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| Bridal Veil Salado Canyon Loop, NM | |
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| | Bridal Veil Salado Canyon Loop, NM | | | |
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Bridal Veil Salado Canyon Loop, NM
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| Hiking | 10.80 Miles |
1,331 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.80 Miles | 4 Hrs 31 Mns | | 2.95 mph |
| 1,331 ft AEG | 51 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | On the second day in the Cloudcroft area I headed down the mountain about 10 miles to a place called High Rolls where there is another system of trails that follow along the 1900's train route. There are three trails, The Grand View Trail T130 that is the uppermost trail, Bridal Veil Trail T129 and the lower Salado Trail T128. Fresnal Canyon Road can take you too any one of these three trails but I started at the upper most end and ended on the lower most and returned the same way for a total of 10.8 miles.
The Grand View Trail is probably named such because of the grand views of the mountains to the west and White Sands in the Valley below. In spite of the wind I still had a fairly good view to the west, just a bit dusty. The trail is wide since it follows the track bed and I found myself drifting from one side to the other when ever the mood moved me. I kind of laughed out loud thinking once again of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine and Kramer didn't like the narrow lanes on a road so Kramer painted over the stripes and made one super wide lane allowing them to drift from one side to the other. It always amazes me what drifts through my head while hiking alone.
The Bridal Veil Falls Trail is the middle of the three trails and while there are no views it is a bit more interesting with a couple of old trestles in various states of decay. This is also the trail where the train makes a 180 degree turn while crossing Salado Creek. There are informative signs along the way. The Bridal Veil Trail ends at Bridal Veil Falls, There was a little water flowing over the falls when I was there. Bridal Veil Falls area is kind of an oasis and was a train stop.
The Salado Canyon trail starts at Bridal Veil Falls and continues down stream coming eventually to the Salado Canyon Trestle. This is a restored trestle. The trail continues on for another .75 miles past the trestle where it enters Fresnal Canyon. I only followed it .5 miles past the trestle, the track bed is a bit overgrown and I opted to turn around (I still had to drive to the Chiricahua Mountains today). The GPS route for this round trip hike is rather interesting, when graphed the trail is "V" shaped. Straight lines on either side with a constant slope of 170ft/mile. As you know from hiking this is an easy slope and nowhere near the 1000ft/mile of some trails. The only other place I have seen such a consistent slope on a trail is along the Arizona Trail near Gardner Canyon where it follows a water canal. |
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