Thunder Egg Trail

An easy loop trail at Rockhound State Park. On this trail, you get nice views of the campground, and off to the southwest through northwest, including nice views of the Big Florida mountains. Many people use this trail as a starting place for their rock collecting. This trail also has many interesting forms of cacti and other desert plants.

Hike data

Waypoints

Maps

Getting to the trailhead

About the hike

Plants along the trail

Comments

Hike data:

Controlling agency:

New Mexico State Parks; Rockhound

Official URL:

NM State parks page for the campground (trailhead)

Region:

Southwest; Florida Mountains.

Elevation:

start:	4599ft; 1402m	end:	4599ft; 1402m
min:	4599ft; 1402m	max:	4921ft; 1500m

elevation gain/loss: 321ft; 98m.

Length:

1.12mi; 1.80km.

Trail:

surface: dirt

condition: Excellent

ease of following: Easy

obstacles: None
The trail is wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side.

Fee:

$5.00.

Season:

All year. Summer will be hot.

Dogs:

Unknown.

Bikes:

Unknown.

Handicapped accessible:

No.

Trailhead facilities:

flush toilet(s), picnic area, trash can(s), water.

Hike attractions:

geology, scenery, wildflowers.

When we hiked it:

Date:	2000-12-26
Time it took us:	1:00.
Usage (people/hour):	0.00. We saw nobody, but then we were hiking in a light snowfall on the day after Christmas, and may have been the only crazy ones out hiking.
Cleanliness:	9.

Waypoints:

Waypoint	Type	Description
RHSP	Campground	Rockhound State Park and trailhead for Thunder Egg trail

Maps:

Paper maps:

Map name	Cartographer	Year	Scale	Topo map?	Online access	Notes
Wildernesses of New Mexico	US Forest Service	1981	1:1000000	N	No online copies.	Base map with national forests, wilderness areas and highways.

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Getting to the trailhead:

This trail takes off from the Rockhound State Park Campground. To get to the park, head south from Deming on NM 11 about five miles. Turn east on State Road 141 (Rockhond Rd) for about nine miles.

One trailhead (where we started the hike) is on the south side of the park. The other trailhead comes in at the northeast part of the campground.

No image

About the hike:

	We started near the picnic area on the south side of the park. They have a sign which, among other things, tells you that this trail was built in 1995-6 by the YCC.
One of the reasons for hiking this trail is to see all of the desert plants, such as the cactus pictured here. While not unheard of, snow in this part of the state does not last long.
	This sotol with snow also caught our eyes.
This fishhook cactus has is well-named. Look at those spines!
	This hike is not just plants though. You get great views of the Big Florida Mountains to the south.
One of the interesting parts of hiking with snow on the ground is the interesting tracks that you find.

Plants we saw along the trail:

Yucca (Agavaceae Yucca)
Pricklypear (Cactaceae Opuntia)
Fishhook cactus (Cactaceae Sclerocactus)
Juniper (Cupressaceae Juniperus)
Jointfir (Ephedraceae Ephedra)
Green sotol (Liliaceae Dasylirion leiophyllum)

Reader comments about this hike:

On Fri Oct 3 11:48:26 2003 Chuckie from aberdeen chicago said:
Thunder rocks are cool! The website is awesome! Thanks for the info! DONG

Add your comments about the Thunder Egg Trail hike.

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