Mangas Mountain Fall Colors - Gila (Apache) National Forest

 

Mangas Mountain

FR 11, Mangas Mountain

Mangas Mountain

Horse Mountain

Horse Mountain

Horse Mountain

Horse Mountain

Oaks along North Fork Alamocito Creek

It seems that while staying at the cabin on Horse Mountain the nearest place to see aspens in relative abundance is on Mangas Mountain. Last October year we tried to get a peek at them in their fall color. There were plenty of aspens in  El Toro Canyon on the southeast side of the mountain but we were too early to see anything but green leaves.

We went out this time on the last weekend of October and we knew already the trees were going to be at their peak. Well, we didn't know for 100% sure, but we had real good feeling. So out we drove using the Patterson Canyon Road (County Road A 095) to access Forest Road 11 which goes all the way to the top of the mountain and then back down the east side where it eventually becomes the Alamocito Road  and returns to NM 12.  A  couple of words of caution should be given about the western half if FR 11 (the eastern half has some problems as well that I've discussed in previous blogs of which I will remind later). First, it is very narrow, basically one lane until reaching the top of the mountain. We were very lucky to have met the only car coming down off the mountain, along with a few of what had to be CDT hikers, at a section that allowed us to pass with relative ease. Once we started the switchbacking and sidehilling we just had to be hope for the best. Second, although it is shown as a maintained road on Forest Service maps, it is very rough in places and very steep as well. I had wished I had used four wheel drive and if there has been any moisture at all, I would strongly advise using it starting at the initial intersection.

Along the way we could see, albeit through pines and firs, beautiful pockets and clusters of golden leafed aspens. There just wasn't anyplace to pull over to even try and get a photo of them. When we finally got to level terrain at the top, after perhaps the scariest minute or two of the trip : a slippery little curve where road seemed little more that a scratch on the steep and lofty mountainside, the roadsides were lined with the yellow, sometimes tinged with red, leafed trees. It was perfect and just what we wished for.

I had a hike scoped out further down the road using two canyons that I felt pretty confident would have aspens as well. We did not visit the lookout. We parked at the intersection of FR 11 and FR 4191Q, crossed the road and went down the hillside to the abandoned road at the bottom of the little canyon. As we walked there was the occasional aspen or oak amongst the pines to brighten our outing.

 

When we got down to FR 11, we hike just short ways before turning up a second abandoned road that followed a second canyon. Both of these canyons are headwater branches of the North Fork Alamocito Creek, but this second  one, where Indian Spring is located, looks like it carries significantly more flow during wet times of the year. That being so, it also contain many more aspens than the first.  We ambled uphill, snapping pictures as we pleased.

 At the top we had to use FR 11 to complete our loop. It was open and sunny, a bit too warm for this type of road walking, and a little longer than we would've liked, but it was all good when we made it back to the 4Runner. We decided to head downhill and east on FR 11 rather than go back the way we came.  We had our lunch at a grassy clearing near Alamocito Tank. 

Here is where the road, now lined with aspens as well, begins to follow the stream course of North Fork Alamocito Creek. It is slow going, as the canyon narrows and the road gets rougher and rougher especially at the crossings where there is no more surface just bare rocks. It gets better once you reach a small inholding of private property and after to the Forest Service boundary.

The North Fork has permanent water after it crosses onto private ranch property. This gives life to a true riparian bosque. Huge cottonwoods and oaks in full fall color made for a very scenic drive as we headed back to NM 12

Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area - Horse Mountain Gorge

 

Horse Mountain Gorge

 I did two hikes back in mid-October in the Horse Mountain WSA which is conveniently located adjacent to my cabin property in Teepee Ranch. Technically I began both my walks on intervening non-WSA BLM lands,  but they really are just a de-facto extension of the WSA parcel. On the Saturday I did a loop following the canyon that runs through our parcel back onto BLM lands. When I reached the intervening ridge, I began to circle around the upper part of Log Canyon. There was some scrambling at first getting down off the ridge a bit, but then I hit on a great wildlife trail that brought me all the way around to the plateau that's centered between the two ridges of the mountain and at the top of two canyons running in opposite directions.

 I got a much different look at a massive rock pillar that we had seen last year when doing loop hike using Nance and Log Canyons. It was even more impressive. This time, unlike last year, I found the wildlife drinker at the top of Log Canyon and so used the old road route to connect to the main canyon which took me back to the WSA entrance just down the road from the cabin, where my wife picked me up. It was a good hike although a bit warm for October. The fall color was hardly evident throughout most of hike which was a bit disappointing (we would return the following weekend to find it peaking).

 On Sunday, I left around nine beginning the same way, but then migrating over to the canyon just to east. It was cool and shaded as I made my way along the old trail that winds through the pines, oaks and tall grasses. 

Pine cones were so abundant on the ground they became a bit of nuisance at times. I took my time zigzagging up the steep slopes to get to the top of the ridge, but I was pleased when I checked the time to see that less than a half hour had even elapsed. I came off the ridge on some very steep gravel patches among the piñons and junipers, all the while drifting to the east to catch the canyon that I knew would lead directly into the gorge. At the head were thick grasses just beginning to fade from their summertime green, and large well-spaced ponderosa pines. An enchanting scene that seemed to beckon me downward to my destination.

A couple of deer ran across this scene adding to the magic.

I felt pulled as if into a funnel and gravity took over lightening my steps through this welcoming passage. Abundant downfall, brush and boulders in the now enlarged dry creek bed ended my idyl, but I pushed on scrambling my down and down as cliffs rose at the sides of the ever-narrowing defile. The pines stretched ridiculously higher and higher toward the sun. Crenulated bare cliffs of crusty volcanic rock where many hoodoos emerged were in the near distance as I approached the point where the two branches of the gorge meet. Nearer at hand were isolated towers and pillars stretching directly overhead. I carefully rounded the vertex to have a look up the other canyon. On my left was massive wall of gray rock looming over the canyon bottom thick with green shrubbery.  On my right a treacherous slope of crumbly white rock that precluded further advancement.

 I retreated and carefully got myself down to the stream course and began heading down. Here there were some nice oaks beginning in their fall color, plus more formations above and the tallest ponderosa pines I've ever seen close at hand. I turned around when I caught site of an old well because I knew I was at the boundary between private and public land.

 Before leaving altogether I explored up the south branch. Vegetation was thick and green and there was even a couple of puddles where small dams had been built into the natural cascade in an effort to retain any bit of water possible. A little further upstream I came to some large boulders wedged into the narrow cliff opening, where it appears on Google Earth that a waterfall sometimes occurs. It did not seem readily scalable for this 64 year old and I quickly decided to explore the area above another day. 

The return trip had me marching up the long "arm" that comes down from the ridge between the two branches. This much more gradual ascent (as opposed to returning the way I came) made the uphill both ways truth of the hike a little easier to swallow. It was all over and done in a total of almost exactly three hours, but down in that wonderful canyon, time stood still for a little while.