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For nine days in October, my morning skies are filled with hot air balloons. This was a particularly good year for a certain two year old I know. Iwi the Kiwi came to visit on the first day... ...and the next day brought another visitor to our block ... ...throughout the week there were some good ascencions. Here is a typical morning commute... ...topped off by a great Saturday morning of Bachechi (open space), breakfast and balloons... ...next year I think we will get up extra early and watch them take off from Fiesta Park.

Hi Everyone, this is my first post and I like to thank you for your information. I will be traveling to the US in October. I'm going to travel in my car from Los Angeles, las vegas, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma, Memphis, New Orleans, Panama City, Sarasota, and Orlando. I want to take advantage of that to do little fossil huntings across that sites. Obviously, I don't want to do something illegal or wrong while collecting. I was talking with some guy from natural science and tell me which is legal and which not. The original idea is to fossil collect near the road. Do you know where to find good fossils like ammonites, corals, shells, echinoderms, etc near roads? This will be my route. I'm not professional or the next Alan Grant or Charig. I only want one specimen or two from every place if possible. Thanks to everyone, sorry for my English. If you tell me where to stop near the road or taking a detour for a mile will be alright. I have already some point marked but you're the bosses, boys and Girls!!!

Hello all, my name is Chris. I am a recent graduate (May 2018) from the University of New Mexico with a degree in psychology. I have been interested in dinosaurs since I saw Jurassic Park when I was a little kid and this interest has since resurfaced in force with my recent free time and the release of the newest Jurassic Park movie. I have been reading a bunch of books on the subjects of dinosaurs and paleontology and have become quite taken with it! I am a somewhat outdoorsy person when the temperature is under triple digits, and I work both in a research lab and for a Siberian Husky rescue. Anyway, I discovered this forum while researching fossils and thought I'd give it a go. Look forward to chatting with you all!

Hello all! Have to go to Albuquerque, NM next month. Will be driving back with a U-Haul. I want to fill as much of this truck with fossils as humanly possible to make this foolishly long drive worth the effort. Does anyone know any spots in the very-near vicinity of Albuquerque where I can collect? I'm not going to be picky about what I collect, I just want to make the most of the fact that I have to be there! Thanks in advance!

Will be in NM in march, any suggestions for hunting the Socorro area?

A forever home for fossils By Jessica Dyer. Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, N.M., December 28, 2017 https://www.abqjournal.com/1112193/unm-plan-could-create-forever-home-for-some-fossils.html Yours, Paul H.

I mad another trip to the collection area closest to home that I love the most. This area is full of nice petrified wood specimens siting on top of the ground. Most of the samples are about 10 to 50 cm in length and 6 to 10 cm in width. The dominant color is tan but there is ample black, red and yellow too. These samples occur on top of the erosion hills that the nearby huge arroya that runs north and south far down in the valley. The area is also littered with quartz, jasper, agate, apache tears and many other minerals. The area is open range and not posted. Much of the land is for sale so it must be privately held but permission to collect does not seem to be necessary or required. It might take some research to find out who does own it. Entry to the area is made by turning south off of highway 6 about 5 or 6 miles west of Los Lunas, NM. This is a sandy road by passenger cars seem to be able to handle it without getting stuck. I would not wander off the road without 4WD. The road is located at the SW Livestock Auction on Dalles Road. Stay on Dalles Rd until you cross the busy railroad tracks then turn west (right) on any number of dirt or gravel roads that lead to the erosion gullies where the fossilized wood and colorful rocks are too numerous to count. These eroision gullies continue for 40 or 50 miles all the way down to where US60 intersects I 25. It would take a lifetime to collect it all. I will post images of some representative samples of the fossils I take from these beds starting with the petrified wood. The geology at the surface is primarily Piedmont (Holocene to upper Pleistocene interspersed with windblown sand and gypsum dunes of the same era. The ground is very easy to dig in and so far no snakes have been seen and only a few cactus so it would be a great place to take kids. I expect I will find mammalian fossils in this area. It is great place to share since there is absolutely no possibility of ever being collected out. Larry Robinson on Silver Hill.

First of all, hello! I am a student moving from the panhandle of Florida to Albuquerque for graduate studies in Optical Science and Engineering at UNM. Since I made the decision to study in NM I've been looking for things to do outdoors as the state has much of this to offer. Having always been interested in the sciences I figured fossil hunting would be a perfect hobby. I've lived in the panhandle my whole life where the landscape is flat and essentially all sand and clay. Having mountains and rocks around will be an entirely new experience. As preparation, I've been reading on this site as well as a brief study of New Mexico's geology. It actually seems quite complex. I have done some reading on the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources and obtained a geologic map of the state. This map seems extremely detailed and a bit tough to interpret with my knowledge. Here is a link to where the map can be downloaded if you are interested: https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/publications/maps/geologic/state/home.cfml There is also the option to view the interactive map. I would be grateful for any help on what else I can do to get information that will help me fossil hunt. I've read of some particular areas to fossil hunt on this site and others but other than a quick Google Earth search or two I'm totally ignorant. I am interested in finding any and all fossils. I figure it would be best to start with the fossils that are easiest to find and then eventually work my way up to hunting more elusive fossils. Thanks! Ken

Last year I got to meet Mike (FF Member PFOOLEY) at the October show in Albuquerque. Old Dead Things will again be set up at this show October 3-5 at the fair grounds. Hopefully this year we will get to see Mike again and meet a few more forum members. Jim Old Dead Things