Rio San Antonio (part 1 of 3)

Sept 28, 2013

We went back to a river (stream) hike this time.  The Rio San Antonio (RSA) goes through the Valles Caldera and emerges into the Santa Fe National Forest at the west boundary of the Valles Caldera.  We drove up through the Santa Fe National Forest and found a spot where we could hike down to the river…

 

The hike leads south along the river to a hot spring but we weren’t interested in finding the hot spring.  Byron neglected to bring his fishing pole opting for his camera.  Once getting there he wished for the pole.  This area is an open valley with tree lined edges climbing up to the higher ridges.  It is primarily pine forest with pockets of aspen here and there.  Thinking (hoping) some fall color would have arrived the views would have been spectacular.  Instead we were a week or two early.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 There are quite a few cattle feeding in the area sometimes looking up at us but they were usually interested in eating.  One wants to pay attention to where they are stepping when in this valley.

 

 

 

 That morning was one of the coldest of the season.  We stopped just short of Fenton Lake and saw frost on the ground.  The edge Fenton Lake was full of fishermen and women even at 830 in the morning with frost on the ground, a hardy bunch.  We didn’t see too many of them pulling in any fish while we were there.

The forest road to the trail head was 6+ miles of ruts, rocks, potholes and long running trenches where the water runoff happens to go down the middle or either side of the road, possibly all at once!.  Just like our ride up to the top of the Hamilton Mesa we dodged back and forth from side to side on the road looking for the smoothest ride.  I think I could do this trip in my 2WD pickup, it is not a much of a climb, the turnoff is at about 8,700’ and the trailhead is about 8,800’.  We drove a few miles farther up the road to scout another hiking spot but decided that the conditions of the road deteriorated to the point that it was not worth the trip.

The RSA valley is about 300’ below the parking area at the trailhead.  It was a nice walk down with surprising views of the open valley but it seemed like it was more than a 300’ climb back up to the car.

 

 

 

 

On the way down we saw raspberry plants, rosebushes with bright red rosehips and strawberry plants.  Once in the valley we saw lots of grasses, penstemon, yarrow, cinquefoil and mullein naming those I could identify.

The river had had good flow I am assuming from the rains we had earlier in the month although the water was cloudy.  We hiked along the river for a mile to the western border of the Valles Caldera then another mile down from where we first came down to the river.  It twists and turns constantly giving the trout many places to hide.

We broke off from the river and shot quite a number of images of the flowers blooming this late in the year.  I think this area is spectacular in June and July with the spring wildflowers.

My next post will have images of some of the flora in the area.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark