Cyndi and Other Pretty Things in Valles Caldera

It has been a wet spring, with lots of greening going on.

I'd hoped to find wildflowers in Valles Caldera.

There were dandelions ... LOTS of dandelions.

And this one patch of wild iris on an east facing slope

While that was about it for wildflowers, 

we enjoyed enjoying them.

So now back to the stunning Cyndi

And to a bit of scenery

We found quite a bit of obsidian near this spot.

And Cyndi + scenery

and once again back to scenery

(with a tad of info content)

A caldera is basically a big rock bowl (this one is about 15 miles in diameter)

and the little rain we get mostly settles in the bottom

Making the bottom of the caldera pretty marshy with little streams and little trout.

Here is the San Antonio Creek on the north side of the caldera

Thunder heads started to build up

so we headed out, getting a bit of rain before leaving the park and lots of lightning and pretty heavy rain on the trip home. 

Our timing was good.

But, before we leave the park, lets play a couple of fun games. 

This first game I call Find the Fisherman. It is a lot like Where's Waldo, except there is only one person in the photo ... and yet, still a fun challenge to find him.

That was fun ... and so is this next game called Who Pooped That? 

Winners will be announced in an upcoming blog.

This one is easy ... almost a gimmie.

And this is slightly more difficult.

And its not funny to guess Paul and Cyndi.

As always, thanks for reading.

Dome Wilderness

Well, Hello Everyone !!!

You're joining me for a walk today? 

Alright !!

Fall in line and follow me as I head into the Dome Wilderness. Don't worry, it'll be a short walk: the Dome Wilderness is one of the smallest wilderness areas of the US southwest.

I better start with an orientation, in case you get lost along the way.
Here is a view of the San Miguel mountains (the heart of the wilderness area) from the area I usually visit.
Below us in the canyon is the Rio Grande. The light colored rock on the far side is Bandelier Tuff.
And the area between the canyon and the mountains is the Bandelier Ntl Monument.

These San Miguel's are one of six New Mexico ranges called the San Miguel Mountains. I don't know about the others, but these look rather bleak from this distance of about 15 miles. 

And now, if you've been keeping up with my brisk pace, we come to our first view in the wilderness: St Peter's Dome, the highest point in the photo above.

A fire lookout at the top, with evidence below of the Conchas Fire 10 years ago.
Even before the fire, this was a fairly treeless area.
The lookout is on the boundary between the wilderness area and the Ntl Forest to the west.

And looking the other way, here is Boundary Peak, the other notable peak in the overview picture above.
Boundary Peak marks the eastern edge of the area, where it meets the Bandelier Ntl Monument.

So now we've seen the both the east and west boundaries of the Wilderness Area.
I told you it was small.

Now looking north across a couple of canyons, we see Rabbit Hill.
In the distance is the Jemez Mountain and the Valles Caldera Ntl Monument.

Looking down one of the canyons towards Bandelier.
This one is called Capulin Canyon and, like all the canyons here, is filled with ruins and artifacts of the Ancestral Pueblans.

A closer look at one of Capulin Canyon's side canyon walls.
This again is Bandelier Tuff, which is relatively soft and easy to excavate, making it a favorite dwelling location.
I don't know if the caves visible in the center were dwellings.
We could go look, but it's 1,000 feet to the bottom of the canyon and several hundred back up to these formations
and I don't want to tire you out.

And now I'll be quiet as we examine a few more pretty things.

Excellent! We are back where we started. 

I'm happy.

How about you?

Cabezon to Pintado

We enjoyed a nice day by visiting two of New Mexico's most iconic and least visited locations: Cabezon Peak in the Mt Taylor volcanic field and the ruins of Pueblo Pintado, a remote outlier of the Chacoan Complex.

Cabezon Peak

While she may look bored, Cyndi is actually hunting rocks.
She found a couple of keepers.

In what many call one of the world's best collections of volcanic necks, Cabezon Peak is the largest of about 50 examples found in the Rio Puerco drainage.

A close-up of Cabezon Peak.
From the reasonably level base, it rises about 1200' high, with the volcanic plug itself is about 600' high.
You can climb this (they say it is a Level 4 climb, minimally technical),
but we just admired it from the bottom.

Cero Cuate is a nearby volcano

I couldn't decide which view of Cero Cuate I liked better.
I included both so you could pick your favorite

Several miles away is Luis Mesa

A closer view of Luis Mesa

This is the "ghost town" of Cabezon,
which looks more like a living hamlet to me.

Just in case you thought I was joking about Cyndi rock hunting,
here are the specimens she collected.
On your left is a volcanic bomb, about 2 million years old.
On your right is metamorphosed granite with quartz inclusions, which began forming almost 2 billion years ago and probably exposed 150 million years ago.

Pueblo Pintado

We left the Rio Puerco drainage and 50 miles west found ourselves near the Pueblo Pintado ruins but unable to locate them. We saw them on the map but saw no signs on the road ... or even any hint they were actually there. After driving thru various alleys and dirt roads in the small village of Pueblo Pintado, Cyndi spotted the ruins on a rise about 3 miles away. I pointed the truck that way and after wandering down a wash, someone's driveway, across a pasture, we found a lightly used cart path heading about the right direction.

Being both remote and hard to find does keep the number of visitors to a minimum.

This was Cyndi's first view of the ruins

We had a quick lunch, then I signed in at the register.
We had originally planned to visit on April 27th,
but Cyndi wasn't feeling well, so we postponed the trip to May 2.
After I looked at the register, I was very happy for the postponement.

Our first close view of the 3 story walls.

A kiva in front of the east side walls.

AFAIK, the ruins and walls were found in the current condition,
but the walls have been stabilized with some injected concrete.

For some reason, Cyndi thinks I can't see her in the middle of the ruins
So she waves to catch my attention.

Examples of shards found in the middens just outside the ruin's outer walls.
You should be able to date the ruins based on these shards.

These juniper beams are about 1,000 years old.
None of the beams were much larger than 3" in diameter,
because the few trees here are itsy bitsy things.

Lichens on some of the wall rubble.
Lichens are so cute, I can't resist taking their pictures.

A closer view of the lichen above.
See what I mean?
Adorable

One final look at the view the Pueblo residents had with their morning cup of coffee.
Kind of a wonder they got any work done at all.

We then headed home, across Jemez Mountain on scenic byway Hwy 126. That was a lot of fun, but no pictures. Just memories.

Путин завидует, поэтому Путин уничтожает