Cibola National Forest - Datil Mountains, Buck Well Canyon

 

Crossbow point imbedded in a vertebra

The piñon die-off that's so severe around Datil was not that bad in this area.

Mostly younger trees (Doug-firs and pines) in this valley that I assume was logged in the past.

This was a mostly flat hike using the old road up to the windmill and then a livestock/wildlife trail beyond. The canyon is one of many open, grassy branches of White House Canyon (where US 60 runs). At some point within the last 20 years or so, the Forest Service re-designated FR 100 to a route to the west to go around Main Canyon (another one of the branches of White House Canyon) which has a continuous private property inholding for over 5 miles.  A word of warning about the "new" FR 100: long stretches are replete with ruts and potholes. Give it your complete attention. I ended bouncing badly after hitting an "invisible pothole" right after driving away from the gate. Luckily, it was dry when we drove it, but it's obvious it becomes a muddy mess when wet. We had a little trouble finding the unsigned FR 100A ( which branches off to the northwest) because there is un-maintained road just before it (that goes to the same windmill, albeit much more roughly). We parked along FR 100A probably a little more that a half-mile short of the corral and windmill. The windmill is an old Aeromotor that still turns but has been replaced by a solar panel and electric pump. A couple of cows were hanging around. They eyeballed us for a long time as we cut them a wide berth. 

Buck Well

Beyond the well, the wide valley narrows considerably into a steep-sided forested canyon with a rocky dry stream.  There was one wide and open canyon on the north side that looked intriguing (perhaps because our canyon was so closed in that it was bit claustrophobic, similar to the canyon we hiked on the west side of Madre Mountains last year). 

Wide branch on the north side

After a little over a mile of hiking things got narrow to the point of being a bit inconvenient and since it was late in the day, we turned around. Sometime in the future I will use this route to access the ridge at its western end and then descend into Thompson Canyon to see the famed Enchanted Tower. This seems infinitely more preferable that driving the crazy road (FR 59) up to the Davenport Lookout just to descend to the canyon to get to the rock formations miles down the valley.