South Fork Palomas Creek Slot Canyon - Ladder Ranch

We continued on upstream in South Palomas and quickly ran into some trouble with the mud on one crossing after another.The creek had receded but must have been running high in the past week, wetting the clay which refused to dry out in these shady stretches. In between nearly getting stuck several times we visited a huge stream side boulder that had several petroglyphs on its sides and two shallow grinding mortars on top.

Finally the narrow passage through the big trees ended as the stream valley opened up into a long, wide, weedy meadow. We rolled along the banks and crossed the now dry creek on the way to our next destination: the slot canyon on the north side of South Palomas that I had spied on Google Earth several years ago.
 We stopped at  an old homestead with a pond in front. It was an adobe, but had a  concrete foundation, which to my mind put its origins sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. The day had warmed up considerably, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Sunshine, blue skies, and low humidity were  still the order of the day.

 We lunched at the mouth of the slot in the shade of scrub oaks and then headed up. At first there were many trees: walnut, live oaks, juniper and box elder pressed against the the walls of conglomerate, but as the canyon  narrowed most of the plant life disappeared.

 We had to scramble up a couple of pinched-in spots with small chockstones. There was a little water at both. Along the way we looked down  a very narrow side canyon on our left. Although I wanted to explore it, it was going to take some real scrambling, that we really didn't have time for.
 After about a half-mile we came to 20 foot water fall that was the end of line. Once again since I was on the clock and the most reasonable option would be to backtrack and go overland along the hillsides to access the upper reaches, I had to leave it, and begin to head back.

 This was a nice little canyon, but I would still like to explore more of it.
 Back at our vehicle, our guide suggested going to  another homestead at the mouth of the South Palomas Box( Hermosa Box) and also visit the boundary of the ranch where an Apache, US Army battle had taken place.
A path out the back of the  cabin led to the lush ( with huge alders) but nearly dry canyon bottom, where I encountered a very healthy ( as in well fed) rattler, who was very polite in providing a very vigorous buzzing when I was four or five feet away.


Afterwards, we headed back down South Palomas, but exited up a side canyon to south, to avoid  dealing with the mud again. Back up on the mesa tops, we stopped for a few photo ops of the vast rangeland with the peaks of the Black Range far in the distance.

We also paused for some bison watching. It occurred to me that it was absolute insanity to bring cattle to the West when there were already millions and millions of meat (as well as hides, furs and more) providing animals already there.
The wind had really picked up in the afternoon, which made the  drive in the the open vehicle, in open country a little loud, and more than a little dusty.

We ended our day almost 9 hours after we started back at ranch headquarters. This one trip had certainly whetted my appetite to return, and I certainly intend on asking for our wonderful guide Robert again.
 NOTE: The Ladder Ranch is private property. Access is only through guided tours. Contact the Sierra Grande Lodge in T or C for more information.