Sierra de las Uvas exploring - Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, New Mexico State Trust Lands

 

Scrub oak in the hidden valley

Another a couple of trips to the southwest side of the Sierra de las Uvas. The first was to an interstitial southwest to northeast running canyon in the northern half of Magdalena Ridge. One of the reasons I end up exploring this section of the Uvas so much is that the good county-maintained roads can be used to access remote areas and sometimes the actual starting points of my hikes. Unfortunately, other starting points, like the one for this hike north of Vail Tank, require short, but rough, trips on "roads" that are now being left to the whims of the elements. I went out to do this one on a Sunday afternoon and was rewarded with sunshine and mostly blue skies: a nice escape from the cloudy, dreary conditions that persisted over Las Cruces. Typical Uvas scenery dominated this walk: steep, flat-topped hills, with boulder strewn slopes sporting a sparse growth of juniper. The valley also had the desert crevasse type topography, which forced Seamus and I ever higher on the slopes on the way out in order to find a reasonable place to cross. I would like some insight into this phenomena if anyone has it. I'm sure overuse by livestock has something to do with it. 

I had parked at one tank, and further upstream at a second dam, there was a small foundation and early twentieth century debris scattered about. 

We walked and walked until the canyon got so narrow and the going got thick way back nearly at the very head, then we turned around and walked on the side opposite to the one we mostly came in on.  We were getting close to our vehicle, at the end of a long afternoon of steady hiking, when Seamus saw some deer before I did and was off over hill and dale despite my loud protestations. I always panic when I see him get so far away, so fast. He always returns of course, and these days, at nearly 11 years old, he comes sooner rather than later. He was a sore and stiff boy the next day.

The second trip was with friends to a small archaeological site with grindholes and a very few artifacts that is mostly on state land.  

 I got bored with puttering around  after awhile and so took off exploring around the flanks of Massacre Peak, on the return trip I stumbled into an area with all manner of cryptocrystalline quartz that had washed out of the cracks and crevices in the andesitic basalt and been deposited in the sandy flats. Whether this was a source area for stone point and tool makers, I don't know, but maybe. 

The trucks made plumes of dust like smoke from a prairie fire as we drove home at sunset.  I thought, it's got to rain someday soon. As easy as this area is to visit, I think I've overdone it a bit lately, so I may need to give a little rest, for the sake of variety.