Florida Mountains Wilderness Study Area - Owl Canyon

South Peak

South Peak

Tres Hermanas Mountains in the distance

old junipers

Above the box falls

box section

rock tower that was my constant companion

South Peak from NM 11

East Branch of Owl Canyon

Hackberries

This canyon is on the south end of the Florida Mountains.  It has no name on maps, but I've seen it referred to as Owl Canyon in a couple of places. I parked way too far away as is my frequent habit. The road actually improved greatly beyond where I stopped, I discovered on the return hike. I went cross-country on the way out negotiating my way through a virtual catclaw forest and going up down cobble-clad washes until reaching the escarpment of bare  brown rock mounds that come down to meet the desert floor.

 I found my canyon, which resembled a gravel road at this point and then I moved on to the east and into the box section.  

Getting out of the box section at the back was more than a little dicey. My choices were going under a huge boulder at the dry waterfall, or clawing my way up a steep (and I mean steep) wildlife path through the rock. I chose the path but it wasn't a good choice. The dry waterfall definitely wasn't. On my return trip I realized there was trail of sorts that takes off from the end of the road and bypasses both of these options quite nicely.

 I continued on, stomping the sand and gravel, weaving through and sometimes walking on the many boulders. A dilapidated fence was brief obstacle. Eventually, I came to a little grove of hackberries growing on the bank and followed the deer path that threaded its way through them. 

Shortly after I came to the first dry waterfall, which was dry, but when I made my around it I soon found the barest trickle of water silently running in the cracks of the bedrock. 

I continued up and up, easy walking on the bedrock now. At the second falls, I had to side step my way around huge boulder, while avoiding getting the bottoms of shoes wet from barest of slicks coming down the mountain.

 I made it up to a third high, very steep falls that was once again dry with just the white mineral residue staining the nearly black rock.

It's all intrusive igneous here but with xenoliths and crazy pinkish veins running everywhere through the groundmass of gray granite.

 I love getting back into these canyons of the Floridas. They are quietly majestic and I find it hard to put into words the spell the towers, cliffs, cascades and falls put upon me. The junipers, growing ancient, twisted and huge ( at least compared to those growing out in the open hillsides) in the near perpetual shadows of the peaks, bring me joy as if I was meeting a beloved person from history.

 I lingered for awhile.

 I headed back down. I found the trail just past a wilderness study are marker, that led me to the road which I followed all the way back to the truck.

 There were poppies here and there. Not many, but nice just the same