Be careful where you now pick up rocks. Much of Arizona will now be
off limits to any kind of collectting as the new National Monuments
are being activated. The monument people goals are to save the
areas. Save them from who and for what still remain unanswered. You
can bet that if you are caught collecting a rock in any of these
monuments you will be treated like a criminal. Also jumping off a
cliff may be considered activity inconsistent with the theme of the
monument and also may be criminal. It seems now Rock Hounds are
crimiinals.
I was in the Painted desert and the Petrified Forrest this past
summer and let me tell you, there were warnings everywhere not to
pick up rocks or pet/wood. The simple fact is that so many people
have taken small tokens over the decades that things like petrified
wood have been impacted in HUGE ammounts, as in literally TONS of
stone and rock have been removed from Nat.Monuments. They are
saving it for us and for our grandchildren’s grandchildren to see
and appreciate.
It has long been verboten to rockhound inside the petrified forest.
Rightly so. Way back when, collectors and dealers destroyed many of
the logs, dynamiting them open indiscriminately in hopes of finding
logs with crystal vugs. Had the area not been put under protection,
there might not be much of it to see today.
You can get petrified wood aplenty, either at the many local
rockshops in Holbrook or by traveling south a bit on 77 from
Holbrook. Take the Woodruff turnoff from 77 drive 3-4 miles, and
just get out and start rockhounding. The limit per day is 25 lbs
per day, 250 lbs per year.