Rockhounding in the Caballo Mountains, New Mexico

If you are a rockhound, the Caballo Mountains outside of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico should be on your list.

We recently spent a week in the area and, maaaaaan…. There were so many cool rocks! I totally put my back out lugging them back to the van.

Worth it though.

Anyway. In this post, we’ll share some information about Rockhounding in the Caballo Mountains. And we’ll suggest a few other great things to do while you’re in the Truth or Consequences area.

Elephant Butte Historic Area

If you’re heading to Truth or Consequences and like cheap, no frills camping. Check out the Paseo Del Rio Camping area. It’s not fancy, but it’s close to town… and to the Caballo foothills, which are studded with agate and jasper.

Camping beside the Rio Grande here is $10. Which gets you a cute little adobe structure, and a barely tolerable pit toilet. This is also a terrific area for birdwatching. And there’s a bike/walking trail beside the Rio Grande here as well.

There’s free wild camping beside Elephant Butte Historic Area and Dam on Ruins Road within Elephant Butte Recreation Area. The view here is amazing, but it can get pretty windy beside the lake. When the weather is calm, there are ruins here to explore. A full service campground is also available, though it was closed for remodeling as of April 2025.

If you are looking for agate and jasper, check out the washes and gullies of the lower hills beside the Paseo Del Rio camping area. I found a lot of nice mossy agates here, some jasper and some jasp-agate too.

Carnelian Grounds East of the Caballo Mountains

The area east and south of the Caballo mountains is known for Carnelian, a beautiful red-orange variety of agate. We read about this area in Rockhounding New Mexico. Why not check out?

The carnelian grounds are in the Journada del Muerto, a historically dangerous part of the El Camino Real. To reach them, we drove across a wide expanse of sandy desert south of the “ghost town” of Engle. (It wasn’t all that ghosty, just small). Following the directions in our book, we parked a touch north of what is optimistically called the Journada Lakes. “Journada expanses of dried mud” might be more apt.

Much of the land here is private property, so we had to stick pretty close to the road. Did we find carnelian? Nope. A few pieces of chert and a chance to explore a new area was all we got.

If you are keen on carnelian, you may want to drive further south and try your luck closer to the mountains. But we needed to find a camping spot for the night. So we left this hunt for another day.

Caballo Lake State Park

Caballo Lake State Park is about 10 miles south of T or C. The park is huge– with at least four different camping areas. You can opt for full hook-ups here or “primitive” sites with no services at all. We chose the middle ground. Our $15 site at the park’s Riverside Campground had no hook-ups. But there was a bathroom with flush toilets and showers within walking distance. What luxury!

You can’t collect rocks within the state park. But you can sure look! The dam itself is chock full of boulder sized chunks of jasper and agate. Wowza!

No worries! A quick walk across the dam and into the western foothills of the Caballos, will put you in prime hounding territory. This is BLM land and open for collecting.

Agate and Jasper aren’t hard to find here. Look beside the road bed, in gullies and in washes where rocks have been tumbled down after flooding. You can’t help but find large chunks of brightly colored jasper, and agate.

In addition, we found small chunks of petrified wood, and some druzy quartz. We also found what my rockhounding book describes as “candy rock”, a pink and white striped jasper. I even found a few pieces of candy rock with swirls of green and yellow. But carnelian was scarce here. We only managed to find a few teeny pebbles of the stuff.

There are 4×4 roads running all through this section of the Caballo Mountains. If you have a more rugged vehicle, you can free-camp back there and find even more treasures.

Truth or Consequences

Rockhounding is hot, dirty work. And after a few days of poking around in the Caballos, we were eager to head into town to wash up and resupply.

Truth or Consequences (“T or C” to the locals) is a fun, artsy town. There are many small art galleries to explore, a Walmart (a van-life must), laundromat, and several restaurants. Tony’s was recommended to us by several locals, but we couldn’t get the timing right for a visit. We did catch the town’s monthly Art Hop.

There’s also a Ranger Station in town, in case you need maps and info about the National Forests to the North and West of town.

Hot Springs Heaven!

T or C is known for hot springs. There are so many here that it’s hard to choose one! On a previous visit to the area, we visited Riverbend Hot Springs. It was a dreamy, beautiful place with several soaking tubs, fairy lights and a peaceful zen feel. But all that wonderful came at a hefty price.

This time around, we opted for a private room at the more reasonable Hoosier Hot Springs. For $15 each we got an hour’s soak in a beautiful private outdoor space. It was still something of a splurge. But the water was a perfect 104 degrees, and everything was clean and beautiful. We especially appreciated the low key friendly vibe here. Highly recommend!

More to Explore!

The Caballo Mountains are beautiful, rich in camping opportunities, history… and cool rocks! If you are a rockhound, they are definitely worth a stop… or a few of them.

And if you want to roam further afield, the ghost town of Chloride is about an hour northwest. We hear the mine tailing here are full of treasures. But when we stopped in Chloride, we were short of time. And my back couldn’t handle any more scrambling around or picking up rocks. We had to take a rain check.

And, next time around, we’ll also check out the rocks on the west side of T or C. We hear there’s even more agate and picture rock there. Maybe we’ll brave a few of those rough roads deeper into the Caballos. Or visit Elephant Butte State Park, to the north. So many cool things to do here!

If you are a rock hound, the Caballos should definitely be on your list.