Pueblo Ruins - another site, New Mexico State Trust Lands

 

Mariano Mesa

Corrugated sherds

Sherd and stone tool

Rubble mound

 I visited this site, which is close to two others in far northern Catron County that I've written about in this blog, in early March on the first half of my Spring break. We had three blessed days of sun, 60 degree temperatures, and most importantly;  relatively mild wind conditions.  It took over an hour to get there from the cabin on Horse Mountain, and then I was given a 40 minute delay in getting started, because as soon as I emerged from the truck at my parking spot, a loud hissing could be heard coming from my driver's side rear tire: a flat. I was a little put out as it seemed my little factory lug-wrench no longer seemed to fit my lug nuts. Somehow I made it work for five, but the sixth was very stubborn. I was getting a bit exasperated when a Catron County sheriff's deputy (Officer Taylor) happened upon the scene asking if I needed help. I was telling him I couldn't get the last lug nut off, after which I gave it one more desperate kick and small miracle; it loosened it. I told him he was good luck and he proceeded to help me out changing the tire. Very kind of him indeed. One last wrinkle. After letting the car back down I realized that the jack was stuck. I ended up having to back up to knock it loose. Before he left Deputy Taylor and I agreed that it's always something that will come along to complicate things. As many flat tires as I have changed, it seems a rare thing indeed that the entire procedure comes off completely routine.

 Well, now I could finally begin my little hike. Through the little fence and I was off pounding through the grass. I was going at pretty good clip and probably would have over shot my destination before veering to my left as planned if I hadn't  casually checked my On-X app. As it was I was there in a much shorter time than I had anticipated. After climbing  up a small hill and finding the trash from a vintage campsite, I poked through the junipers and was upon the site itself.

 As with the other sites, there were two distinct sets of room blocks. Grass grew thick on the rubble mounds, but around the perimeter there were patches of bare dirt and ant mounts where pottery sherds and lithic flakes could be found. I circled around the ruins at least twice, then I checked out the sand wash at their base and wondered did this "creek" hold water in ancient times? Perhaps, perhaps not. I knew there was a spring less that a mile south (from maps and Google Earth) of the ruins, but given my time delays, there wasn't going to be time now to visit it.

 As always, I want to linger at places like these. Soaking something in that I'm not sure exactly what it is. I guess I was as satisfied as I ever get when I decided to hoof it back to the truck.

Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument - Sierra de las Uvas

Sierra de las Uvas

 Agate/chalcedony brought by crow or raven (or maybe a human)

Massacre Peak at right.

Florida Mountains in the distance

Cooke's Peak in the distance

There aren't many more places I want to explore left in the Sierra de las Uvas. Most of the ones that remain are difficult of access due to poor roads or private inholdings or both just to get to a point for starting off a hike.These planned hikes too, look to be longer and more difficult than what I've been used to these last few years. This one that I did a few weeks ago was not too bad. The roads were good up until a half mile stretch  that immediately preceded getting to my parking spot. This was a truly un-maintained, rarely driven little path that will cease to be a road at all in the not too distant future. We made it alright by driving very slowly and carefully.

 I was looking to explore a mesa and the canyon that cuts through it, at the very northern end of the Apache Flats valley. Neither has a name. The canyon is a tributary of the large canyon that runs to south of and is a tributary to Pine Canyon, the largest upland canyon on the west side of the Uvas.

 I started off to the east and then began the steep pitches to  get to the mesa rim. It's bit a strange feeling to feel like you've climbed a little mountain only to be looking at a  valley when you get to the top. Such is the topography of the Uvas.  I found some petroglyphs on isolated boulders a few years back not too far from this little canyon, and truthfully the hope of finding more, or other types of evidences of ancient peoples was the only driving factor in exploring this area (  and most of the other areas left to explore in the range) in the dead of winter.  I say this because the landscape is so desiccated, abused, forlorn and uninspiring right now it's stands almost in defiance  of deriving the those good feelings we all seek when getting outdoors.

 I meandered down the valley. Three young deer and I watched each other for awhile. There were a couple of playful calves and then their bellowing moms encountered as I marched down their trail as well. The side canyon cliffs had both living and skeletal junipers straightening toward the sun. In the main canyon  they grew large and globular. Every plant seemed to be an overcooked green. The dark cliffs and boulders were devoid of rock art. Every step was a scrape or a crunch. At one point I happened upon a colorful hunk of jasper, a tiny bit of joy for my heart in this sad chaparral. It didn't seem locally derived and I thought maybe I was onto something, but no such luck.

Eventually I used one of the side canyons on the east to make my turn and headed up to a saddle on the east rim of the mesa. Nice views up there. Would have been nicer if it were already spring time. 

I climbed south steeply up to the upper rim and then began my wandering on the ( mostly) flat lands while generally keep my direction towards where I had first come up on the west side. I crossed the upper part of the canyon and then began my descent more or less in my own footprints from several hours earlier. I then swung a little to north, still trying to cover a little more ground, hoping to find some artifacts in the sandy flatlands that gave me the impression they may have once bed an ephemeral lake bed. I did find three, artifacts, that is. A flake of carnelian, a toy motorcycle, and vintage intact Budweiser stubby bottle probably from the 1960's or 70's.

Cedar Mountains Range (Cedar Mountains Wilderness Study Area)

Flying W Mountain

Valiente Peak

I did this hike in early December with employees and volunteers ( of which I am one) from the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. The Cedar Mountains  are a small chain of rounded hills (with a few higher peaks) that run northwest to southeast in southwestern Luna County. On the eastern end is a small wilderness study area.  Like so many places in the west the name hardly fits: only a couple of the peaks really seem to be mountains,  and there are very few cedars ( junipers actually). The mountains are geologically similar to the many other volcanic desert ranges in the  southwestern quadrant of the state, consisting of mainly andesitic flows with some rhyolites, ash flow tuffs and occasional basalt flows, as well as the conglomerates and other sedimentary rocks that derived from these. There appears to  have been little  prospecting and unlike several of the nearby ranges they seem to be devoid of any mineral wealth in the same way the Sierra de las Uvas and the Good Sight Mountains ( two ranges where I have hiked extensively) are.

 When scouting out locations for this journey, I opted for the drainages (Deer Canyon, Sacaton Draw,Gap Draw) coming down on the northeast side of Flying W Mountain (the tallest peak in the range) where there are actually a few trees ( junipers, scrub oaks) to be seen  growing moderately dense in the canyons and scattered lightly on the hillsides.  Leaving off of NM 9 at Hermanas, the driving on the county maintained road was pretty good. Past the ranch house, though, the maintenance ends and the going gets much slower.  Beyond Valiente Well there is a descent into the Left Fork Sacaton Draw which is very rough, and the crossing of the arroyo is rougher still. We parked before crossing the main fork of Sacaton Draw (also very rough) a short ways beyond. A group of hikers followed me as we began walking west up a small tributary to the main canyon.  We eventually crossed over a low saddle into the main Sacaton Draw eventually reaching the wonderful stone and concrete dam at Rock Tank. It was a pleasant if unremarkable walking in a landscape very similar to many parts of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument right here in my home county of Doña Ana.

Dam at Rock Tank

 Shortly past the dam we began ascending northwesterly to a saddle and then descending very steeply into an upper tributary of Gap Draw. This lovely little canyon had a sweet secluded feeling to it and wonderful views of Flying W Mountain (6,275 feet). It would be a nice choice for an overnight backpack.

 Emerging out into the wide open expanse of main Gap Draw was a bit of a let down, especially when we could see evidence of people still bringing vehicles into the wilderness study area.  Eventually we went up on a ridge on our right and followed a very old road to the abandoned cabin at a small private inholding which is the old Flying W Ranch. From there we headed back on the road towards our starting point. There is a crossing of an un-named arroyo just east of the cabin which is worse than the other two. Luckily we were walking.

Gap Draw

 I enjoyed this little WSA, and if I lived in Deming I probably would visit it from time to time, but it is really quite an investment in time to get there and back from Las Cruces.