Nambe Falls - Nambe Pueblo

Nambe Falls

Staying in Santa Fe for the weekend, we went out to Nambe Falls. The fee is 20 dollars (per vehicle) payable at the ranger station.  Further down the road is a large parking area with shaded picnic/camping sites that surround it.There is an upper trail which we took first. It is short ( less than a half a mile) but very steep with crude "stairs"  in places to aid in your ascent. The last section has very off-camber curves which were a bit slippery because of recent rains. One thing that surprised me upon reaching the top was a massive concrete dam above the falls ( l left it out of the photos). 

There is a reason this fence is here. Do not venture beyond it.

The falls are in a massive (but short) box-slot canyon

It detracts from the naturalness of the setting for sure, but on the other hand it  provides a reliable flow to the falls (which of course can be problematic for many New Mexico waterfalls). The falls are beautiful in photos, of course, but definitely better than I expected in person.

 Nambe Falls

 The lower trail isn't much of a trail, just use paths through the narrow strips of grass and trees along the creek. I initially did a lot of rock hopping, but as I entered the narrow box canyon where there is just the rio and cliffs on either side, the only option was to walk in the water, which during our visit, although flowing gray and murky (from recent rains I guess?) wasn't very deep. There is a lower cascade  that falls may be 10 feet from an upper "pond" that the second tier of the upper falls pours into.

 There are also  many springs that emerge directly from the rock of the cliff face on the left ( facing upstream). I climbed up a rocky slope to the right of the small falls very carefully to see if I could get further views of the upper falls. I could see the bottom half of the second tier, but that was it. 

 I had expected that this was touristy place (and it is at other times, I assume, for sure), but here we were, on a warm Saturday in mid-September and there was only a handful people to be encountered. I was alone in the canyon almost the entire time and was much in gratitude to have this very special place to myself.

Bottom half of second tier of the upper falls.

Rio Nambe 

Lower cascade

Pond below the upper falls.

Narrow passage of the Rio Nambe

Cibola National Forest, Crosby Mountains - Slaughter Spring

Downstream from Slaughter Spring

Near the pass

Badger along Saulsberry Road

Pull-tab Schlitz can near where we parked

We went out a few weeks back on this nice little walk through the newly lush Crosby Mountains of the Cibola National Forest near Datil. We drove out on the Saulsberry Road (which is also considered FR63 when it enters the National Forest), which was in good shape despite all the recent rains, and then used Forest Road 063 and Forest Road 508 to ascend Flying V Draw. It's bit confusing on maps ( where it appears that FR 508 and FR 063 are the same road for a stretch) and on the ground as well. We were looking to walk up a short tributary to a low pass and then walk down the other side to Slaughter Spring. It worked out. We parked in one of the few wide spots on FR 508 past Flying V Tank Number 2. 

FR 508

The grasses were delightfully clean, bright, green and tall enough to sway in the intermittent breezes as we walked down the road.  We went through one gate and then where the road turned to the west a bit, we followed the fence line along the incised stream bed itself. Eventually, at the side canyon where we wanted to head east, we had to get through the fence. Maps show there in no longer a road here (most likely to discourage anyone from driving down the other side to Slaughter Spring where the road is truly abandoned and mostly vanished) but we used the two tracks through grass and wildflowers as our path to the pass.

At the pass Andrea and Nessie rested at a large Juniper while I made my way down the rocky, rough road remnant  to Slaughter Spring. I never found any flowing water (although I did search for awhile), just an old metal trough that I guess was used catch and hold the spring water.

 

There were abundant chest high summer wildflowers sprung from the damp sands and the fecund appearance of place stood in sharp contrast to the conditions earlier in the summer. I walked a bit downstream from the spring area to where the stream bed narrowed between walls of light colored sandstone ( entirely derived from volcanic rocks I'm sure) and then began my steep trek back up to the pass.

 We walked back down pleasantly through the pines and oaks, finding a fragment of a projectile point along the way. 

We turned south and stayed with the road ( on maps this section is not shown) instead of going through the fenceand walked on the other side of the stream course. At an intersection (with a road that I think must connect to Forest Road 550) we went through another gate and then marched along straight back to the 4Runner. It was warm, but not unpleasantly so and there was enough shade to be had for  taking a break here and there. Beautiful morning.