Good Sight (Goodsight) Mountains

Amazing dam that's over 80 years old

The Good Sight Mountains. The" mountains"part may be a bit of  a misnomer. With the exception of the range's only two named summits, Nutt Mountain and Good Sight Peak, most of the Good Sight uplift is made up of low, dome-like hills sparsely covered with bunch grasses and creosote. Approaching from the east on Luna County AO -21, the rise is only a few hundred feet over about 4 miles. The western face however, is quite steep in places along the ridge's 25 or so miles and a few choice canyons worthy of a look await the explorer.
 I've been out to the range just three other times. Once to climb Good Sight Peak, a second  time the next day to try and find a jacket left behind, and a third time when we did a walk down the road to Stinson Well for a couple of miles before the wind forced us to do the rest of our exploring in our vehicle.
This time I was driving down the road to Stinson Well, and parked about a 1/2 mile east of the well with it's abandoned cattle chute, empty water tank, broken refrigerator, but still working solar panels  running a pump pouring a trickle of water on the ground. I hiked southwest past it  up the east flowing shallow wash. At the top I crossed over into a much more rugged watercourse carved into the volcanic bedrock. Down and down I went, around a few dry falls, and through a couple of narrow passages until I found myself among some willows at the back of a dam.


 Although the dam was only about 10 feet high on the side of the mostly silted in tank, when I climbed to the top, I was looking down a  vertigo inducing straight drop of at least 50 feet, and out to a spectacular jagged slot  which opened up  to distant cliffs  rimming a large desert mountain valley.


 
Like, my hike to the Rattlesnake Hills the week before the scenery was already exceeding my expectations. Now, I decided to climb up and around on the hill to my right, which had fairly easy way up, but after I'd walked along  awhile I realized had no quick or easy way down. I eventually found a steep, rocky, but not undoable passage  to the canyon bottom, where I immediately began making my way upstream through the boulders.  I was stopped by deep pool of black water a short ways below the dam I had just been standing on.

 There were  sheltering ledges and alcoves along both sides of the narrowest part of the canyon. I explored a couple but the largest one seemed a little bit too dicey for someone on a solo hike.  I hiked downstream now passing a few soapberry trees, heading for the confluence with the narrow canyon that comes in from east. On more or less level ground, my toe caught a root or branch and I  fell forward, landing hard on my knees on two very hard rocks. It really, really hurt, but nothing, thankfully, had been broken or torn.
 I had to go under a fence which is most likely the demarcation between private and BLM land, and shortly thereafter I was at the confluence. There were good sized scrub oak and junipers along the banks as I walked downstream just far enough to where the main stem of canyon opened up for a distant view of the Florida Mountains.

I turned around began heading up the eastern branch. As always I'm keeping look out for  ancient pottery, stone tools, flint flakes etc.,but except for a very few flakes of locally derived agate, there wasn't much to report. I did notice a couple of more alcoves high up on canyon's north hillside, but it seemed like a lot of effort and a long detour for an investigation that would probably yield nothing. I wished I had a teenager or college student I could just dispatch with a " go see what's up there."

 As the canyon constricted the juniper and oak got bigger and thicker. I came upon a concrete watering trough  and storage cistern, both in good repair and then I noticed the sections of heavy iron pipe that once led to them, broken and strewn about the dry creek bed below me.

Watering trough no longer used

 I got a glimpse of another large dam, that once backed up a small pond, that supplied water to the pipe.  I scrambled among the boulders to get a better look and a picture  of the beautifully constucted dam.

Second dam

I had just put the i-phone back in the front pocket when a golden eagle flew out, from where I'm not exactly sure, passed over about 15 feet from the top of my head. This was my second close encounter with one of these gigantic birds, and  the second time it took my breath away. But wait, there's more. I continued to scramble up closer to the dam, when I see a second one on a natural cliff just below the dam and about 25 feet in front of me. I got the phone out  to try and snap a photo, when I just gotten to the position where I was around some juniper branches that were blocking my shot, it took to the air, and all I got was a distant pic of its backside and wings.
 Oh well. Photo or not it was still the highlight of a hike that had gone beyond my expectations. I retreated back to the concrete trough and ate my lunch, somehow hoping they would return if  I waited quietly and calmly. Afterwards, I gathered my stuff and headed up a  small side canyon on the south to get  around the dam. At the top were the barely visible remnants of an abandoned road that had been  built just for construction of the dam. There were also wonderful views down the zigs and zags of the canyon walls and beyond all the way to Cooke's Peak.
 
The dry pond behind this dam was almost entirely filled with gravel and sand, and there was no easy way to get down to it, so I continued along until I could safely make my way down into the canyon again. As I backtracked once I did, I quickly came upon second smaller dam, and that was all she wrote. It was too high, and the natural pool of water below in the shadows was too deep and too cold, so I headed upstream.

Along the way I continued to look for rock art as I always do, but truth be told the rock throughout the hike had been all  wrong. It was volcanic breccia and conglomerate welded with a grayish ash that  closely resembled concrete. Only the occasional large boulder within the matrix would have provided a decent surface. I did find a couple of images along  banks above the creek eventually, though they were hardly a bonanza.



 
I turned back to the northeast as  canyon shallowed up and went cross country through the low rising hills. Crossing a swale, with a gentle wind blowing( that would turn into a gale the next day), I thought  about what an utterly peaceful place this was on this warm winter afternoon. It wasn't always so.  Several canyons to the south of where I stood, back in the year 1880, a battle took place between the forces of  Apache chief Victorio and U.S. Army
 I  walked over a low saddle, and then picked up an old road that led back to Stinson Well. I spotted a good sized buck and a smaller deer, that had most likely just availed themselves of the puddle of water there. They gave me a long look before traveling on.
NOTE: Although not posted,  portions of this hike cross inholdings of private property. Also, it's a nice idea to have a New Mexico State Trust Lands recreation permit as there is quite a bit of state land mixed in with the BLM out here.