Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument- Sierra de las Uvas

 

Brilliant yellow lichen

 My scotties think about getting a drink

This was another hike on the long branch (arm?, tail?) that extends south for several miles from the main body of the Sierra de las Uvas. It is sometimes referred to as Magdalena Ridge probably because of Magdalena Gap, a pass where the Butterfield Trail went through.  We started at the Apache Flats valley on the west side of the ridge near a windmill and cattle tank and began hiking up an old very un-maintained road. It was a little chilly at first but soon turned into a beautiful, warm and mostly windless winter day. Once on top of the ridge we left the road and crossed over to the lip of little canyon rimmed with large boulders. I had been wanting to take a look at these rocks for  awhile now, as many similar areas that border Apache Flats have petroglyphs and other archaeological evidence of past peoples.

 Massacre Peak and Florida Mountains in the distance

 Well I didn't find any of that, but the boulders were fun to explore anyway. Next we got down off the ridge to  hike part ways up a long tributary valley to the Flats. Nothing in the way of petroglyphs or artifacts was forthcoming in this area either, but we did find one oddity.  It was natural pool of water, not created by any kind of dam that I could see. We've had quite a bit of rain lately, and since the pool, didn't appear to be leaking into the arroyo bed, I assume it normally dries up solely through evaporation, which might take little while. It was hard to tell because of the murky water, but it had to be over a foot deep, maybe closer to two in some places.

The pool

 We did find a few metal artifacts along the way that were the same as ones we have found at another WW II bombing target. We didn't walk through a target area but there is one visible on Google Earth just to south of the old road we were on.

 I still want to explore the rest of that little valley and maybe  crossover to the other side and back to do a little lollipop loop, but that will have to wait for another day.