Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument - Angostura Arroyo walkabout

Angostura Arroyo tributary

Hackberry trees

Near the confluence of the tributary and the main arroyo.

Rough passage.

Angostura Arroyo

Conglomerate boulder

Looking down Angostura. Redhouse Mtn. in the distance.

Looking across Angostura to Sierra Alta

This rough little hike took two outings to complete my planned route. We had started it one afternoon a few months ago in early December, but didn't have enough daylight to finish.  I went out solo in March to finish it off. The highlight of the March trip was the conglomerate cliffs in the lower end of  Angostura's tributary on the north. Barn owls flew out a couple of the larger alcoves. This area looked more intriguing on Google Earth that it was on the ground and really was not worth two trips. On the first trip back we stopped and visited a small seep that  had several cottonwoods in full fall color. It is right along the county road. On the second trip back I stopped and found a couple of grinding mortars, also right along the road.

Hackberry tree

Sierra Alta

Willows

Prehistoric Trackways National Monument - Walkabout

South Rocotillo

Apache Canyon

Robledo Mountains

gastropod fossils

Little Apache Canyon

brachiopod fossil

Rock fall in Little Apache Canyon

South and North Rocotillo Canyons

Picacho Peak

I needed to get out quickly before the predicted wind hit. My previous two hikes on this spring break to the Good Sight Mountains, and then the Florida Mountains, involved long drives. That wasn't going to do. I had been slightly intrigued by the narrow passage of Little Apache  Canyon in the Robledos while  researching another hike earlier this year. Without too much agonizing I just went for it.

 I came at it from the east side, first going up South Rocotillo Canyon, where I encountered a stranded and or abandoned vehicle. It looked in good working order (no obvious damage). I looked in the windows all the way around- nobody home.  On my return trip it was still there with no one around. I contacted the BLM about it later. Don't know what the story was.

 I veered out of the canyon and up over a hill into Gypsum Canyon and then up over another hill and down into the main Apache Canyon where there was a reasonably easy way up just north of the volcanic plug there.

Basalt plug. Picacho Peak in the distance.

Finally arriving in  Little Apache creek on the other side of the ridge, I headed upstream. It's was pretty tight back in there as the canyon squeezed me into a narrow passage through  cliffs of sedimentary rock. I had to scramble up a dry waterfall  cut in blocky limestone, above which the canyon took on the rather dreary anonymous look of many of the dry washes that vein through the Robledos.

Dry falls

 I got back up on the ridge and decided on a slightly different route back to my trailhead. The best parts of the trip back were a too brief trek in the main Apache Canyon and two of its tributaries, and the magnificent views down into South Rocotillo Canyon.  I thought sticking to either one of these would have made a better hike than the one I chose. Those trips will just have to wait for another day. 

South Rocotillo

Apache Canyon