Hiking in the High New Mexico Desert

Thursday and it's hiking day and another trip with the Portal Rodeo Hiking Club.

This trip was scheduled to depart from the Paint Pony Resort, with hiking over to large outcrops at the base of the Peloncillo Mountains on the east side of the San Simon Valley just north of Rodeo.  Upon going outside around sunrise though the scene was one of snow.  The previous night the valley received snow and the mountains and landscape were blanketed with about 1-2 inches of water in its solid form, but with clear blue skies and rising temperatures it looked to be a nice day for winter desert hiking.  Twenty one hikers arrived at the Painted Pony Resort and the group then drove over to the edge of the riverbed to start their weekly cure for nature deficit disorder.  The group made its first stop at a small Mimbres hamlet discovered on the Painted Pony Resort property and after a short description it was onward onto BLM land.  Crossing the old El Paso and Southwestern railroad bed the group continued toward the goal of the outcrops.  These large outcrops show bedding planes of tuff, conglomerates, and some debris from earlier volcanic activity and differential weathering created wide ledges used by former inhabitants of the area for grinding seeds.  Pictographs and 30-40 grinding holes were found along one ledge and additional grinding holes were discovered on top of the outcrop by those daring enough to make the climb.  After a relaxing lunch in the winter sun the group headed back to the vehicles covering between 7 to 8 miles of easy high desert hiking out and back.  The map for this hike may be found here or in the side bar.

It is difficult to adequately demonstrate the scale of features in the high desert and things that look close frequently turn out to be miles away.  Below is a 360 degree photosynth created from below the outcrops in the small valley created by the surrounding rocks.  Hikers may be found in the image which give a sense of scale of this feature everyone locally sees while driving along highway 80.  Click on the image to interact and navigate around the panorama (it requires installation of Microsofts Silverlight and the photosynth should prompt you if you do not have it installed).  Below the photosynth is an additional panoramic view of the outcrop also with hikers for scale.

Outcrop at the base of the Peloncillo Mountains with tiny hikers

Ledge of grinding holes
 

The Latest Metate

While out fencing along the eastern riverbank of the San Simon Riverbed on the expanded Painted Pony Resort  more evidence of earlier inhabitants came to light.  While working down in an arroyo another metate was discovered.  With only a few inches of one end sticking out of the ground it was recognized by the distinctive pecking along the bottom where the stone was partially shaped to create a usable grinding tool.  Upon further examination of the area adjacent and upstream from the metate the rocks on the arroyo slope took on a different characteristic.  Instead of the normal rounded gray cobble which underlies the bench above the riverbed and lines the slopes of the arroyos, a band of reddish more angular stones, some with lichen, were noted which stretched from the top of the bench to bottom of on one side of the arroyo.  This suggested the presence of a former structure on the bench top which collapsed spilling masonry rock down the slope of the arroyo, including the metate which became buried along the arroyos edge.  A walk on the bench above the band of reddish rock led to several large lichen covered boulders which may have served as corner stones for a masonry structure possibly a field house.

Mimbres field houses were a cultural expression found during the Mimbres classic period where the majority of people inhabited large pueblo villages but maintained secondary structures some distance away by agricultural fields.  These field houses were of less substantial construction containing less material goods and it is argued served as only part time residences.

Isolated masonry foundations are consistently found on the eastern bank of the San Simon along a stretch where drainage from Sulphur Canyon, an old branch of Cave Creek Canyon, and the San Simon Riverbed meet while masonry foundations/structures are not observed along the western bank, over the same stretch of riverbed. Although Mimbres pottery is reported from the west bank, no architectural features suggesting masonry construction typical of Mimbres were found.  It is possible the San Simon Riverbed represents the western edge of the Mimbres culture during the classic/post classic period and the furthest western extent of Mimbres style rock art is found in the valley on the eastern slopes of the Chiricahua Mountains suggesting the valley also served as a De facto border between different cultural groups.

Although no diagnostic pottery was found, the presence of above ground masonry is consistent with a classic/post classic Mimbres site.  The current lack of ceramics is also consistent with a Mimbres field house which would only receive use part time during the growing season as is the limited wear, about 1 inch, and somewhat irregular shape of the metate where less energy was expended in construction and on creating material goods at secondary sites.

Based on the observation that the metate was associated with collapsed masonry and the documented use of field houses by Mimbres, this find is tentatively identified as Mimbres in origin and would date to about the 12th century.

Masonry foundation outline in the San Simon valley

Metate found in association with masonry (south of the location shown above)

Portal Rescue Fundraiser, the Soup Kitchen

The yearly soup kitchen fundraiser for Portal Rescue is taking place in Portal AZ this week.  The first day started with a bang, folks from Douglas, Bisbee, and Animas came resulting in a sold out soup kitchen.  I made it over for the second day of the soup kitchen and had a great bowl of Ham and bean soup, the list included about 20 varieties of soups all with home made breads and desserts.  I also bought 5 raffle tickets for the drawing, there are very nice prizes again this year.  A useful way to bring the community together for a worthy cause.  The members of Portal Rescue are the first responders in this corner of southeastern Arizona and without their dedication emergency response time would increase significantly.

Serving Soup at the Portal Rescue fundraiser

Desserts and Dining in the Front Room at the Portal Rescue Fundraiser

Painted Pony Ranch - Fence Update

Fencing alone is slow work but 1.25 miles is completed now.  The remaining segment, a quarter mile on the east side of the San Simon Riverbed, will shortly be finished with half of the T-posts already installed.  But with guests arriving this week at the Painted Pony Resort it is time to change gears and get back to cleaning and refreshing the buildings on the estate in preparation for their arrival.

With the expansion it seemed appropriate to mark the entrance to the ranch on Painted Pony Rd where the owner now owns both sides of the road.  After discussions about ways to mark the entrance a basalt wall along the road was agreed upon.  With a good supply of basalt a couple of standing basalt pillars were first installed flanking the road.  These 1000 lb basalt blocks took some time to move and install but look nice.  Then a 2-3 ft wall was added on the east side back to the newly installed fence line.   While not designed to keep cattle out the wall is just a marker on the landscape denoting the expanded property for guests enjoyment at the Painted Pony Ranch.

Basalt wall along Painted Pony Road.

Trail Camera in the Mountains

Thursdays are usually reserved for hiking with the Portal Rodeo Hiking Club, but this week other duties took precedence, so while the hiking club went up Gray Mountain, Chiricahua Sky Island Rodeo with one of her guests and I drove up into the Chiricahuas.  One set of guests to the Painted Pony Resort, the LSU Arthropod Museum, make yearly excursions to collect in the Chiricahua and Peloncillo Mountains.  The LSAMs use PPR as a base of operations collecting for the museum and ongoing research projects during the monsoon season in late summer.  Last year the group placed a camera off trail high in the Chiricahuas to document wildlife activity.  I was asked to find the location and replace the batteries and SD card in the trail camera and mail the SD card to them.  With a description of the location and photographs in memory 3 of us headed up into the mountains.  Arriving at East Turkey Creek on FS42, just past the turnoff to Paradise, we parked and started upstream.  Initially checking every possible candidate tree for the camera, it became apparent the camera was further upstream.  Continuing up the stream bed the location was eventually discovered and new batteries and SD card were installed.  The camera was replaced in the same location and the 3 hikers headed back down the canyon to the car. 

A review of the 3000 or so recorded images suggests that the upper reaches of Turkey Creek Canyon is more popular than thought with many images of hikers and summer swimmers, but wildlife also uses the canyon and its year round supply of water.  Below is a multi-image composite of one of the smooth water slides found along the bottom of Turkey Creek and one of a bobcat headed upstream.  I will leave the remaining wildlife photographs for the LSAMs to publish so as not to spoil their surprise.

Turkey Creek water slide

Bobcat high in the Chiricahua Mountains

Hiking with the Portal Rodeo Hiking Club

With winter snows at the higher elevations in the Chiricahua mountains the location for the weekly Portal Rodeo hike was at lower elevations in the Pelocillo mountains.  Twenty three hikers, including a number of visitors to the area gathered at the Chiricahua Desert Museum for the drive north.  After reshuffling hikers into 6 vehicles the group headed out.

Just south of I-10 on the east side of the San Simon Valley in the Peloncillo mountains lie several faults with old mines and prospects.  One of these, the Johnny Bull mine, "produced an unknown amount of copper, mostly before 1905" (1).  The site sits below McGee Peak on the west side of the Peloncillo mountains just across the ridge from the Carbonate Hill mine, another mine which produced lead, zinc, and silver.  Parking at the turnoff to the mine the group headed up hill.

The area is characterized by Mississippian aged Escabrosa limestone
with an intrusive band of volcanic rock.  Along the contact between these 2 groups and near the visible fault lines mineralization occurred and the mines and prospects are found along this interface.  Vertically oriented bands of mineralization may be seen at the surface and in the old adits and shafts, see below.  In the mine dump outside of one of the adits turquoise may be found.  Small pieces, light to medium blue in color, dot the dump that spills down the hillside.

The groups first stop was an old stone 3 room building.  Perhaps the mine headquarters, this building shows some interesting architectural details including arched windows and doors.  Continuing uphill the group came to 2 adits.  Above this were several vertical shafts with a headframe, and 2 ore shoots leading down to the level of the adits.  After some exploration, the group scattered with some heading south at the elevation of the headframe while others wandered back down hill before heading south across the exposed limestone slope of the Peloncillo mountains to other adits and prospects.  Passing a number of dugouts along the walls of the arroyos, these may have served as simple miners sleeping quarters.  Arriving at another major working the group took a break and ate lunch while looking for small chips of turquoise.  Similar to the other workings, this site was composed of 2 horizontal adits with a vertical shaft leading to the surface above the adits.  A bird, perhaps a raven, had built a large nest on a ledge in the vertical shaft next to an ore vein, see image below.  Sheltered from the wind and predators this nest still has a nice view of the greenery but in this case it is exposed copper mineralization.

A short winter hike of only about 3 miles, everyone seemed to enjoy a day out on the landscape.  The map for this hike may be found here or on the hiking page.

1.  Mining Districts of Hidalgo County, New Mexico

Old house at the Johnny Bull mine.

Headframe at the Johnny Bull mine.

The last load, an ore shoot below the headframe.

The nest egg.  Bird nest next to ore vein.

Mineralization in a vertical shaft.