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| Hiking | 5.81 Miles |
557 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.81 Miles | | | |
| 557 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Day 2 at Bandolier and it was a beautiful morning. Got an early start hiking the Frey Trail from the campground down into the canyon. Really nice trail with great views. The switchbacks towards the bottom had some really cool spots and there was Tuff everywhere. Walls of it rose above me and small tents were pitched along the trail as I got down to the bottom. I walked the trail at the bottom pretty much until it hooked up with a nature trail west of the main ruin loops. I would do the main ruin hikes another day. Today it would be the falls of Frijoles Creek.
Took a quick break at the visitor's center and then hit the Falls Trail. On HAZ it's listed as the Upper and Lower Falls, but the bottom of the lower falls is no longer accessible due to a massive landslide that narrowed the canyon there by half. To get to the bottom of the lower falls, even yet, to get even a decent view of the lower falls themselves would be a really sketchy scramble. The top of the falls is pretty much a dead end. I was kind of bummed by that, as the trail used to continue on all the way to the Rio Grande River, which was my plan, but wouldn't happen. I actually talked to the Park Service Personnel about restoring that section, but they stated that with that landslide, it would be almost impossible to cut a new trail in there and thus, no plan to try. Probably the only way anymore to get to the river would be with ropes and harnesses and then jug back up the rope at the falls.
The Falls Trail was nice and as the day warmed up, there was plenty of shade to be had. The views of the Upper Falls was nice. Unfortunately, New Mexico had the same winter we had with little to no snow runoff, so the Falls were just one stage above a trickle. Nice hike all the same. The Trail did continue down to the Lower Falls, although I suspect it is discouraged. I went anyway and explored the creek in-between the two falls. Was kind of hoping to be able to hike up to the Upper Falls plunge pool, but got stopped about 3/4 of the way by water and impenetrable vegetation. Probably could have gotten wet and muddy and done it, but I had other plans for the day and wasn't feeling it.
Returned back to the Visitor's Center and instead of hiking back up the Frey Trail, I took the shuttle back to the campground to take a break before doing some more hiking up higher.
Just a note if you've never been here. The Parking Area at the Visitor's Center is very small and even the overflow can't handle many more cars. They have a large parking area at the Juniper Campground and encourage people to park there and the shuttle runs back and forth from there to the Visitor's Center every 30 minutes. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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| Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty & well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out & proclaiming, "Wow What a Ride!" |
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