Short Canyon, NM

As you hike the "A" trail for the hundredth or so time, you will eventually begin to wonder about the little canyon cut that starts out with the trail down near the street. You overlook that cut for the first quarter mile, and you can see a bit of waterfall formation down low... and perhaps some more up higher. It does not appear to have much potential... then again... unless you check it out you might never know.


Access at the bottom or work your way over to the canyon from along the "A" trail... either option has benefits.Above the lower falls you exit the National Forest and enter private property; the remainder of the canyon lies on private real estate.

If you have a sharp eye, you will note a trail winding across the drainage, curving up the south side of the canyon... it is clearly a man made trail. It suggests a fun route to the top. Unfortunately, it is a fun route only up to a mess of an old "off the grid" camp site, littered with the debris of a slightly deranged mindset.

Above the camp it is a scramble. This next section of the canyon may be the best: 170' of tiered dry falls that you manage to go up and over... or around and up. Unfortunately, there is never any sense of being off and away; the city looms large immediately below you.

The Falls soon top out and you access a steep, shallow basin for the remainder of the canyon, terminating along the "A" Trail at a great section of sculptured rocks.

You will return to your car via the "A" trail... no one would want to descend this canyon.

Make sure you take along some leather gloves for this one... rock and plant are equally sharp and sticky!

2013-12-15 imike