Valley of Fires, Chupadera Mesa

We camped at Valley of Fires for the third time. We were lucky to nab the number 1 spot on Thursday afternoon, because there were plenty of folks coming and going over the next 2 days. We like this spot and the number 2 because they have some tree cover, which is in short supply. It was pretty warm, but not unbearable and we did a couple of walks on the Lava Flow trail before the sunset. It was a night full of stars coming after a beautiful sunset.

 The next morning we set out for Chupadera Mesa, which is really an extension of the Oscura Mountains on the north side of US 380. I had seen on Google Earth an intriguing wrinkle of a canyon that cuts through mesa that looked like it might have interesting geology. It also appeared to have a good number of trees and might be narrow enough to hold a little water. Well, I couldn't find the road that was about 25 miles west of the campground, so I had to backtrack to the road that was 2 miles  to the east. Even though we only had around 6 or 7 miles to our starting point,  the driving took close to an hour. The route is not only  circuitous, but rough as well.We finally parked near  Wash Hale Well, where there were ruins of an old homestead.
We took off cross-country and soon hooked up with the road that heads into Wash Hale Canyon. We quickly realized it was warmer than we wanted for ourselves and our very black dogs, but we persevered, at least for awhile. In the center of canyon was a long "rib" a hundred feet high, of what I believe was a granitic gneiss, and on the sides of canyon were places where the sedimentary rocks had been altered. I wish I had been able to read up on or see a geological map of the area so I could've better understood what I was looking at. If you are someone in the know, clue me in.


 Unfortunately the trees were all low growing piñons and junipers and didn't provide much shade. We had gotten late start to our walking so the noon hour was also rapidly upon us. We tried getting off the road and into a couple a little canyons, but they were too small to negotiate. As we continued on the road to where it left the canyon and began to  level out, we realized that without shade, there was little point in continuing, so we turned around. Oh well. You never know until you go, and if you do, save this one for much cooler weather.