Selden Hills-Two More Canyons

 Unlike all my other forays into the Selden Hills, this one was almost entirely on BLM land.  I started off at the locked gate along the powerline road about 2 miles north of Radium Springs and began walking the fence line to the west. Shortly thereafter, I found a nice piece (1"x 2") of brown pottery that I thought perhaps good portent. Alas, I never found much more, but I did marvel as I usually do at the vast variety of pebbles and stones in the old river deposits I was walking upon.
 After about 20 minutes I began walking downstream in one of the larger arroyos, but quickly realized it wasn't the one I wanted, so I got out and continued a little bit farther west and soon I was in the one I did want. It had a sandy bottom with boulders here and there that had tumbled down the hill side. I got to the section I was most intrigued by after only 10 minutes or so. This area had many large boulders and a small rock tower as its centerpiece.

I explored up a narrow  side canyon on the south which had an extensive layer of vitrified basalt ( kind of like a low grade obsidian) at its base. This seem promising as a source of arrowhead and tool material for ancient people, but I never did see any place where it  been obviously excavated.  It may have been too brittle to use. The canyon ended abruptly at a high dry waterfall.

 
I headed further downstream in the main arroyo investigating one other side canyon, and leaving another for later, before deciding to head up to the ridge on the north. I had it in mind to cross over to second canyon to see if anything interesting awaited there. As I did I spied the remnant of an old dirt road that twisted and turned through these hills many, many years ago.
 I soon was overlooking the next canyon and went down to it steeply.

Unfortunately, before I could make it to the bottom. I encountered  a barbed wire fence. This one was pretty tight down low, which prompted me to make the (bad) decision to go over it at spot where a rock and gravel deposit had cut its height in half. That wasn't enough. I caught first my jeans, and as they ripped away, I felt the less than delightful sensation of a rusty barb plunging into my lower thigh. Somehow I managed to get my leg free before tumbling backward, landing hard on the rocks and gravel, and bruising my right forearm. I  couldn't see the wound but it didn't seem to be bleeding much. My jeans would hold out for the rest trip and truth be told I was just waiting for  excuse ( and the huge rip provided it) to throw them away anyhow.  I would get a tetanus shot the next day just to be on the safe side.
I walked a little further down hill and found a place to go under. Walking upstream in the canyon I found little of interest, and soon was making my into a smaller  tributary arroyo on the south to make my way back.
 I had the notion now that I was back in the original canyon to investigate the side canyon left behind. I followed my footprints downstream. This other little tributary canyon was not nearly as intriguing as I had imagined it was when viewing it from a distance and thinking I was leaving it for another day.  Then, it seemed to contained mysterious overhangs and high cliffs, but in actuality it was small and pretty blah.  Oh well.  I climbed to its top and then I began walking back toward the fence taking one last look at the canyons from the top of the dry waterfall I had stood at the bottom of a few hours earlier.