What in the world am I going to do with all of these rocks I collected during the Albuquerque Gem and Mineral Society field trip that Lee and I went on yesterday? It was fascinating to poke around in the vast desert arroyos and marvel at the variety of interesting rocks. I couldn’t stop picking them up and putting them in my bucket for further study. But now that I have them here at home I can’t imagine what I’m going to do with them. I’m just not a collector.
The field trip was billed as an expedition to the Rio Puerco, which we had no idea of what to expect or exactly where it might be. Since we know the 230-mile extent of this river (‘rio’ is the Spanish word for ‘river’) currently has no water in it, we figured it would be somewhere out in the desert. Lee didn’t care about collecting rocks but decided to go so he could check for desert wild flowers.
We both enjoyed seeing this desolate area southwest of Albuquerque, way down a dirt road we never would have explored on our own. It was actually an escarpment that was cut by multiple arroyos that would have drained into the Rio Puerco basin in the valley below at such times in the past when there might actually have been water. I studied geology last semester, but can only make a guess, at this point, to say that because there used to be a lot of sediments carried down the arroyos could be why there are now so many interesting rocks laying around everywhere.
I’m taking a ‘Geology of New Mexico’ class this semester. The rocks are one of the many features of our Land of Enchantment that I appreciate and enjoy. But I think I just have to leave them out there where God put them in the first place. That way they will be there for others to enjoy and for me to see the next time. My main goal is to know what rocks I’m looking at and to understand how they might have gotten there to begin with. Of course, you could never know for sure. Some eager ‘collector’ like me could have gotten tired of having a bunch of rocks sitting around and taken them and dumped them out at a random location nowhere near where they were collected. Hmm….is there somewhere I could take my collection and leave it to mystify the next person?
Living Wonderously 
Ha ha, nice haul! I’m also not a collector so I understand the dilemma. Let us know what you do with your rocks!