I finally made it to the bottom of White Rock Canyon, having found a hiking route only 7 miles down and then back up. The key metric isn't the distance but the down and back up part. That was only about 1200 feet but most of it was on a 1 mile stretch of a gravelly, cobbly trail that "shows few signs of use but is easy to follow."
It was quiet and peaceful, with no signs of humans (not even the ever present beer cans) and little indication of animal life, either. When I arrived at the river, I did encounter swarms of biting flies, which hastened my return back up the canyon walls.
So I'll start in the middle of the walk, with a few views from the bottom of the canyon.
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| About a hundred yards from the river and 50 feet above it is this tree left behind by the floods 15 years ago. |
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These are the Ancho Rapids, the most significant rapids thru the canyon. I would guess Class 0.5 rapids.
But there is water in the river. Better than most rivers around here. |
But now lets go back to the beginning of the walk. After parking the car and walking a couple of miles, I got my first view of the canyon.
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| The far side of the canyon is where I most often hike. The hill to the left is Montoso. |
Jumping for a moment to the other side of the canyon, here is a view from the base of Montoso of the general area I am walking today
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| In the distance is the Jemez Mountain and Los Alamos. The road is Hwy 4. I parked along Hwy 4, then walked a couple miles across the center of this photo before tumbling down cliffs similar to what you see here. |
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| I've arrived at the edge of the cliff. the path down starts over there, in the middle of those rocks. |
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| I start by squeezing thru these rocks. |
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| And down this path. |
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| Look towards the San Miguel mountains we see part of LANL. That plateau is a DoE Forbidden Zone. Mustn't go there. |
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| And I get my first glance of the river, down there about 1000 feet and a mile or more away. Montoso again in the background. |
A few more scenery pics on the trip down
I said I was walking down Ancho Canyon, but I lied. Ancho Canyon is in the Forbidden Zone. I was walking down a side canyon and at this point, we joined Ancho Canyon.
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| Ancho Canyon |
I always thought "Ancho" referred to a specific, especially tasty dried chile pod, but the word has a broader meaning, as in
Tengo una hermana ancha y otra hermana flaca (a joke that possibly neither of my sisters will get and certainly only one would appreciate).
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| I saw these. |
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| The tamarisk was blooming (I think these are tamarisk) |
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| No trip to the desert is complete without bones. |
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| Artisticallly arranged bones |
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| Another pic of the river before I leave |
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OK, I know I'm not smiling.
But that is because I forgot to think about you. |
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| Follow the cairns thru the tamarisk to the trail |
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| After hiking up hill for quite a ways, I looked up and realized I still had a long ways to go |
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So I started taking pics of rocks to let me catch my breath.
Like this piece of basalt I found interesting. |
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| Or this welded tuff |
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| And this gassy rhyolite |
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| Finally back to the mesa top and another view of the Jemez and Los Alamos |
As you can see, clouds are starting to build up over the Jemez and in a couple of hours, they will become storm clouds with lots of thunder and lightning and possibly some rain. I don't mind the thunder and getting wet is fine but being struck by lightning once in my life has been enough for me.
So it's time to leave.
