Arizona, New Mexico, to Colo., road trip with kids, need rockhounding ideas
 

I am trying to plot a road trip with kids from Grand Canyon to Denver. They are rockhounds and like to pan for gold etc. would anyone have suggestions for fossil, meteorite, gem hunting along the way. We are doing the Grand Canyon, sedona, new mexico and ultimately Denver and would love to find some unique activities for them. Any and all suggestions appreciated.

It's been many years since we went rockhounding with our boys. I know you use to be able to collect petrified wood (not very pretty stuff) up on Gooseberry Mesa just outside of Springdale, Utah which is near Zion Naitonal Park. In Moab, Utah we bought a map to find fossils and petrified sand ripples. Only problem was it was always so HOT when we went hunting in the summer.

Here are some books that might be able to help.

http://www.desertusa.com/web_cart/db...rockhound.html

Happy Hunting!

Utahtea

When I was a kid & we went to Arizona, I can't for the life of me remember where it was, but I do know it was somewhere hr or 2 outside Phoenix. My grandfather took me out some place & we went looking for Apache tears. They are a black stone. You look for them with your back to the sun, & then you can see the stones are a bit translucent when the sun hits the edges. After they are polished you can hold them up to the light & the whole stone is translucent. Again I don't know exactly where you find them, maybe somebody here knows, but I found quite a few that day, had them polished, & had a ring made out of 1 of them. Here are a couple sites that explain the legend behind them:
http://www.minehead-online.co.uk/apachetear.htm
http://www.worldssmallestmuseum.com/apachetearshdq.htm
http://pr.tennessee.edu/ut2kids/rocks/apaches.html

Bill, your suggestion intrigued me, so I did some investigating... The town of Superior, AZ is located in the foothills of Apache Leap Mountain and sells the stones. I'm sure in that town a person would be able to find direction for where to search for them. The town of Superior is located along Route 60, looks like about 40 miles east of Phoenix. Cool. I might road trip there myself!

Boy, this is sounding better and better. Thanks for the input and the links to some books. Based on what Bill I wrote, I started searching for apache tears and found a site that talked about Hot Wells Dunes Recreation area that might be the area he remembers.
http://www.everythingabouttravel.com...otsprings.html If I find any further info, I will post it, though I forgot to mention that I did read about the Holbrook Arizona strewnfield - an area that contains meteorite fragments (pea sized) that you can collect with a magnet if you are lucky enough to find any. Or at least that is what I read. I will let you know. Thanks for the responses.

Strange as it sounds, when driving thru the desert, a guy at a gas station told my kids to look for big cacti with holes in them - and that they are used for target practice or just random shooting. My kids found this surprisingly amusing and it gave them something to do while we were driving.