Colors of Springtime
Sunday, May 17th, 2026: Animals, Hikes, Holt, Mogollon Mountains, Nature, Plants, Southwest New Mexico.
The weather had cooled off a little, with high winds forecast in the afternoon, and not a cloud in the sky. Today’s hike starts on an old familiar wilderness trail on the west side of our high mountains, climbing up an outlying ridge then traversing down to the canyon bottom.
Occasionally, I find another vehicle waiting in the steep, rocky parking area at the trailhead – but today, unlike last Sunday, I had the whole area to myself.
About a mile in, the trail reaches the canyon bottom in a burn scar from our massive 2012 wildfire. The first creek crossing was dry, and I was surprised to find the creekbed lined with columbines. I usually find them farther upstream under the intact riparian canopy. Maybe their seeds washed downstream and germinated recently after our late rains.
I planned to continue on the main trail for another mile, then take the branch that climbs over the ridge to the east. The creek was dry up to a few hundred yards below the trail junction, where I found stagnant pools and a trickle.
The branch trail leads over the ridge and down the other side, into a big spectacular canyon, ending at an old miner’s cabin. The actual trail is completely different from the route shown on all the maps, paper and digital – it has over twenty switchbacks, and is significantly longer. I suspect it’s maintained by the old miner’s family, who seem to visit annually around Memorial Day.
I was just planning to take it to the saddle on the ridgetop, and from there to the high point of the trail for a view over the big canyon.
Way up there, the breeze felt great. The burned slopes across the canyon had turned a vibrant green from Gambel oak, aspen, and bigleaf maple.
With all the flowers and pollinators to check out, I’d stopped many times on the way in, and I tried to take it easy on the way down from the ridge.
Even in the cool of the morning, flies had started to bother me, and when I reached the canyon bottom in the afternoon they were getting nasty. I was also bummed to see trash in the canyon bottom, on the trail to the ridge, and in the ridgetop saddle. I couldn’t remember ever finding trash here before, and I wondered if it was from the people who use the cabin – descendants of the old miner. They’re from Arizona, and Arizona trails tend to be trashy compared with ours. They also visit on horseback, and I find that equestrians tend to leave more trash – they can’t be bothered to dismount if they drop stuff.
With all the stops and slow descent, it took me a little over 4 hours to go 6.4 miles. Definitely better than last Sunday, and in general I feel like I may be making progress – after two years of intractable injuries. Just gotta keep taking it slow and easy…
