Silva Canyon - Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, Sierra de las Uvas

 I've been wanting to explore this huge boulder field below the flanks of the upper plateau of the Sierra de las Uvas ever since I explored much of  upper drainage of Silva Canyon a couple of years ago. Although the north branch  and the west branch of the canyon, both of which are dammed at Silva Tank on the west side of the Corralitos Road,  look like the the contiuation of Silva Canyon, topo maps  denote  the west branch( which turns north eventually) as Silva, so for the purposes of this blog the decision has been made.
Two years ago  I started on the plateau top and went down and around, up and down, exploring the uppermost  arroyos.I came upon grinding mortars, a few petroglyphs and a small blackened alcove, but had to turn around before I could explore all the way down to the road. This time I started, after pulling off the  paved road a short ways, at the bottom and began exploring upstream. I stayed on the north bank going from boulder to huge boulder, many of which seemed absolutely ripe for finding some rock art,but found none. I did find a a few small mortar holes ( cupules, they are called I later learned) under one with an overhang. I might have thought it was an odd natural formation, but for the fact that they were quite smooth.

 Eventually, we started walking in the boulder strewn arroyo itself. We looked up at six deer as they made their way effortlessly up the sheer rocky hillside. A loner red cow trotted off at our arrival. The cliffs above had many small caves and alcoves. These, when broken off, were the odd empty shell boulders we were seeing everywhere.


 
 We got up on the mesa above the arroyo for our return trip. My fantasies  of finding an undiscovered ancient village site went unfulfilled, but the fact that I've found two different rock art sites out here by accident keeps me ever hopeful. Back at the house, I began looking at more places to explore. Perhaps the section of Silva on the east side of the road or maybe Coyote Canyon will be next.