Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument - Reed Arroyo, Sierra de las Uvas

 Looking north to Peloncillo Peak

 Sierra Alta Ranch house

I've been trying to get into and explore at least part of all the named arroyos ( as well as a few of the more interesting un-named ones) on the northeast side of the Sierra de las Uvas that flow directly to the Rio Grande. Over the years I've visited Horse, Rock, Hersey, Bignell, Angostura and Spring. Reed Arroyo which is in between Bignell and Angostura has been left out till recently because there just isn't any decent access to its middle reaches. Private property appears to block  walking upstream from NM185. From the Barksdale Road it's a long up and down hike in out of many arroyos that are always deeper than they look on Google Earth. There is a questionable road to a couple of cattle tanks that comes from the west which would be the closest of all but it necessitates driving down into and then in and then out of Angostura Arroyo and surely looks like a 4WD adventure that would be more trouble than it's worth.

 I saw a way recently at least to get to the upper end. A very old road, that is no longer on any maps but can be seen on satellite images leaves from County Road E005 was the ticket.

We made the drive out on Sunday (2/20/22). Parking was a little dicey but we found a shoulder wide enough just a  short way past our desired starting point. The massive Sierra Alta was behind us as we started up the road  which was just two cobblestone rows of red rock in the dried grass. 

At the top of the hill, we, friends Eric and Edan with daughter Sarah, and my wife and I looked down the steep descent to the upper branches of Reed Arroyo, which were little more than thin ravines of boulders and bedrock at this elevation. Eric went down and then my wife and I went down, but in a little while I was the only one  continuing downstream. We saw a beautiful fox run up the hillside, and hopefully we'll be seeing more as this is the last season of legal trapping on public lands in New Mexico.

  Shaggy junipers grew close to the stream course and at the first juncture of tributaries a truly stout one with impressive girth stood straight as a sentinel. No one else ventured down in the canyon with me, and I waved to Edan up on top and continued. From that point on it was rather un-remarkable. Some low cliffs, undulating bedrock where I could tell water gathered after rain or snow. I passed under one fence and continued on. Flushed out five or six heavy footed javelina but still continued on through a few more bends until I reached a second fence and thought " enough."  I hadn't covered much of Reed Arroyo but now the lower desert was creeping in, the wind was picking up, and as it really was obvious no one was coming down in the canyon, so I felt obligated not to have everyone waiting for me.

 I had all the food and water for my wife and I and hadn't really remembered until that moment. I had tried calling, but there was no service until I got out of the canyon. I muscled up over black rock and through a grove of junipers on a north facing slop.  Broke my hiking pole and found a sotol stalk for a replacement. My wife got through to me on the phone as I reached the top of the hill  and in a few moments I could see them all going over the crest of the ridge following a cow path and not the old road.

 After getting back to the vehicles, we drove a short ways down to the old Sierra Alta Ranch to turn around. Another tiny house in such a lonely place there on the side of Sierra Alta with an old bed spring for a gate and low fence wrapped tightly around it. Still, to be living there way back when seemed like a wonderful dream of life to me. NOTE: Sierra Alta Ranch house is on private property please be especially respectful of this fascinating place.