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.

Little Apache (FT 124), Sleepy Grass (FT 11) and La Pasada Encantada Trail (FT 233) - Lincoln National Forest

 

Sleepy Grass Trail

Little Apache Trail

Little Apache Trail

It was dry, hot and dismal in mid-July at the cabin on Horse Mountain. I had a few chores to take care of, but if it had been nice, I would have stayed several days. Instead, I called my wife and told her not to come up. I was heading back after just two nights. My wife threw out the idea of going up to Cloudcroft and staying at The Lodge for a couple of nights. It would be a mid- week stay ( I do not go to the Lincoln National Forest in vicinity of Cloudcroft or Ruidoso on weekends anymore), so I thought what the heck, lets try it. No sooner had I gotten back home, then we were off to the Sacramento Mountains.

Well it worked out really well. It had been raining up there so it was wonderfully green and mercifully cool.   I had it in mind  take this opportunity to do these hikes that are very close Cloudcroft for two reasons: first, my wife generally is not a big fan of driving long distances just to begin a hike, but also I was hoping that  because it was a Thursday that these trails would not be swamped with people as they almost always are on warm weather weekends.

 The Little Apache Trail is a loop (sort of) that we began at the back of the overflow camping (a big parking lot).

 It stays relatively level for quite a while in a shady forest of mostly smaller pine, oak, white fir and doug-fir. The amount of downfall on these ridge-tops is always a little unsettling, but it was so pleasant with sun breaking through shining on the oak leaves and the grass green at our feet, that it was easy not too worry.

 After about a mile the trail descends a small valley heading west toward Little Apache Canyon. The trees on the sides of the meadow were larger here and the stumps even bigger. Right before reaching the canyon, the trail crosses a road and skirts the edge of a large quarry. It's a bit of jarring sight to come across in the forest. For some reason it didn't bother me a whole lot.

 Now the trail began heading up Little Apache. There was tall grass in places accompanied by yellow wildflowers. We passed the only other hikers ( one couple with dogs) we saw in this section. The trail ends at the paved campground road, which was a little odd as they could've easily made it reconnect with the trailhead we started at. Still it was only  a quarter mile walk on the road and across the parking lot back to our vehicle.

Later that day we did the short La Pasada Encantada Trail right before a thunderstorm hit. The trail is graveled and has interpretive stops for sighted people and the visually handicapped. It would a great trail to introduce young children to hiking in the forest. 

 Friday morning after breakfast at Dusty Boots Cafe, we drove the short ways to the Sleepy Grass Picnic area and did a short hike up Apache Canyon ( directly across US 82 from Little Apache Canyon from the previous day). The trail is a now closed section of Forest Road 24B and I've seen it called Forest Trail 11 in a few places (though not necessarily on every map you might encounter). It ends where there is a gate on the paved road in Sleepy Grass Campground ( accessed at from the western end from NM 130). This walk is along one side of an open valley about 150 feet wide ( fairly typical for this area of the Lincoln National Forest). It's probably best done early in  the morning or late afternoon because there is not a whole lot of shade to be had. We stopped after about 6/10 of mile where we saw some not particularly shy wild horses  shuffling about in the precious shade of some aspens and conifers very close to the trail. It was still another half-mile or so to get to the very end.

 All in  all it was probably only about 6 miles of hiking for the two days, but it went a long way in lifting our spirits.

Rim Spring (Forest Roads 4010L and 4010K) - Gila (Apache) National Forest

Old wooden trough at Rim Spring

Concrete block and rusty pipe at the spring

Late May and early June are a dreary time in the forests of western and southwestern New Mexico.  The parched, pale tufts of grass on the plains and between the trees seem without hope. The pines, both the standing dead and the living continue to dry out day by day until it seems that even massive ponderosas and Douglas-firs could be lit with a single cardboard match. The graying, bare downfall, which is everywhere, begs to carry flames acre after acre. If there aren't major fires happening already, dread permeates  every trip into the outdoors  because it appears as if they are all but inevitable. Winds blow continuously on overkill still trying to evaporate every molecule ( long gone, of course) of moisture left over from winter and early spring. The sound is sickening especially if there are already fires burning as we know they are fanning the flames to maximum potential. In the desert temperatures begin to hit 100 and in the mountains they climb upward as well sometimes reaching close to 90 even at 8000 feet.

Still we get out, because it is still our place. We did it last year and the years before, and we will do it in the years to come. It doesn't make sense, just like it has never made sense to me ( a public school employee) that we let kids out of school for their summer "vacation" at this most dreadful time of year, when the best course of action is to stay enveloped in climate controlled environments for as much time as possible.

We did the drive out to Rim Spring. We hiked, mostly in shade, and then picnicked. The spring was dry, of course, but it looks like it could seep a little at the end of winter or perhaps in fall after good summer rains. It's odd to look at a map of the northern Gila and see so many springs. It gives me a sense of excitement, false, I know, because many, probably most are just like this one.

 I continued to walk to the very end of road to take in views afforded by being at the very edge of the mesa, to the southeast, south and west of Bull Camp, Gallo and Gallita canyons and the mountains and mesas that surround them.