First-day road log, from Lordsburg to Ruth Mine (Lordsburg district) to Twelve Mile Hill to Rock House Canyon (Pyramid Mountains) to Burgett's Greenhouses (Animas Valley) to Steins (Peloncillo Mountains)
— V. T. McLemore, W. C. McIntosh, and J. W. Hawley

The first day of the field conference in the Pyramid Mountains examines the difference in magmatic style between the Laramide and mid-Tertiary igneous rocks in southwestern New Mexico. Composite andesite volcanoes with associated intermediate silicic plutons, dikes, and sills dominate the Laramide systems. Large calderas, which erupted rhyolite ignimbrites (ash-flow tuffs) and lavas that are locally interbedded with andesite flows, characterize the mid-Tertiary systems. Stop 1 will be at the Ruth mine, a Laramide polymetallic vein deposit in the Lordsburg district where we will examine the style of mineralization and alteration, and also examine the intrusive relationships of a dacite dike in andesite. We will proceed along the Animas Road to Twelve Mile Hill at Stop 2 where we will have an overview of mid-Tertiary volcanism and caldera activity in Hidalgo County and examine a sequence of ash-flow tuffs erupted from three different calderas. Lunch at Stop 3 will be in Rock House Canyon, where we will have the unique opportunity to enjoy one of the hidden canyons of the Pyramid Mountains and examine more ash-flow tuffs near the northern margin of the Muir caldera. After lunch, we will travel to the Burgett Floral Greenhouses for Stop 4 and observe geothermal resources in action. The tour route between stops 4 and 5 crosses the lower fan delta of ancestral Animas Creek and the floor of pluvial Lake Animas, with its shorelines and Holocene playa-lake features. The first day will end at Stop 5 at the historic town of Steins (pronounced Steens), on the edge of the Steins caldera, for a barbecue dinner.