Faulkner Side Canyons - Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument

 We did this pleasant hike using yet another pair of side branches of Faulkner Canyon.  This time we chose a couple on the west side, most of which are less dramatic than those on the east. The one we walked going out was  nicely scenic with intriguing rock formations.
The other was open and monotonous, and ended up being kind of trudge in the thick sand as we headed back on yet another warm winter day. The first canyon would make nice loop with the Upper Faulkner Box Canyon which is just one canyon further south, and was also where we had a shady picnic between the walls of its narrowest reaches.

Southwest Canyon- Gila National Forest

As it was going to be a sunny 75 degrees down here in our desert, we headed up to the Gila's Black Range to do a wintertime forest hike. Originally, we were heading up and over Emory Pass to Lower Gallinas, when I remembered I've been wanting to do a hike in Southwest Canyon which  is less than a mile from Kingston. This option had the distinct advantage of not having to negotiate the worst of the twist and turns of NM 152 .
I drove past the old road I had scoped out many months ago that would provide easy access to the canyon,but we quickly found it after turning around. We parked just off the highway, but there is parking at some nice dispersed camping spots just a short ways down the road to the south. Initially we crossed the creek  and investigated an old mine or gravel pit, but then began heading upstream. The canyon bottom was quite narrow through almost the entire stretch we hiked, and well forested with large piñons and junipers on the south facing slopes, and douglas firs and larger pines on the north facing side. Along the creek there were deciduous and evergreen oaks, ash, boxelder and a few walnut,but my inspection of the fallen leaves found bigtooth maple lacking.

 Early  on we saw an animal clinging to small pine ahead of us. At first I thought it was raccoon,but as it escaped up the hillside, I realized it was a coatimundi. When the Scotties reached the spot, their sniffers went wild, and from then on they were continually trying to pull  us up the hillside to pursue the wild beastie.

 We then came to section of  frozen creek which the dogs enjoyed walking on, but the humans tried to avoid as much as possible. Further above, were several spring areas, with the many smells of all the animals that have come to drink, which Seamus and Nessie found extremely interesting as well.
 
The canyon was shady and cool, what we had come for, but when it came time for our picnic we found some warm bedrock in the sun. Afterwards we came upon one of the few open areas: a lovely sloping meadow of  golden grass and junipers on the creek's north side.
















Although we occasionally would hear cars along  NM 152, which was never more than a few hundred feet away, we were in our own little forest paradise, and hardly paid them any mind. As the canyon steepened, we climbed up,over and around a  series of small. trickling waterfalls carved into  what appeared to be limestone bedrock. The last and tallest was about 15 feet high. I climbed around and above that one, while Andrea and the dogs waited and rested. Shortly thereafter the  highway guardrail came into view and canyon made  right turn towards a culvert and it's uppermost branch on the north side of NM 152.

It felt like a rare spring day with blue sky and no wind, even thought it was only the first week of February. I was glad to see the creek had smidgen of water, but scared about the continuing dry conditions in the Gila this year.
 We were very happy to have come, and on the return trip we stopped for a glass of wine on the deck at Shattuck Vineyard in Caballo. We  admired the view of Caballo Mountains, and reminisced  about our many adventures there. It was perfect cap to a beautiful day.

Garfield Canyon- Caballo Mountains

We did this hike this past Sunday from late morning into the afternoon. We realized it was too warm for the last weekend of January very early on when in the first mile we were already bemoaning the lack of shade for our panting pups. The wide wash at the beginning of the hike was lined with acacia and desert willow with occasional hackberry as well, all of course leafless in the dead of our desert winter, no matter how unseasonably warm. In the second mile we entered the box section that started with jumbly cliffs of marine paleozoic  rocks. Huge boulders had pushed out onto the hillsides, and many more seemed  about to be squeezed out by the layers above. In the creek bottom there were tilted beds of limestone bedrock containing many indistinct fossils.

 On  our way we went, through several bends, using the little used road on the  benches at times.  A bushy tailed gray fox climbed up the cliffs.Views opened up to a tempting side canyon, and the rocky peaks that rose high above it.  We had our picnic where cliffs plunged into the creek bed at just the right angle to provide deep and welcome shade where the temps were easily 10 or more degrees cooler. We saw a  black metal sign for the "Olskool" 4x4 trail and as we continued on, some wooden stakes cemented in the hillside that may have been mining claim markers. The canyon got smaller and now seemed to cut through rocks that  had been altered extensively by secondary processes.  A few more bends and we called it a day and turned back.

 This  is the second hike we've done investigating the several arroyos that cut through the southern end of the Caballos. The first one was in Green Canyon that we did a couple of years ago. In the future, Mcleod and Broadhurst arroyos await exploration. Unfortunately the sun's path through the sky seemed to be perfectly aligned with the canyon which made the return trip equally as hot as the walk in, but we made it back, almost out of water, but in good shape.
NOTE: This was a nice hike but the road that accesses it is strictly high clearance 4 wheel drive.