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| Hiking | 6.30 Miles |
850 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.30 Miles | 4 Hrs | | 1.58 mph |
| 850 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | While spending the week in Cortez, I headed down McElmo Creek to the Canyons Of The Ancients NM for a year-opener hike. With topo map and HAZ description in hand, I headed out across the sandstone. The weather was perfect, and I ended up stripping down to shorts and a t-shirt. Much of the recent snow had melted, turning the trail into gooey red oatmeal mud. I explored several marked spur trails, finding one little ruin, before arriving at the cool Saddlehorn Pueblo. Hiked out to a viewpoint for lunch, where I had a view of Sand Canyon and Ute Mountain. Continuing over the snowy mesa on my counter clockwise hike, I passed the uranium mine and entered the broad and scenic East Rock Canyon, with its distant alcove sheltered ruins. The south end of the loop brought numerous alcoves with crumbling walls, and occasional glimpses of some odd couple who were hiking along the cliff above me. The final south facing alcove contained what I thought was the most impressive ruin. My moronic utterance upon seeing it was "Dude! That's just...dude!" I climbed as close to it as I could, taking multiple shots of its perfectly constructed wall, before continuing down the trail. Arriving back at the Sand Canyon Trail, I explored a spur trail that I had missed on the way in, which led to a large wall on the north side of Castle Rock. Returning to the trailhead, I set about removing large quantities of red mud from my lower extremities, and then headed back to Cortez for dinner at Thatza Pizza.
This was a great hike, and only a short drive from the in-law's house in Cortez. Thanks for the suggestion Rob! |
| _____________________
| "…you never know when a hike might break out" -Jim Gaffigan |
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