Having exhausted the hiking tracks from others, we’re setting off on our own in the Ojito Wilderness area.  This time we explored a prominent mesa south of Cabezon Road and the boundary of the Wilderness.  Using an exploration via Google Earth,we selected from 3 potentially interesting areas, a southward track up a canyon that splits the mesa, then across the top to descend to a “prospect” marked on the Topo maps (“prosect”: a potential mine before a claim is made?).  

The Hike

Parking just off Cabezon Road, we headed east to the entrance of the canyon, crossing a 10′ deep arroyo with frozen water where the sun doesn’t shine.  Rounding the north eastern point of the mesa, we encountered a partially collapsed rock building, dug partially into the west face of the canyon.  The wood supports of the roof had collapsed onto a table in the middle of the approximately 15′ square room, but windows and doors were still in place.  In the area were other signs of habitation, including what we think must have been a small corral with a smaller rock structure.  (See photos below.)

We continued south in the canyon, beneath 100′ t0 150′ walls of the west side of the mesa. The ground was largely dirt, with rocks nearer the canyon walls  Overall the hiking was easy (especially when we could follow the numerous cattle trails).   We encountered one of the best-built barbed wire fences we’ve seen, very tight wire not allowing one to make enough space to slip through – we ended up crawling under the bottom wire. When the slope up to the mesa top became easy, we ascended to very open,  generally flat, and nearly level terrain; oh, we had to cross that fence again.

Using “US Topo Maps”, an App that I carry on my Smartphone and Tablet, we navigated to the “prospect”.  We found what looked like an old excavation: a hole and an adjacent mound of soil, and figured we had found it.  The descent off of the mesa was a bit steep but easy.  At the bottom we encountered another fence, decided to get across it by going through the space between the canyon wall and the last fence post.  Now standing beneath a 100’+ sheer wall, we marveled at it’s overhang and the large clefts in its face, the result of water running between cracks in the caprock that washed out a “split” in the cliff. And looking up at one of these we were amazed to see daylight through the back of the cleft, behind a bridge formed by two “kissing” sections of the caprock. (See photos below.)

Jay here: What a surprising hike. Guess that’s what happens when you make your own trail — you never know what to expect. Cowpaths were abundant through much of the hike until we got up on top of the mesa and that helped in the early going. Coming upon the old stacked stone building was quite a surprise. Crawling under well maintained barbed wire fencing wasn’t too onerous but if we had to do it more than twice it would have gotten old. The kissing caprock will definitely require a return visit in later afternoon hours to really capture the uniqueness of the geology there.

Statistics

Total Distance: 2.73 miles
Elevation: 5,869 start, 5,957 maximum, 5,815 minimum
Gross gain: 142 ft.  Aggregate ascending 380 ft, descending: 378 ft
Maximum slope: 31% ascending, 35% descending, 5% average
Duration: 3:08

I urge you to explore our hiking tracks with Google Earth. With the virtual 3-dimensional presentation, achieved by panning and tilting the view, you can get a much better idea of the hikes and terrain than you can get from the 2-dimensional screenshot above. For assistance: Using Google Earth Track Files.

Related Posts (in the vicinity)

All Ojito Hikes

Jay's Photos w/ Captions: Click on a Photo for Gallery Show.

George's Photos w/ Captions: Click on a Photo for Gallery Show.

Another beautiful day in the amazing Ojito Wilderness.  Temperature was a bit chilly leaving the car, 38 F, with just enough breeze to make us bundle up with gloves and ear coverings.  As always happens here in the Mountain West, with the elevation, dry air, and crystal blue skies, temperatures rose by noon, causing us to start shedding layers.

The Hike

This hike is a followup to our recent outing, Hoodoo Pines, when we thought we were heading towards the Dinosaur Dig, but … we started at a different trailhead and were using a different ASCHG track.  Today, tho’ we got on track, followed Dinosaur Dig Hike, (with a half mile backtrack, if you look at the GoogleEarth .kml track closely), and found our way to the Logs, the Cave, the Dig, and the Petroglyphs.  

Along the way, we found other rock ‘assemblies’ that still puzzle us – the shape strongly suggests petrified tree trunks, but the appearance and texture of the outer surface and what would be the inside of a tree trunk appear nothing like petrified wood we’ve seen elsewhere.  (Where is the geologist when we need one?)  At the “Logs”, the rocks there were so much more like what we expect that we concluded they -are- petrified wood.  And they made a fine “coffee bar” for our mid-hike break.

The site of the Dinosaur Dig is a large area of sand, quite unusual compared to the terrain all around (and elsewhere, for that matter).  And it is near the end of this mesa, with a 200-300, maybe 400 foot drop-off to the valley floor – this seems unusual, but the mesa is clearly “held up” by a solid foundation of rock geology.  And closer to the end of the mesa than the Dig, we found the petroglyphs – unusual in that they were inscribed on a horizontal surface of rock (and at the mesa’s edge, so I had to take photos so Jay could see them up close).

Jay here: Okay, okay, so I don’t like being on the edge. But I did tackle about a 400 foot scramble up a lot of rocks to get to the top of the mesa, and I got there a lot sooner than someone else did. The Ojito Wilderness keeps giving back when it comes to fascinating rock geology and we have only just begun to explore what’s out there. Here’s to more Ojito discoveries.

Statistics

Total Distance: 3.80 miles
Elevation: 5,843 start, 5,926 maximum, 5,715 minimum
Gross gain: 83 ft.  Aggregate ups & downs:  ascending 499 ft, descending: 496 ft
Maximum slope: 47% ascending, 33% descending, 5% average
Duration: 3:21

Related Posts (in the vicinity)

All Ojito Hikes

References

ASCHG: Dinosaur Dig Hike
ASCHG: Dino Dig And Hoodoo Pines 
Dog of the Desert: “Dinosaur Dig” mesas in the Ojito Wilderness
BLM: Ojito Wilderness

Jay's Photos w/ Captions:Click on a Photo for Gallery Show

George's Photos w/ Captions: Click on a Photo for Gallery Show