Broad Canyon Wilderness-Rattlesnake Hills, Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument

 We drove out to Kimball Place along Broad Canyon again on Sunday where we started out on our Coyote Canyon hike a few weeks ago. This time though we headed west up a nameless arroyo that runs through the Rattlesnake Hills, a small collection of hills and side canyons that sits in a wide section of the Broad Canyon basin. It was pleasant walking up the sandy wash, where soon the steep hillsides shielded us from the morning wind.

We explored a long, flat bench on the southside for any evidence of ancient peoples. All we could find were a very few flakes of jasper and chert, and a couple of larger chunks of obsidian that had appearance of being transported from another location.
 At the narrowest part of canyon, fantastic conglomerate boulders collected, and we speculated how great they would  look cut and polished as our new patio.  A very few hackberry trees welcomed us to our picnic spot between two outsized boulders on either side of stream bed.  I climbed around a bit exploring alcoves where critters live, keeping an eye out for a stray bit of ancient pottery but finding none.

 Moving on we came to the only exposure of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks for miles around, an unusual site for sure in the sea of volcanic rock that composes the Cedar Hills and the Sierra de las Uvas. Near the western contact the beds are nearly vertical. On the north hillside above the canyon was a jagged volcanic wall, and I thought how the scenery of this little canyon far exceeded my expectations.

Fault line

Eventually the canyon opened up completely into a flatland of meandering washes punctuated with a few isolated cuesta hills. Now we cut back to the southeast over purple blue andesite gravels, where only creosote seemed to want to grow, toward Broad Canyon, using cow paths on the banks to avoid the rough walking in the arroyo itself. The day had gotten quite warm for mid- January and we welcomed the shade of the cliffs and boulders of the mini red rock box, while we admired the many nests and resting spots of birds of prey. Underneath one were many, many tiny bones of their meals.

 We explored up  a  hidden side canyon that ran up into the main body of the hills, rested among the boulders and then headed back out to Broad Canyon, the Kimball Place and our 4Runner.