Santa Fe National Forest: Santa Fe Baldy Ascent

I woke up early this morning and drove up to the ski area to begin my ascent of Santa Fe Baldy. The first segment of my hike followed the Winsor Trail again. I passed many familiar landmarks as I made my way into the wilderness. Once I had entered into the Pecos Wilderness I continued on the Winsor Trail as the early morning sun painted the aspens a golden hue.

At the intersection with the Nambe Lake Trail,

I continued on the Winsor Trail and into some new territory.

Soon I got some great views of my objective: Santa Fe Baldy.

I also saw a lot of wildflowers in bloom.

As the Skyline Trail approached the top of a ridge my time on an official trail would end for a bit. I would be following an unofficial, social trail up to the summit and most of this trail would be above tree-line. There were lots of great views to Ravens Ridge and yesterday's hike.

Soon I crossed the first of two false summits

and then I could see the final ridge leading to the summit.

There were two climbers on the ridge.

They looked like ants marching up the rocky ridge. Before I knew it I could see the summit proper

and shortly thereafter I was standing on it.

From the summit there were great views over to the Truchas Peaks and down into Lake Katherine.

I relaxed up there for a while before starting my descent down.

The descent was going really well. I was down into the trees in no time at all.

I decided to hike back to the trailhead following a different route. I would head over to La Vega,

follow the Rio Nambe for a bit, and then ascend the steep section of trail known as the "Elevator Shaft".  My plan worked well for a while. The hiking down along the Rio Nambe was relatively easy.

Then, however, I entered a recently burned area.

It was difficult to follow the trail  and I soon came to a fence line in the burn where I found a charred trail sign. It was impossible to read the sign and the fence worried me. "Why would there be a fence within the wilderness?" I wondered. I decided that I must have passed the "Elevator Shaft" and missed it because it had burned. I decided to backtrack. This revised plan meant that I added considerable mileage to my hike and some difficult uphill miles at that. At least I wasn't lost though. In consolation, I saw this interesting looking fly as I stopped to rest.

Santa Fe National Forest: Deception, Lake, and Penitente Peaks

After my visit to La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs I stopped by the Public Lands Information Center to pick up a map for the Pecos Wilderness and some other information. Since it was still relatively early in the day I decided to head up into the mountains. It was a little bit after 11 am when I hit the trail.

I followed the Winsor Trail up to the wilderness boundary and then headed off the official trail, following a social trail along a fence up Ravens Ridge. I then followed the ridge line up to Deception Peak. From there it was an exposed, knife-edge hike over to Lake Peak.
There were some good views over to Santa Fe Baldy

and down to Nambe Lake which Noelle, Parker, and I had hiked to nearly 2 months ago.

When I reached the top I rested on the summit of Lake Peak for a while before moving on again to make my way over to my final summit for the day: Penitente Peak.

I rested on the summit for a while and even dozed off for a bit before I could hear the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance.

The thunder was a warning to start my descent. I had some rain and small hail to contend with on my way down, but things never got too bad. Along the course of my hike I was treated to some amazing views,

lots of wildflowers,

and even some wildlife.

La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Site

I awoke in Pecos, NM this morning at around 6 am after the long drive up from Carlsbad. I had originally wanted to visit Pecos NHP to check out the Glorietta Battlefield site, but the park was not set to open for at least another 2 hours. Instead of waiting I decided to hit the road and head over to Santa Fe to check out the Cieneguilla Petroglyphs.

The site did not disappoint. It was a short hike from the parking lot to a basalt cliff where I found hundreds of petroglyphs pecked into the rock.

The site is known primarily for two types of images. There are a large number of images of Kokopelli, the humpbacked flute player, carved into the rock.

In addition, there are many birds pecked into the stone.

Besides the birds, there are many other animal images. Some are obvious, others not so much.

There are also numerous human figures and faces or masks.

Some of the images appeared to be monsters.

Others seemed to be simply interesting patterns.

As I started to make my way back to the car, something caught my attention, it was a tree decorated with rusty old cans.

While normally I would find such a sight repulsive, in this case I found it to be interesting if not artistic. Just beyond the "can tree" was a stile in the fence that led up to what appeared to be a cave.

I decided to go check it out. I found a few more petroglyphs there.

Happy Fourth of July!

Some images of July 4th in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Parks Ranch Cave

Today I headed into the BLM outside of Carlsbad with some friends from work to explore Parks Ranch Cave. I had been to the entrance a long time ago, 

but had never before ventured inside. Today that would change. Being a gypsum cave, Parks Ranch Cave features long, twisting passages with little decoration. Parts of the cave are filled with water. We sloshed through some of the shallow water but never went swimming in any of the deep sections. It was an interesting way to spend part of our Independence Day.