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 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.

Magdalena Mountains, Cibola National Forest - South Baldy Trail (FT 11)

view to Water Canyon Mesa

new growth of Doug-firs and a few spruces

large bent over Douglas-fir

old trail sign

 Stopping by while heading home from the cabin a couple of days before Thanksgiving, I did this little hike in the Magdalena Mountains. I only covered a steep 3/4 of a mile (one way) of the South Baldy Trail (FT 11), but that was enough. I started from lower trailhead along FR235. The narrowness of the canyon made the trip dark, cold and snow-covered most of the way until a switchback took me out of the canyon and onto the sunny chaparral hillside of a south facing ridge.

  Already sweating from the pace I chose and the 800 foot elevation gain in less than a mile, emerging onto the sun-baked hillside where it had too be close to 20 degrees warmer was the last thing  I wanted so I turned around.

 The trailsides are full of snags from many (mostly) Douglas-fir trees that thrived in the mesic environment ( the trail is kept clear though). There are new ones coming back in( plus a few spruces too!), but the tangle of downfall in the creek bottom is a bit ugly in all truthfulness. 

There is also plentiful box-elder which I've noticed seemed to have found a niche in the narrow stretches of other canyons in the Magdalenas. 

 Views are great looking back down the trail which definitely salvaged the whole excursion.

Pueblo Ruins - New Mexico State Trust Lands

 

wall corner

This site is in far northern Catron County on NM State Trust Lands  pretty close to the one we visited last year. Another site that I haven't visited yet is very nearby, also on State Trust Land.  A site on private land where the walls are clearly visible on Google Earth is also close. Most likely they were all contemporaneously occupied. It was a windy day so the long drive from the cabin didn't seem to matter much. We would've probably been stuck inside anyway. The hike was short and the wind not particularly stiff while we explored.

sherds on an ant hill

 Sherds were everywhere again, as well as lithic debitage and fragments of stone tools. The  built-up rubble piles of mostly unshaped stone and the artifact scatter covered about 5 acres. I'm pretty sure I could make out the outlines of room blocks in the grass and thorny shrubs (which seemed to proliferate on disturbed land). There was also the corner of a wall (which I'm assuming is original) beneath a juniper.

large pestle fragment (I think)

On the way back we took the Saulsberry Road, that runs from US 60 to the Green Gap Road. It was a very nice backcountry drive, that meanders through Cibola National Forest, private ranches and State Trust Lands.

Sierra de las Uvas Wilderness - Wall

The wall

soapberry trees in the arroyo

 I spied this wall on Google Earth while looking for hiking route into the Uvas Mountains Wilderness from the northeast.  It piqued my curiosity right away, well, because man-made structures of any kind are not at all that common in the Sierra de las Uvas, and anything this substantial made with native rock, even less so. It would be a short hike from a well maintained road, so when I had little time one Sunday a few weeks, I went out.

 I parked right at the wilderness boundary and then off I went on sunny and warm autumn afternoon. I first approached it from above, walking along the stony ridge. My initial thoughts when seeing it in the satellite image was that it was a sheep pen or horse corral of some kind, but now looking at it in person, it seemed the space enclosed by it was too small to be of very much use.

 I circled down and around  and carefully climbed over a tumbled down section that sits on a slope on the south side. The intact part of the wall (which is most of it) was over 3 feet tall and made of dark volcanic rocks and boulders ranging, for the most part, from six inches to over two feet. Some boulders definitely looked too heavy for one lonely sheepherder or cowboy to move by themselves. 

The space inside was very limited as it was built very close to the cliff face behind which serves as  two of walls of the rectangle with the built wall approximating an "L" shape. The interior was very much on a slope as well which didn't seem particularly useful if bringing livestock inside. There was also no apparent opening to get in and out anywhere I could see, which really made wonder if this wall had any use for livestock at all.

 I climbed back and looked all around the immediate area for any kind of artifact laying around that might give my clue as to when it was built. Nothing. I even circled the area twice. I know that there are CCC erosion control projects nearby as well as a WW II bombing target, both of which may have something to do with this structure, but there was no obvious trail or road leading to it.

 I don't really know what it was for or when it was built. Folks who saw the images on Facebook all seemed to matter of factly decide it was for sheep. One even thought it might be a lambing pen. This may be the case, but I'm not so sure. As for the era, well, they were less sure about that, but I would think sometime before the widespread use of tin cans and glass bottles.