I did a short outing to the Doña Ana Mountains unit of OMDPNM on Saturday morning. Not a whole lot to report, except for some garish graffiti on some boulders along the powerline road, and, once I had gotten away from that sight, I was happy to find another very scenic nook in what I always find is a very scenic little group of desert mountains.
Climbing up a steep ravine to a pass that overlooks the Rio Grande valley, there were twisted ancient junipers and mule deer trails tucked beneath the shadows of towers and cliffs. Sliding back down while using the two sticks that had aided me in my ascent , I realized it was even steeper than I had thought, and nearly had sit down and scoot to manage on the slippery gravel. As it turns out it was about a 400 foot elevation change in less than a 1/2 mile.
Along the way up and on the way back down, I wandered around the boulders and inspected the ground fruitlessly for some artifact, grinding hole or petroglyph in my quest to find some significant evidence of ancient peoples on the national monument lands of the Doña Anas. I've been thinking, the rest of the range is blessed with so much, so there's bound to be something to find on the BLM lands, but so far not a lot.
One frustrating aspect of looking for artifacts here is that there are several rock types that are dead ringers for common types of plain pottery sherds found in our region. After reaching down and picking them up for about the 20th time, only to be fooled again, I just stopped looking.
It was nice to be out in the blue skies and warm breezes.
There is a site north of the main road after heading west from the powerline road. Some faint paintings here too.
ReplyDeleteI've been to that site I think ( see my blog from February, 2017). It is on the NMSU's property, although I wish it were on the national monument.
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