Gallinas Creek (FT 795) - Gila National Forest

 Forest Trail 795 is short, right around a half-mile, but it brings you to a very sweet place: the secluded, seldom visited lower reaches of Gallinas Creek.  Once you are at the bottom, the trail ends but feel free explore either up or downstream. Wildlife and livestock paths show up here and there, but mostly you are on your own to choose the route that suits you. I've visited here before, but I did the treacherous climb around the waterfall that's just a short way downstream from the now closed ( to camping and vehicles) Lower Gallinas Campground. The trail is nicer and much safer.
 The trailhead sign, on the south side of NM 152 about 1.4 miles west of the campground, is a little confusing as it points up the hill, instead of down the little canyon. Just find the gate in the barbed wire fence which is to the east of the sign. There is enough room to crawl under, which is what we did, if you don't feel like opening and closing it.
The trail, like most in the Black Range, does not receive a lot of maintenance.  It's easy to follow, but there are some partial washouts, and some pretty steep descents. Part way down is a spring with a bathtub-sized watering trough. The trough was full, and the spring as well as the little canyon it flows into both had a trickle of water.

 Otherwise it's typical Gila dry country walk on a south facing slope with junipers, scrub oak and piñons. We could hear the creek flowing when we were still high above it, but soon we were at the bottom with the tea colored stream, accented by a bit of whitewater here and there, rushing along at a good tilt.

All the many crossings, as we marched downstream, were wet ones. Our short-legged Scotties did some balking at first, but soon they were used to the whole thing and made their way slowly and carefully through the water, after which they  had to make a big show of shaking and rubbing in the sand and grass.  When we got to a very narrow section, about a mile from where we hit the creek,  with rock walls coming right down to the stream, we turned around. On the way back, we hiked for a  bit upstream from the trail junction. I scrambled all the way to the little falls, while Andrea and the dogs stayed back. It gets pretty thick with willows and boulders, and very narrow  the closer you get, but I was glad I did just to see it really gushing into the deep pool below.
The weather had remained cool and bit breezy on this beautiful sunny Sunday, so it was an easy climb out for us and our dogs. It was a perfect spring day, and so lovely to see so much water in the stream.  It was probably close to what an average flow used to be for this time of year, but nowadays it just doesn't happen all that often.