving you the GPS right there and here on the north side, just in this reddish dirt here, basically. And anywhere you can see this kind of reddish dirt where you see some of those dark lava rocks, that's where it's coming out of. It's so easy and close. This makes for a wonderful place to bring your family for the kids. You know, this is so accessible, so easy. And yeah, what a good spot. I mean, I really wasn't expecting much from right here. I really didn't think I'd find much, but it surpassed my expectations. And it's not like amazing stuff, but it's really nice still. Yeah, anyway, sorry that I wasn't able to get a video out last week. And they might be kind of sporadic for the next little while because I've got a lot of business trips I've been going on. Work's been keeping me pretty busy right now. And it's been just hard to get out as often as I do. So yeah, that's just the way it is sometimes. Anyway, until next time, remember, there is treasure everywhere.