February Field trip to the Bootheel

Submitted by Club VP - Anita Williams
(Click to enlarge images)
 
The Club February field trip met up at the Visitor Center and then headed out down to Lordsburg. From there we headed due south and drove thru the Animas Valley down to the boot heel and the Coronado National Forest. 

 
The collecting locations are in the Guadalupe Mountains which are composed of Tertiary aged volcanoclastics and sediments within the Geronimo Trail Caldera. The volcanics are very silica rich and produced abundant rhyolites, chalcedony and quartz. 

The first stop was in Clanton Canyon just inside the Forest boundary.  We parked and walked south scouting the hill and the stream bed.  This whole area was the scene of active volcanic and hot spring activity.  We found some great metamorphic rocks some with small garnets, lots of chalcedony and some great yard rocks.

The next stop was further up the canyon and up a side road to a place called Black Dam.  This area is host to more chalcedony and chalcedony filled geodes.  The area east of the parking area and down a gully produced a lot of nice geodes which were already opened.  Lots of material may produce geodes, but they have to be cut.  I did not take the time to explore much more of the site, but there is likely a very large area where the geodes, some of them quite nice, can be found.