Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area - alternate branches of Horse Mountain Gorge

 

Pillar along the old road

So I ventured out more than a month ago (Easter Sunday, 4/5/26) to have a look at the upper end of a branch of the gorge I explored back in the Fall and also have a look at a third canyon just to south.  I started at the Log Canyon trailhead this time where  I was greeted by an elk carcass laying right across the trail just beyond the gate. Weird, but I won't go into detail here all the reasons that made it so in my mind. Once at the drinker at the top of Log Canyon, I angled south (picking up the road from Nance Canyon  after a brief bit of cross country through the piñons) heading toward the huge tower of rock I call the Monolith Rock ( locals may call it something else and if I ever find out what I'll change this).

Monolith Rock

 From there I headed steeply down the canyon on its east side, snapping photos of the formations on both sides of the canyon as I went.

Eventually  the canyon fed into a gorgeous little park-like area with tall skinny pines and extensive meadows. 

I went up over a low ridge and the proceeded downstream again until I was at the top of the dry falls formed by several large boulders. Below here is where I had been stopped back in October, but from above it looks like there is passage way through, if your are willing to trust the stability these huge rocks by walking and scrambling under and through. Luckily, I had already been to the area downstream, so there was no need to risk it today.

Above the dry falls

I backtracked, climbed through a rocky passage and then walked over to the shade of a large douglas-fir where I sat down to have my lunch. After accidentally marinating myself with sardine juice (and finishing my food) I was up and at it, climbing up rocky ridge and then descending (somewhat treacherously) through rough formations down to another deep passage. 

Rough hill side I came down.

Undulating, jutting layers of craggy volcanic rock formed a wild wall over a hundred feet high on my left. Massive towers  emerged from the top of the slope on my right. At the bottom of the wall were large alcoves beyond a thick hedge of newly green squaw bush. Another alcove appeared about half-way up as I walked further down.  I knew I was approaching the private property boundary, so I began trek out. I had a good plan for returning to the landmark Monolith Rock, which was made even better by discovering an old road  that took me right to it.  Only light winds were blowing most of the day, and it never really got hot even with the sunny skies. A great spring outing.

Monolith Rock from the old road

Cibola National Forest - Datil Mountains, Buck Well Canyon

 

Crossbow point imbedded in a vertebra

The piñon die-off that's so severe around Datil was not that bad in this area.

Mostly younger trees (Doug-firs and pines) in this valley that I assume was logged in the past.

This was a mostly flat hike using the old road up to the windmill and then a livestock/wildlife trail beyond. The canyon is one of many open, grassy branches of White House Canyon (where US 60 runs). At some point within the last 20 years or so, the Forest Service re-designated FR 100 to a route to the west to go around Main Canyon (another one of the branches of White House Canyon) which has a continuous private property inholding for over 5 miles.  A word of warning about the "new" FR 100: long stretches are replete with ruts and potholes. Give it your complete attention. I ended bouncing badly after hitting an "invisible pothole" right after driving away from the gate. Luckily, it was dry when we drove it, but it's obvious it becomes a muddy mess when wet. We had a little trouble finding the unsigned FR 100A ( which branches off to the northwest) because there is un-maintained road just before it (that goes to the same windmill, albeit much more roughly). We parked along FR 100A probably a little more that a half-mile short of the corral and windmill. The windmill is an old Aeromotor that still turns but has been replaced by a solar panel and electric pump. A couple of cows were hanging around. They eyeballed us for a long time as we cut them a wide berth. 

Buck Well

Beyond the well, the wide valley narrows considerably into a steep-sided forested canyon with a rocky dry stream.  There was one wide and open canyon on the north side that looked intriguing (perhaps because our canyon was so closed in that it was bit claustrophobic, similar to the canyon we hiked on the west side of Madre Mountains last year). 

Wide branch on the north side

After a little over a mile of hiking things got narrow to the point of being a bit inconvenient and since it was late in the day, we turned around. Sometime in the future I will use this route to access the ridge at its western end and then descend into Thompson Canyon to see the famed Enchanted Tower. This seems infinitely more preferable that driving the crazy road (FR 59) up to the Davenport Lookout just to descend to the canyon to get to the rock formations miles down the valley.