There is no Broad Canyon Ranch State Park yet . I volunteered there a couple of years ago pulling out the old barbed wire fencing. There has also been a willow planting project and that's about it. It still just looks like an abandoned ranch along the Rio Grande. The gate is closed and locked. This little hike is on west side of NM 185 in the vicinity of Broad Canyon. That's all I'll say. If you use Google Earth, you'll be able spot the slot canyon pretty easily and know how to proceed. I didn't really know where it was, and had intended to go on the Southwest Environmental Center's Back Before Noon hike to the canyon a couple of weeks ago. I was renting a place near Humboldt Mountain( see blog) doing the Allie Canyon hike( see blog) instead. The hardest part of this little hike is climbing the gate. The slot canyon section of this nameless arroyo is pretty short- less than 1/2 mile I would say, but it is a true slot- something we don't really have that many of down in the southern half of the state.I would estimate its maximum depth is somewhere between 65 and 80 feet, and its minimum width is between 3 and 4 feet. It was very dark in the middle sections even at high noon. It was a blast walking the sinuous, meandering path. We saw a large raptor nest in one of the many alcoves above us. There were millions of large (2 inches plus!)dead grasshoppers in the sandy bottom providing a rather pungent smell, which was only mildly unpleasant.We kept craning our necks looking up at the winding crack of blue sky. The walls were rough waves of rusty conglomerate. Emerging on the west side, we explored the upper regions of the large, wide arroyo which funnels into and has carved the slot. Our dogs chased a jackrabbit. We soaked up the sun before heading back into the cool, cavernous watercourse. A beautiful desert day.
Once again, you've really perked up my appreciation of southern NM.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Alex
alex@vertikoff.com
Awesome! I love the slots- glad to hear about another one!
ReplyDeleteI looked for this canyon recently but didn't find it. Gate was easy enough to find. Looking at google earth before setting out, I thought I had found it, but it was just a trick of the shadows. I had a great hike anyway and ran into a large band of javelinas--great to see them. Thanks for your blog--love it.
ReplyDelete--John Anderson
If you walk back to the south you will come to an arroyo. Follow it to southwest and then west.
ReplyDeleteWe just moved here from Va. We are trying to find great rocks, canyons, formations in our ( back yard ) We moved into Faulkner Canyon, Our property runs to the BLM gate into Faulkner canyon on the left. The last house on the left. Off of 185 in Radium Springs. We are not far from Broad Canyon, But we are in our 60"s and I am partially crippled to walk, so we ride horses. We can enter from trails over the hills from back in the canyon, but I would like to know if you could direct us to the slots from where we are.
ReplyDeletemy email is ... peanut2339@yahoo.com and I am Gloria Hager on Facebook.
We just got back from this spectacular hike today. What an amazing, hidden gem! We've filed this one away for future use to take visiting family to.
ReplyDeleteSo, my wife was worried about the stability if the canyon. The walls are made of compacted sand. Even though it is hard to the touch, it does look like somehow...a sand castle?
ReplyDeleteI told her we should be more worried of a flash flood, but I wonder if a geologist reading this can help us figure out, how old is this slot canyon? How stable it is? I know there is a risk of having stones falling on your head, that's pretty obvious. I wonder if this potential hazard has played a role in preventing the state from turning this beauty into an official attraction.
Well, the conglomerate rock the slot is cut in what appears to be the layers of solidified gravels and sands of the ancestral Rio Grande. It's not very old geologically for sure. It is fairly hard, but also brittle and friable ( I wouldn't whack at it with sledge hammer). The slot canyon does seem to be more stable than many formations nearby, perhaps from the cementing properties of the minerals in the water that has passed through it, but it's good we're not in an earthquake prone area. The slot may be very young indeed, as some have speculated that what appears to a small dam on the west end diverted the natural flow of the arroyo and began easily eroding the sediments cutting through in a short time.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason most of the slots in the southern New Mexico are cut in one kind of conglomerate sedimentary formation or another ( see my blogs about Skates Canyon, Lake Roberts slot canyons, Robledo Mountains "Twin" slot canyons, Bobcat Canyon). Some are older, some are harder. I think the state park's inaction is just more or less how they operate. I contacted them a couple of years ago, and they acted like they were going to get together with State Trust lands people and the BLM to work out having a trail and official trailhead. Friends of the OMDPNM even did a survey of the trail route and submitted a plan to do a long term lease for right of way. I don't know what's become of any of this at this point, but whether the slot was safe or un-safe never came as a consideration at any time, although it certainly could at some point in the future. It's much safer, than say, scrambling around the Organ Mountains, which people are doing with almost as much frequency as visiting the slot canyon.
The slot is caliche. It has probably been there thousands of yrs. To attain that depth. The only fear I would have would be flash flooding if there was a rainstorm in the area.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that this is a caliche horizon, or at least not entirely so . You can see the repeated layers of deposition either from fluvial or alluvial processes throughout the slot. Caliche layers usually form an impermeable " caprock" which is not easily eroded. There are cases with multiple layers of ancient caliche-fied soils, but I don't think this is that situation either.
ReplyDelete