I planned my whole trip just to find the geodes and later we are told by the park ranger that the show was not filmed at that park, but was filmed in a private mine 50 miles away. The show lied to us and also used the state park name w/o permission. we saw many people who also planned their trip from georgia florida and in arizona. So dont GO

It wasnt filmed in what park?

What lie did the show tell?

It was obvious they went to a private claim, they said it was. I dont know how far away it is, but I did not see any misrepresentation.

Please explain further and what your exact complaints are.

It's Rockhound State Park. There are plenty of thundereggs there, you should have asked someone returning from up the hill with all the thundereggs where they dug them at. And the show explicitly stated that they were digging on Paul Colburn's Baker Ranch claim. You doofus.

Hi, My wife and i also made the trip to rockhound state park in Demming NM. we were in the area so we figured we would try our hand at finding some geodes. we drove past a little rock shop just a few miles from the park, and thought about stoping in to see some thundereggs, and look around, but deceided to go look first and stop and buy one if we didnt find some ourselves. that was our mistake. the lady at rock hound SP was very very SLOW. we had a group of about 8 people, and i think every group of 2 got differnt instructions on just where is best to find geodes, all of it obviously incorrect anyway. after finding countless jaspers, some very nice, one small common opal, and a few other specimens, we gave up our search for stones to look for Ibex in the nearby spring valley park. after seeing no ibex, but a couple of ibex hunters we gave up that search too and deceided to check out that rock shop before it got dark. OK, heres the great demming NM secret, these guys at the rock shop/museum know there stuff, and there are more geodes in there parking lot then i could imagine. what i thought was just some landscaping rock around the building, like i had seen at rockhound park, but no, geodes, all geodes, and nothing but geodes, literally ton after ton of them, some the size of small end tables. it was worth the stop to see them alone. after knocking on the door and being let in to a small mine shaft looking room, it became obvious that we should have stopped here first on the way in. beautiful displays of cut geodes everywere you looked, from local and far-off sources alike. after a whirl-wind tour of all they had to offer, i felt like a confused geology student again. way to much technical info to process that quick. i finally asked him if anyone finds geodes at the park. the response... oh yeah, there not too hard to find at all. so i was confused on how we didnt find any. he gave us correct directions on how to get to them, including a nice little map of that one and 4 other local "mines", 3 of which are on public land and anyone i guess can just go out there and get some. each mine, some less then a mile from one to the other, have distincly different geodes. by the time we left, we had purchased a few for our own collection because we didnt have tome to get back out before it got dark, and we were headed back to wisconsin the next day. we also stopped at the red roof rock shop as listed on the episode site. that shop had lots of other rocks other then geodes, but was to generally not as neat. my inital take on the trip was that it was neat but not worth the hype and time, after our trip to the rock shop and a map, i was really itching to get back out there and give it another try. i would suggest to anyone going anywhere near Demming NM to give it a try. make sure to stop at the little rock shop about a mile out of rockhound SP, get the map and directions, bring a shovel, rock pick, bucket, heavy pants and boots(there are cacti everywhere), and maybe a 4X4 cause the roads and trails to other mines look like it could be a little rough, but not sure. but they looked like they were only 10-15 miles from the park or less. just my take on our first cash and treasure field trip, this is one i hope other people take and enjoy, i know i want to do it again. next up i think we will try a little back yard wisconsin agate hunt, then work out way out from there. we love the show. hope you all enjoy our little story and enjoy your treasure hunting. -rockpicker

Dear Rockpicker: Yes INDEED I enjoyed the story of your & wife's "adventure" for geodes in NM. Before the episode was over, my husband & I had figured as much.

You see, there are few no-cost hunting spots for amateurs seeking a few specimens - just to say, "found this myself!" When we began back in the mid-70s, what had been fun places to have a family BBQ & dig around for crystal-lined (even solid) geodes were already devastated by heavy construction equipment. Dump trucks were driven down the fragile desert tracks over washes & wildlife alike willy-nilly. Backhoes & loaders were hauled in, leaving even worse destruction in their wake. In a deep dry wash we found where the driver(s) of such semis w/ low-boy trailers had spent at least 2 hours leveling the approach/exit with plain old shovels and doing the heave-ho (or 'road-building') with boulders in order to cross without off-loading their dozers.

We noticed that the tracks this group left were no less than 5 days old (the last small rain shower had recently occurred, and the BLM rangers confirmed our estimation during their research. These pros were as angry as we were that the thieves had not returned by the same route, or were still out there excavating the site with NO claims or permits.

They HAD left by several different routes, taking with them a minimum of 1000 cubic yards of prime geode-bearing material that had been mechanically sifted on site. There was evidence that they left in a hurry, because expensive & still operable/ functional equipment had been abandoned there.

Worst of all was the unnecessary destruction of indescribably gorgeous public (BLM) lands, the splendor/ photography of which had always been our primary destination. Mature plants, including ocotillo/ organ-pipe, barrel, cholla cacti had been slashed/ destroyed by what appeared to be drunken idiots. Dead lizards/ chuckawallas/ snakes/ Fragile land forms, that had taken 100s of thousands of years (if not more) for mother nature to carve out of the magnificent geology were toppled/ despoiled.

What angered us as much as any of the needless destruction was the crushed ENDANGERED Desert Tortoise - a grandmomma with 17" shell still dying within the tire tracks of that dry wash. Semi-trailers had to make precise alterations to the wash bed in order to pass through, and there is NO WAY that such a huge & beautiful tortoise could have gone unnoticed by ANY of them..

No tortoise could evade an 8-10" tire, especially 18 of them bearing a heavy load. She had to be destroyed, and her eggs were still 2 weeks from possible harvesting. http://snr.unl.edu/Data/AgateLexicon.asp?Name=H

We have over 30 years of fossil & rockhounding in california. What's funny is that we found one of the oldest: a smallish megalodon shark's tooth right here at "River Mouth's" beach directly next to the del mar race track. I yelped, but my hubsband was still searching, "yeah yeah, sure." The other couple up that early (8AM) came over to look, and immediately demanded, "exactly WHERE did you find that megalodon"? We had it confirmed at Scripps Aquarium as at least 500,000 million years old.

Want to chat more? I sure would! got lots of fossil oyster shells, petrified wood, Apache tears, jasp-agate. oh well - you know! !jill

Hi. Someone gave you some bad information. The park is called "Rockhound State Park" and there are indeed Thundereggs on the park at the "Never Again Mine" donated by the Geode Kid a.k.a. Paul Colburn. I have mined in the location so I can tell you that it is correct. It is kind of outside the park by about 100 yards. Another place right around the corner from the park is called the "Sugar Bowl Mine" which has Thundereggs as well. Another area is the Baker Egg Mine owned and operated by Paul Colburn. If you ask he will give you a map and let you go through the tailing pile. BLM does not allow people to go into his pit because of dangers unless he is there mining and to supervise. Believe me, there are many whole Thundereggs in the tailings. If you ever plan on another trip to NM please call me as I can take you to many places here to rockhound. If you are interested you can visit http:rocksforthehounds.com which is my site for more information or email me at joseph_mork@yahoo.com. Wish I could have helped sooner.

jmork I can not find your website http:rocksfor thehounds.com