Ojito Wilderness, Feb 13 and Mar 6

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Ojito is one of my favorite places to hike in the winter.  I have been here at least a half-a-dozen times, even if I hike the same ‘trails’, which are more a suggestion than an actual trail, I always see something different.

On the first trip this year I went with my new hiking companion, Laurie.  She has been here several times hiking in an entirely different area than Byron and I have visited.

First we stopped at the Dragon’s Back mountain bike trail.  There is a formal parking area, which is good, when we got there shortly after 9 there were a few cars but when we got back the lot was overflowing with cars with mountain bikers coming and going.  Laurie and I were in the minority employing our feet to get around.

Once on top of the ridgeline the views to the bottom of this box canyon are impressive.  We hiked on the ridge to the Southwest of the canyon about 200’ above the canyon floor.  Bike/hike trails weave back and forth along the top of the ridgeline; we can see other parts of trails on the bottom of the canyon and on opposite ridgeline.

We decided to turn back after a mile or two; trails going on for several more miles but we were having to dodge more and more bikers as the morning wore on.

On our way back we ran into a stray horse along the trail.  Being an animal lover, Laurie was attracted to the horse and he didn’t mind the attention she was giving him.  He looked well cared for so we were not certain where he may have come from since this area is fairly far from any ranch land.

From here we went to the area I am familiar with, along the Bernalillito Mesa.  Each time I have visited this area I have made it a little farther around the mesa.  Google earth shows it’s about 5 miles all the way around but the back side of the mesa is not nearly as interesting as the side I have hiked.  This time we made it two miles before turning back.  We kept going to just the next outcropping of rock to see what’s on the other side before deciding we would continue on for just one more.  Ultimately we decided to stop for lunch before turning back.

We saw only four other people on this hike; two were on horses following one of the arroyos, the other two were also day hikers.  On our way back we caught up with the couple riding horses and gleaned all kinds of information on ‘finds’ in the area.  A seismosaurus, at the time the largest dinosaur, was found only a mile or so from where we were hiking.  There are also some caves and petrified logs in the same general area.  We’ll be back to make our own discoveries.

Our second hike a few weeks later was in search of the trail to the seismosaurus dig site.  This time my friend Esther and her grandson Gavin came along with Laurie and me.  We stopped at a few locations along the road not certain which one is the right one since the directions were literally drawn in the sand by the visitors we met a few weeks earlier.

We started out wandering along an arroyo diverting our path whenever we saw something interesting.  Gavin was excited at all the different rocks and formations, climbing in and around many of them.  As we wound our way down along the arroyo I was glad I had my GPS receiver so we could make a loop trail successfully ending back at the car.  I felt relieved when my GPS pointed us to the car and when we came up over the rise it was there.  

We didn’t find the dinosaur dig.  We still had a good time exploring and not finding the dig gives us an excuse to explore again.  Once I got home I downloaded today’s track, the track from a few weeks earlier and the trail from another website with waypoints of where we should have been hiking.  Today we were a half mile on the opposite side of where we wanted to go.  I will have to plug the waypoints into my GPS so we find it next time… Stay tuned.

Esther was the one that really got a workout today.  I didn’t keep track but it seemed every time I turned around I saw Gavin placing another rock in her backpack.  You gotta love grandmothers!

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark