‘Tis winter’s colder weather, so ’tis time to return to the Ojito Wilderness; we chose to start this year by returning to Hoodoo Pines. The terrain makes for easy hiking and the geology is mesmerizing. At times we followed the track of previous hikes, at other times wandered about looking for anything interesting. And the Ojito didn’t disappoint.
The Hike
Hoodoo Pines Hike.PatJayNancy.2017-12-17
Jay here: We eased back into the Ojito with a relatively easy hike to start the winter exploration here in the Rio Puerco Valley. Leo the West Highland White Terrier was a great trail dog who often led the way on this hike. Besides fascinating geology there’s a lot of history in the valley that centers on the 4 villages that attracted land grant farmers for many years until the water and drought send them packing in the late 40s and mid 50s. Excellent bakers favored us with homemade Oreos and chocolate chip cookies that outshined our usual fare.
Update: A few days after the hike, Pat and flew out of Santa Fe and over the Ojito Wilderness. She took these aerial photos of Arroyo la Jara and the end of Bernalillito Mesa, where we hiked to Hoodoo Pines. The photos were taken with an iPhone; we were flying about 2000 feet above the terrain.
In this photo, the parking area is in the lower right corner. From there we hiked to the base of Bernalillito Mesa in the upper center of the photo.
Statistics
Total Distance: 3.77 miles
Elevation: start 5,797 ft, maximum 5,956 ft, minimum 5,790 ft
Gross gain: 166 ft. Aggregate ascending 438 ft, descending 439 ft
Maximum slope: 29% ascending, 29% descending, 4.5% average
Duration: 3:42
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I urge you to explore our hiking tracks with Google Earth. With the virtual 3-dimensional presentation, achieved by panning and tilting the view, you can get a much better idea of the hikes and terrain than you can get from the 2-dimensional screenshot above. For assistance: Using Google Earth Track Files.
Related Posts (in the vicinity)
References
Hiking in New Mexico: Hoodoo Pines Hike – 01/08/2017
ASCHG: Dino Dig And Hoodoo Pines
New Mexico Birder: Hoodoo Pines Trail – Ojito Wilderness
Some great photos.
BLM: Ojito Wilderness
