Sunday, January 5, 2014

Getting High In New Mexico

Our neighbor to the north, Colorado, has legalized recreational marijuana use.  New Mexico is talking about following suit.

It doesn't matter to me.  I have my own ways of getting high.

I walked across the Rio (not so) Grande and up a dry wash to a trail that leads to the high country.  In the photo, to the left of center is a rock outcrop, the top of which I hiked to, a few days ago.

That was cool, but I really wanted to get to the ridge that you can see beyond it.

Today I returned.  From behind that rock outcrop, the rugged terrain to the north is revealed.

As I moved up the slope, the view behind me overtopped the outcrop.

Finally, I stood on the ridge, 800 feet above the campground.

What goes up, must come down.  I had been dealing with a lot of loose rock on the way up and preferred not to descend that way.  Along the ridge to the south was a route that would probably bring me to a mining trail, but there was a fence there.  Staying on my side of the fence would put me on sloping, loose rock above cliffs.  I headed north.

The topography was dramatic, but at least I was on tight rock in the critical areas.

I really took my time working my way down.

What a satisfying day!

3 comments:

Pleinguy said...

Wow! That is high; and it looks like more than 800 ft. The campground is down by that lake. Since you went down a different way than you went up, where did you end up? Looks like it was fun.

Jim and Gayle said...

Nice looking hike. Where are you?

Ken said...

It was fun. I ended up returning via the same dry wash I used to head out there. Jim and Gayle, this area is across the river from the Riverside Campground at Caballo Lake State Park in NM. There are no designated or marked trails over there, but like the Chama River area, "We doan' need no steenking trails…"