The Pigmon Ranch, located between Balmorhea and Toyah, is Open NOW!
Teri Smith Rockhunts is pleased to announce the opening of the Pigmon Ranch for rockhunting. This ranch is located between Balmorhea and Toyah, on rolling hills and flats, where you can find agate, jasper, petrified wood, flint, and chert. There is quite a bit of blue agate on the ranch, and some of it has black, grey, or white plumes in it. There’s also lots of other types of agate, such as fortification agates, tube agates, water-level agates, seam agates, banded agates, and saginitic agates. And there is petrified wood, flint, and chert in great colors and patterns.
I hope to get photos and a description up on my website in the next day or so. The agates are so beautiful and varied that it will take lots of photos to give you an idea of what you can find there.
The Pigmon Ranch is about 70 miles from Alpine. It will be easy to access, as a paved county road goes right through the ranch!
Cost for the hunt is $50 per adult per day. Children are free. Rollin’ Rock Club membership is required ($10 for a single membership, or $16 for a dual membership.) Contact Teri Smith at agatehunter@sbcglobal.net, or text or call (432) 386-3431.
Schedule created on 10/7/2024. If the schedule changes, a new post will be created with the new schedule.
That’s right! The
2024 Fall rockhunting season in the Big Bend of Texas starts…. Yesterday. Or maybe it was last week. Anyway, the weather is theoretically cooler,
and people can take actual (rather than virtual) trips out to the Big Bend to
rockhunt with three friendly, experienced, clever and knowledgeable
guides. The season is only about 2
months long (at least for Teri), so you need to decide on your dates fairly
soon if you wish to find a great actual place to stay and visit the Big Bend
for rockhunting and other kinds of recreation.
The schedule is printed below as a .pdf file. It should fit on a page for printing, if you
don’t mind teeny tiny margins. I’ll post
them schedules all over town here in Alpine and hopefully other towns in the
area.
I didn’t have room on the schedule for the starting times
and locations for the hunts. That’s
pretty easy: All of Aaron’s hunts start
at 8 a.m. in the parking lot of his
Tri-La-Bite food truck, located on East Holland Avenue in Alpine. All of Jean’s hunts start at 8 a.m. in the
parking lot of Little Caesar’s Pizza in Alpine, located where Cockrell Street
crosses Holland Avenue (Highway 90 going East).
Teri’s hunts to the South Larremore Ranch and East Needle Peak also
start at 8 a.m. in the parking lot of Little Caesar’s Pizza in Alpine. The hunts to the Ritchie Ranch start an hour
later, at 9 a.m. in the same Little Caesar’s Pizza lot. The reason the Ritchie Ranch hunts start
later is that children are notoriously hard to get ready in the morning, so an
extra hour is a good thing, and because the ride to the ranch is about 5
minutes long.
You can email or call or text any of us with questions about
the hunts we lead. We look forward to
seeing you this Fall!
Maybe there will be some pieces like this red and black plume agate from the South Larremore Ranch in the box(es) I send you!
The spring rockhunting season has been quite good, with many lovely cutting agate pieces found on all 3 ranches I lead trips on. The most surprising finds have been fortification agates with unusual colors from the Ritchie Ranch. With just a couple of exceptions, I’m finished with leading field trips for the spring. It’s been warm to hot on the ranches, and of course the farther south you go the hotter it gets. Even if it’s too hot for rockhunting out in West Texas, you can still buy great rough agate from me to cut and polish all summer in your ocean-front condo, air-conditioned treehouse, houseboat on the lake, or the back porch and garage.
I’m still selling some of the best agates from my collection in the ½ bucket size, or approx. 2.5 gallons. This is enough agate to completely fill a USPS large sized priority box. It should weigh between 25 and 35 pounds, depending upon the sizes and shapes of the stones included.
These boxes of agate will contain all cutting and tumbling pieces, with the specimen pieces removed. You can specify tumbling or cutting and I’ll try to get you the right sizes for your projects. Quantities are limited, so order now. I’ll be leaving for California in mid-May, so if you haven’t ordered by then, you won’t get your rocks til Fall.
Walker Ranch $150 plus $25 shipping. May contain the following types of agate: red plume, black plume, flower garden, peanut, moss, fortification banded, tube, lace, and mixtures of those types. The agate occurs in many different bright colors, from red and yellow to purple and green. The Walker Ranch has been closed to hunting for many years now. I gather the material for each bucket and half-bucket when it’s ordered, so it may take a few days for me to fill your request. Eventually I’ll run out of the good stuff, and after that there will be no more available.
Singleton Ranch $150 plus $25 shipping. May contain the following types of agate: bouquet (plume agate in pastel colors), black plume, moss, water-level banded, fortification banded, brecciated opal (common, opaque opal in beiges, pinks and oranges, in a translucent background of black, blue, or white agate), and mixtures of those types. The agate occurs in many different pastel colors, from pink and yellow to white and green. The Singleton Ranch has been closed to hunting for many years now.
South Larremore Ranch $110 plus $25 shipping. May contain the following types of agate: plume in various colors, moss, peanut, tube, flower garden, fortification (some with bands so close together that they can exhibit an iris effect when sliced thin), and petrified wood. The agate occurs in many bright colors and some pastel colors as well. The South Larremore Ranch is currently open for guided rockhunts that I lead in the Fall and Spring.
East Needle Peak $110 plus $25 shipping. May contain the following types of agate: PomPom (a rare pseudomorph of agate after aragonite), moss, peanut, fortification, banded, tube, lace, and agatized petrified wood. The agate occurs in many colors, but much of it is red, orange, or yellow, occasionally with areas of green. East Needle Peak is currently open for guided rockhunts that I lead in the Fall and Spring.
Ritchie Ranch $60 plus $25 shipping. May contain the following types of agate: Moss, banded, fortification, tube, plume, translucent chalcedony, and a lovely unnamed type of agate that has irregular blobs of opaque agate in a translucent background. The agate grew in two different occurrences, each with its characteristic color sets: translucent chalcedony in blues, greys, and carnelian, and a more opaque, complexly patterned agate and jasper in bright red, orange, and yellow. The Ritchie Ranch is currently open for guided rockhunts that I lead in the Fall and Spring.
Labradorite from the Walker Ranch. This labradorite is not like the specimens you see where the background of blue and grey has a chatoyance or cat’s-eye effect. At its best, Walker Ranch labradorite is bright yellow and almost transparent. It’s great for faceting and makes cool specimens. I’m selling it in 100 gram parcels for $25.00. Not all of the pieces are the same size, however, and those who order earlier will get the parcels with the bigger pieces in them. Shipping is $10, which seems awfully expensive, but you can ship several parcels in one small flat-rate box.
I will still also have full buckets for sale, and a few additional categories of cutting agate and specimens. I will be keeping my website current as to what’s available. You can find that information at http://terismithrockhunts.com/rocks-for-sale/.
You can order from me via phone, email or text. I will take checks, PayPal and Zelle for distance payments, and cash also for purchases when you’re here in Alpine. Twice a year I drive from Texas to California and back, so if you’re near I-10 in West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and parts of California, I can possibly deliver rocks to you if it works with your schedule.
Hi y’all! Spring rockhunting season is here, and it’s time to round up the rock bags and oil up the wheelbarrow for some great rockhunting adventures.
This Spring my schedule will be more flexible than it has been in the recent past. Aaron Thomas has said he’s not leading field trips this spring, so I have no reason to just schedule hunts for Thursdays, Fridays, and Mondays. I’ve waited til now to send out my schedule because I’ve been trying to make contact with the 06 Ranch to see whether anyone else would be leading hunts on the 06 this Spring, but I haven’t been successful, so I’m assuming that there will be no hunts there at all. If that changes, I’ll let you know ASAP.
Instead of scheduling rockhunts now and hoping those days work for rockhounds, I’ll tell you when I can lead rockhunts, and you pick the days that work best for you and let me know. It only takes one person to sign up for a rockhunt to happen, and I love to go on rockhunts, so I will be glad to lead a trip for one person. And if you’ve got a group, so much the better. I’ve had up to 30 people with me on hunts, and everyone had a good time and found great rocks!
I’ll still be leading rockhunts on the Ritchie Ranch, the South Larremore Ranch, and East Needle Peak. Jean and Bryan Larremore will also be leading trips to the South Larremore Ranch when they can.
For further information on the ranches I lead rockhunts on, and what you’ll need to do to prepare, follow this link: http://terismithrockhunts.com/for-rockhunters/ To sign up for one of my rockhunts, send me an email at agatehunter@sbcglobal.net or text me at (432) 386-3431. Please include a phone number so I can call you if necessary. I’d prefer not to have you call me because I’m forgetful, and having a text or email that I can refer to will ensure I remember the right dates and other information.
The only requirement for my hunts in addition to the fees stated below is that you need to join the Rollin’ Rock Club. This club costs $10 per year for a single membership ($16 dual membership), and provides insurance that protects the landowner from any damage we may accidentally cause.
So without further ado, here’s my schedule:
Green= Ought to be available Yellow=Probably not available, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
Once again, the hunts will begin highway 118 south.in the parking lot of Little Caesar’s Pizza in Alpine, at the corner of Holland Avenue and Highway 118 south.
East Needle Peak
S. Larremore Ranch
Ritchie Ranch
Meets at 8 am in the parking lot of Little Caesar’s Pizza
in Alpine
Meets at 8 am in the parking lot of Little Caesar’s Pizza
in Alpine
Meets at 9 am in the parking lot of Little
Caesar’s Pizza in Alpine
Cost: $50 per
day. First bucket of rocks you collect
is included in cost.
Cost: $60 per
day. First bucket of rocks you collect
is included in cost.
Cost: $20 entrance fee and $1 per lb for cutting material
and crystals.
Leader: Teri Smith
(432) 386-3431
Leader: Teri Smith
(432) 386-3431
Leader: Teri Smith
(432) 386-3431
Regards,
Teri
P.S. I’ve still got great rocks for sale. I‘ll be cataloging
what I’ve got starting next week when I’m back in Texas, and I’ll send out an
email about that as soon as I have an idea what I have.
As we head toward cooler weather and the holidays, it’s time
to think about getting enough good rough agate to cut when the weather is too
cold for rockhunting. I have a number
of ways to help you solve that problem.
I’ll be selling some of the best agates from my collection
in the smaller size of ½ bucket, or approx. 2.5 gallons. This is enough agate to completely fill a
USPS large sized priority box. It should
weigh between 25 and 35 pounds, depending upon the sizes and shapes of the
stones included. These are great for
yourself or for holiday gifts for other rockhounds in your life
These boxes of agate will contain all cutting and tumbling
pieces, with the specimen pieces removed.
You can specify tumbling or cutting and I’ll try to get you the right
sizes for your projects. Quantities are
limited, so order now. I’ll be leaving
for California in mid-December, so if you haven’t ordered by then, you won’t
get your rocks for Christmas.
Walker Ranch $150 plus $25 shipping. May contain the following types of agate: red
plume, black plume, flower garden, peanut, moss, fortification banded, tube,
lace, and mixtures of those types. The
agate occurs in many different bright colors, from red and yellow to purple and
green. The Walker Ranch has been closed to hunting for many years now.
Singleton Ranch $150 plus $25 shipping. May contain
the following types of agate: bouquet (plume agate in pastel colors), black
plume, moss, water-level banded, fortification banded, brecciated opal (common,
opaque opal in beiges, pinks and oranges, in a translucent background of black,
blue, or white agate), and mixtures of those types. The agate occurs in many
different pastel colors, from pink and yellow to white and green. The Singleton
Ranch has been closed to hunting for many years now.
South Larremore Ranch $110 plus $25 shipping. May contain the following types of agate:
plume in various colors, moss, peanut, tube, flower garden, fortification (some
with bands so close together that they can exhibit an iris effect when sliced
thin), and petrified wood. The agate
occurs in many bright colors and some pastel colors as well. The South Larremore Ranch is currently open
for guided rockhunts that I lead in the Fall and Spring.
East Needle Peak $110 plus $25 shipping. May contain the following types of agate:
PomPom (a rare pseudomorph of agate after aragonite), moss, peanut,
fortification, banded, tube, lace, and agatized petrified wood. The agate occurs in many colors, but much of
it is red, orange, or yellow, occasionally with areas of green. East Needle Peak is currently open for guided
rockhunts that I lead in the Fall and Spring.
Ritchie Ranch $60 plus $25 shipping. May contain the
following types of agate: Moss, banded, fortification, tube, plume, translucent
chalcedony, and a lovely unnamed type of agate that has irregular blobs of
opaque agate in a translucent background.
The agate grew in two different occurrences, each with its
characteristic color sets: translucent
chalcedony in blues, greys, and carnelian, and a more opaque, complexly
patterned agate and jasper in bright red, orange, and yellow. The Ritchie Ranch is currently open for
guided rockhunts that I lead in the Fall and Spring.
I will still also have full buckets for sale, and a few
additional categories of cutting agate and specimens. I will be keeping my website current as to
what’s available. You can find that
information at http://terismithrockhunts.com/rocks-for-sale/.
You can order from me via phone, email or text. I will take checks, PayPal and Zelle for
distance payments, and cash also for purchases when you’re here in Alpine. Twice a year I drive from Texas to California
and back, so if you’re near I-10, I can possibly deliver rocks to you if it
works with your schedule.
October has brought some cooler weather to the Big Bend of
Texas, so it’s time to come out and join rockhunts to have fun and find some
beautiful agate, jasper, amethyst, quartz crystals, and other specimens.
I am leading rockhunting field trips on The Ritchie Ranch,
the South Larremore Ranch and East Needle Peak, and Aaron Thomas is leading
them on the 06 Ranch. There are enough different
locations for you to go for five days in a row and not be at any one place for
more than a day.
Below is the schedule of rockhunts, and some information
about costs and meeting locations. For
further information on the ranches I lead rockhunts on, and what you’ll need to
do to prepare, follow this link: http://terismithrockhunts.com/for-rockhunters/ To sign up for one of my rockhunts, send me
an email at agatehunter@sbcglobal.net. The only requirement for my hunts in addition
to the fees stated below is that you need to join the Rollin’. Rock Club. This club costs $10 per year for a single
membership ($16 dual membership), and provides insurance that protects the
landowner from any damage we may accidentally cause.
For information about Aaron’s
hunts, search for him on Facebook, or email or text him at aaronthomasrockhunts@gmail.com, or (432) 538-2399.
I also still
have lots of wonderful agate for sale.
I’ll give you more details on that in a separate email which should come
out in the next few days.
Hi Y’all! Below is my complete rockhunting schedule for the Spring of 2023. I’ve included all the hunts I know about in the Big Bend, including those led by Aaron Thomas and Jean Larremore, through May 1. Both Aaron and Jean are leading hunts in May, but I stopped my calendar at the end of my hunts in order to get it out sooner… Aaron, Jean and I work independently of each other. Each of us will be booking our own trips. Contact information for all of us is here: Teri Smith’s rockhunts: email me at agatehunter@sbcglobal.net or teri@terismithrockhunts.com. If no one has signed up for a rockhunt 48 hours before it’s to start, I will cancel the hunt and make other plans. Hunt cancellation notices will be put up on my website, www.terismithrockhunts.com, and sent out to my email list. But if even just one person signs up, the rockhunt will happen. My rockhunts also require you to join the Rollin’ Rock Club once a year. The cost ($10 per person or $16 per couple) covers you for the entire year. This provides insurance that protects the landowner in case we damage something.
Jean Larremore’s rockhunts: email her at jeanlarremore@yahoo.com, or through Facebook messenger. Please make your reservation with her at least 2 or 3 days before the rockhunt.
For all hunts, you’ll need to bring along lots of drinking water (1/2 liter per hour on hot days) and lunch. You’ll need to wear desert-savvy clothes, including boots, long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, work gloves, and a hat. Having bags or a bucket to put your rocks in is a very good idea. And sunscreen is essential.
I hope to see y’all out here this spring! Regards, Teri
P.S. I have lots of rocks for sale, too. I’ve lowered the prices on many types of agate and specimens. And of course I can mail the rocks to you very easily!
My apologies to everyone for not emailing you sooner concerning rockhunts this fall and winter. I’ve been working on several projects, which are, of course, proceeding more slowly than I had planned. For the last few months I’ve been waiting for an appointment that will finally happen at the end of this month. After that there will need to be more appointments, each with a number of variables which can go wrong, thus pushing back schedules even farther.
I was going to wait to send this email until I had something solid to tell you about my rockhunt schedule, and what I have is a lot of conjecture and an inability to plan a schedule for fall and winter.
So the only thing ‘solid’ in my schedule is that I won’t be leading rockhunts this fall, and probably not this winter, either. Unless things change materially, however, I will be leading rockhunts next March and April.
Aaron Thomas and Jean Larremore are leading hunts in the Big Bend region this Fall and winter. You can get ahold of them through the Facebook group “Texas Rockhounds” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/775245782823113). You can PM them on Facebook and get an answer fairly quickly. I recommend them highly. You’ll have a great time and find great rocks whenever you go with them.
I miss seeing y’all back there, and I hope to see a lot of you when I’m there in the Spring. As I’ve done in the past few years, I’ll be holding my hunts Thursdays, Fridays, and Mondays, which are usually the days when neither Aaron nor Jean has another hunt. That way you can have a longer set of hunts and not have to choose between two ranches on any given day.
I’ll still be leading hunts to the Ritchie Ranch, the South Larremore Ranch, and East Needle Peak.
I’ll also have buckets of agate for sale. I’ve got about 400 buckets left, so there ought to be something you’d like to have in that selection. Since I’m not in Texas, I don’t have access to the buckets right now to show you photos or sell you something. I can, however, update my online inventory, and I hope to do that in the next week or so.
Be safe, y’all and have a great holiday season! I’ll let you know pretty soon what my schedule for the spring will be (probably as soon as I know Aaron’s & Jean’s schedules for the spring).
Hi Y’all! Below is my complete rockhunting schedule for the Spring of 2022. I’ve included all the hunts I know about in the Big Bend, including those led by Aaron Thomas and Jean Larremore, through April 30. Both Aaron and Jean are leading hunts in May, but I stopped my calendar at the end of my hunts in order to get it out sooner…
Aaron, Jean and I work independently of each
other. Each of us will be booking our
own trips. Contact information for all
of us is here:
Teri Smith’s rockhunts:
email me at agatehunter@sbcglobal.net
or teri@terismithrockhunts.com. If no one has signed up for a rockhunt 48
hours before it’s to start, I will cancel the hunt and make other plans. But if even just one person signs up, the
rockhunt will happen. If the rockhunt is
going to happen, you can just show up at the meeting location and go.
Jean Larremore’s rockhunts: email her at
jeanlarremore@yahoo.com, or
through Facebook messenger. Please make
your reservation with her at least 2 or 3 days before the rockhunt.
I will be sending out another email
soon that contains my trip rules and guidelines of what to bring, wear, and do. Each ranch is a little different, so it’s
important to check with the leader of your field tip about unusual
circumstances (such as your bringing your pet aardvark along, bringing a bulldozer,
or inviting Queen Elizabeth to join us).
Hi y’all! It’s Fall, and with the cooler weather comes opportunities to hunt for agate and other collectible rocks in the Big Bend Region.
In a “normal” year I’d be attaching a schedule of my field trips to this email. But 2021 is not a normal year. COVID is still with us, and it’s still killing people. And we have no clue to what the long-term aftereffects of even a mild case may be.
I came out to California in May. Here in California there’s a mask mandate, and the rate of COVID infection is 25 people per 100k. In Texas, it’s 56 people per 100k. Since my #1 goal this year is not getting COVID, it makes sense for me to stay where the infection rate is much lower. So as of now I’ll stay out here. I’ll check in the middle of October whether the rate in Texas has gone down, and then decide if I’m coming back for November.
So while I may get back to Texas in time to lead field trips in November, it’s also possible that I won’t come back this Fall and Winter at all.
By the way, the photo above is from Patrick’s Point State Park in California, where they encourage you to pick up the agate and jade you find on the beach and take it with you. But you have to hike back up a cliff with it, so you end up being quite selective.
Until then, please consider Aaron Thomas’ field trips to the 06 Ranch, the Larremore Ranch, and Needle Peak. They are wonderful. I’ve attached his schedule to the bottom of this email and will put it on my website.
I’ll also be selling rocks when I get back there. I have 400 or so buckets yet to sell or sort through to pick out the best material to sell. I hope to make several more sorted Singleton buckets and Walker Ranch buckets out of the things I have left. Then I’ll sort and sell some smaller lots of things and perhaps special individual rocks, and the equipment I decide not to take with me to California.
I hope all of you are healthy and doing well in this unsettled year. I’ve done some rock hunting in California, and had fun, but a lot of the places I’ve wanted to go have been closed due to the wildfires or the concern that new wildfires could break out and there would be no firefighters left to put them out. The largest fire, the Dixie fire, is almost a million acres, and has been burning for over two months.
I miss seeing a lot of you and keeping up on what’s going on in your lives, going out with y’all to the beautiful ranches, and getting to see the lovely things you find. But when COVID recedes and we can gather in groups again without concern, the rocks will still be out there, waiting to be discovered. I look forward to that day.
