Returning from Tucson by way of Glenwood, driving along US 60 some 20 miles west of Socorro, a sign to Water Canyon Campground caught our attention – we thought that there might be camping and hiking in those Magdalena Mountains. And it’s about the same distance from Albuquerque as our favorite mountain range, the Jemez Mountains. Back home, we did some research, learning about Water Canyon and it’s National Forest campground and hiking trails. With that information, we planned a two-night trip with our R-Pod camper.
In preparation, I gathered information on trails and scrutinized the topographic maps with the Earth Point Topo Map plugin for GoogleEarth. From that I sketched a hike from near the Water Canyon Campground, following for some distance the dashed trail lines on the topo map, then up what appeared to be gently rising terrain to the top of the “North Mesa” (my name, but marked as Water Canyon Mesa on a topo map). Subsequently I uncovered on AllTrails a .gps track for Mesa Trail #13 which followed my sketch but continued further to make a loop back to the trailhead. We chose this as our hike for the first day.
The Drive In
The trailhead is about .5 miles up FR 235 from the campground, with signs, a large parking lot, and a pit toilet. The signs were interesting – they told us to go further at our own risk, proceed only with 4 wheel drive, locked hubs, and .. serious caution. (This I had discerned from looking at this road on GoogleEarth and the Topo overlay, so we had made no plans to go further although the view from atop South Baldy and the observatory must be stunning.)
The Hike
Mesa Trail 15 Hike.Pat.2018-09-12
The trail entrance is obvious, the trail well used. It begins with a quite good climb for the first 1/4 mile, then a short respite until it connects with the original trail (which crossed private property, thus this new segment). The rest of the hike was definitely up hill, a steady but not terribly challenging climb, generally a rocky surface ‘tho solid underfoot. Then, 1/2 mile into the hike the trail enters a narrow canyon some .2 mile in length which contains an amazing “garden” of wildflowers. There are so many different flowers, often mixed together, that we moseyed through this garden for over a half hour enjoying their beauty (and taking photos – see the Gallery below).
From there, continuing uphill we left the somewhat narrow canyon to enjoy views towards the south and west, across South Canyon to the primary peaks and high ridges of this eastern portion of the Magdalena Mountains. At some point near the top of our ascent we saw to the west the road zig-zagging its way across the mountain to get to the top. And the observatory came into view in what appeared to be a large, open meadow extending down from South Baldy. At the top of our hike we could see north across the plains to Ladron Peak. We enjoyed a half hour mid-hike break for lunch (thanks, Pat), then headed back down pausing again to enjoy the Garden.
Redux
There were only 2 or 3 other occupants in the campground, and we encountered only one other couple on the trail. Our hike followed quite well the sketch that I had made and the AllTrails track for Mesa Trail #13. The AllTrails track is a loop that extends a half-mile further than where we took our break, continues up towards Water Canyon Mesa and round back into Water Canyon to a trailhead closer to the campground. An alternate hike would be to continue on up onto Water Canyon Mesa where the views to the east, north, and west should be amazing.
Statistics
Total Distance: 4.43 miles
Elevation: start 6,930 ft, maximum 8,221 ft, minimum 6,930 ft
Gross gain: 1,291 ft. Aggregate ascending 1,596 ft, descending 1,616 ft
Maximum slope: 38% ascending, 43% descending, 13% average
Duration: 5:54
| GPS Track Files for Download | |
89 Downloads |
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185 Downloads |
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126 Downloads |
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110 Downloads |
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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.
Note: I’ve updated the Nifty Tools page under Using Google Earth Track Files menu with additional resources that I’ve discovered provide additional avenues of research and planning.
References
Forest Service: Mesa Trailhead
AllTrails: Mesa Trail #13
Magdalena, New Mexico:
Recreation – Magdalena Mountains – Trail Descriptions (.pdf)
What an amazing variety of flowers!