New Mexico gem trails and Arizona gem trails are old books which provide directions to places where collectors can find interesting gems and minerals. Both books were first published many years ago and many of the locations they describe are no longer available.
However, there are still lots of opportunities to have fun collecting interesting things in the wide open spaces in the Arizona and New Mexico back country. For example, you can get into big trouble if you pick up petrified wood in the National Park. However, it is common along the roads outside of the park. We once entered the park with a whole compartment of the camper filled with petrified wood the kids had picked up earlier. The park ranger put a seal on the compartment and all was fine.
For those of you who live in parts of the USA with high population density it may be hard to believe how wide open parts of NM and AZ can be. If you are willing to get away from the major parks, cities, and tourist attractions there are thousands of acres where you and the kids can explore for days without seeing other people. Since the climate is so dry the rocks are not all hidden by grass or trees so they are easy to find. If you bring along a good mineral identification book you can have a great time finding "Treasures" and learning about the local geology.
We have lots of happy memories from those days, some of which are funny. We were visiting the Tent Rocks area west of the Cochiti indian pueblo (NM) with my brother in law and his wife and two small boys from Chicago. The tent rocks are pumice/tuffa mounds created with an old volcano erupted millions of years ago. These layers also contain bits of obsidian (Black glass) embedded in them. As they have eroded the obsidian washes out and can be found laying on the surface in the low areas. The pieces we were finding were tiny (1/4 the size of a peanut or smaller) but the kids still thought it was a treasure hunt. Since the obsidian pieces were common they got lots of "Success" but still had to pay attention. They got excited and were shouting back and forth so their mother said "Hey guys, hold it down. You're disturbing other people." We then explained there are no other people. If they shout at the top of their lungs the only ones who might hear are us and perhaps a few cows.
All this assumes you (and the kids) don't mind being disconnected from TV, Radio and your cell phone. When you get that far away from "civilization" these services may, or may not be available.
The "Gems" you find are not especially valuable, but they will polish well and can be tumbled into very pretty stones. Some would even be worth cutting and mounting in jewely.
It seems like bringing the information from these books up to date with current pictures, directions, online maps might be a lot of fun to do and helpful to collectors interested in gems, rocks and minerals.