Category: Geology

Take plenty of New Mexico dirt and rocks, add copious amounts of sun and wind, sprinkle in a bit of moisture and then set aside. Find an isolated, totally desolate piece of land such as the Ojito Wilderness. Place your mixture somewhere in the middle and leave undisturbed for awhile.

On a quiet, late-winter day drive a dozen or so miles on a rough dirt road and find a place to park. You may or may not have a particular destination in mind for your hike, but as Lee and I have learned on our excursions into the Ojito Wilderness, it won’t be long before you begin to see the beauty that sun, wind and water has carved out of the landscape.

I had fun finding rock formations that had “Windows”

A rock with some interesting life form growing on it.

One last photo that is a caution.  Yes, there is beauty in a place like the Ojito Wilderness, but you have to be careful driving on the rough roads.  Lee is a careful driver and, fortunately, we did not end up like this car.

This week’s quest to find a suitable area for a day hike led us to a familiar area of BLM land known as the San Ysidro Trials. I once thought it was a misspelling and was supposed to be San Ysidro Trails. But it’s “Trials” because a large section of it is used for recreational motorcyclists (aka ‘dirt bikes’) who want to test their expertise riding in and around the rocky arroyos in the area. Fortunately, during the times we have hiked there we haven’t encountered any of the roaring, noisy machines, although it’s obvious from their tracks that it is well used.

When we go there we like to walk past the trials area and get to a section of eroded sandstone that, even on a cloudy day, has colorful and interesting rock formations. As wet as the desert still is, we knew we probably would have to navigate through some muddy spots before we got to the rocks. But the parking area is right off a paved highway so we didn’t have to drive any muddy roads. In the spots where the trail got muddy we were able to pick our way through spots of grass along the trail.

Another reason we like hiking in this area is to check out the many tinajas. “Tinaja : a bedrock depression that fills with water during the summer monsoonal rains and when snowfall accumulates in the winter.” We’ve had a winter with snow accumulations and the tinajas didn’t disappoint. Here are a few of the interesting ones.