Trip Report 10-13-05, Thursday; Ken Kutac; <kutac <a t>comcast < d o t> .net>

Rim Trail exploration from FR10 near Cat Mesa turnoff to Peralta Canyon junction road by way of Los Griegos Mountain and Peralta Ridge. 

The hike started after driving off the blacktop SR4 2.4 miles south on FR10. At an unmarked road junction, we turned left and drove for 1.5 miles, stopping near a private property no trespassing gate.

We started hiking about 9:45 am at 8600’ elevation with Gary Salzman, Jean Jones, Yvonne Delamater and myself.  Jean and Gary both had Garmin GPS units and both also had digital cameras.

Shortly after leaving the vehicle, we came to a private property boundary.  Fortunately, we walked outside the fence line of the property going east for about a mile.  The terrain was up and down as we crossed several gullies but brush and debris were cleared away from the fence line so it was a pretty good trail with a few logs and rocks to step over. 

We came to the end of the fence and continued on into a fairly congested deadfall area.  Bearing slightly northeast uphill until we came to a good logging road heading east, we continued on this road until we came to a ponderosa pine, grassy meadow.  Earlier, following the fence line, we were on a north slope and the trees were spruce, Douglas fir and subalpine fir.  We passed a huge Douglas fir that had recently fallen to the ground.  This fir was estimated to be 4 feet in diameter.

As we walked through the ponderosa pine forested park, the logging road-ATV track turned north and headed downhill west.  We did not explore where this road came out but I suspect it went back west to FR10.

We walked through the grassy meadow and continued northeast up a gradual slope to about 9200’.  This approach was on the southwest side of Los Griegos and with ponderosa pines spaced yards apart, it was very easy walking uphill.

We came to a forest service bearing tree survey marker from 1989 and in the ground was a cadastral survey marker put in by the BLM in 1971.  We speculated that the BLM marker designated BLM land and in 1989 this land was transferred to the Santa Fe National Forest as no yellow color designating BLM land is shown on the SFNF map in this area.

At this survey marker there were 2 each 4 X4 wooden 5 foot posts spaced about 3 feet apart with a 1” PVC 5 foot pipe.  The 4 X4 wooden posts and the PVC pipe possibly designated a mining claim stake as there was written on one post “ECOR” and underneath this, “Placer #47”.

We continued uphill and traveled through extensive ponderosa pine forests until Douglas fir and Gambel oak were reached at about 9600’.  This slope was about 30 degrees bearing northwest.

A flagged route could easily be put in this fairly open and easy hiking area.  We steadily climbed uphill through the oak and pine and Douglas fir, passing a few piñon pines, to 9800’ where we came to an old line of fence posts running east and west across the south slope of Los Griegos Mountain.  This old wooden fence post area still had barbed wire strung out intermittently above and below ground.  This had to be an old grazing permit fence that is no longer used.

We went up to a well defined ridge to 10, 000 feet which was the far western end of the summit of Los Griegos Mountain.  This ridgeline continues east to the actual summit at 10,117 feet.  The ridge is very narrow and very rocky but has a well defined elk and deer game trail right on top of the ridge.  We stopped for lunch here and admired the views both north and south.  To the south and west, all of the Rio Grande valley past Cochiti Lake could be seen and some of the cliffs in the Jemez Springs Canyon area could be seen to the southwest.  To the north, Redondo Peak could be seen.

After lunch, we scrambled down a 20 foot rock ledge off the summit down to 10, 000 feet where we found an old fence line going south and east.  We followed the fence line up to another plateau where we found an old telephone cabinet nailed to a piñon tree with some of the wires still attached to the tree.  From this view north, El Cajete at the bottom of Redondo Peak could be seen and also Tschicoma Mountain off to the northeast.

We continued on a gradual slope south about 20-30 feet and found a well worn trail going gradually down to a large, beautiful, grassy meadow area on the east and south side of Los Griegos.  We walked north to a flat open area, crossing over a downed barbed wire fence.  We came to a U-shaped pile of rocks on a steep ledge of this shoulder of Los Griegos Mountain.  This looked like a Native American shrine of some kind but it was not clear as there were no antlers or shaped turquoise or feathers inside the U-shaped rock pile.  From here, SR4 could be seen down below to the north and even the pumice mine off of SR4 could be seen.  To the south, the Sangre de Cristos across the valley could be seen as well as Santa Fe and possibly even I-25 heading to Albuquerque.

We went downhill through the beautiful, grassy meadow, passing by old cow pies that came from cattle that used to graze up in this meadow.  We continued down into the trees of Douglas fir and spruce and found a well traveled cow trail heading down a gully south and east of Los Griegos.  We followed the cow trail down, eventually coming to a junction in a clearing where an old narrow wooden bridge was placed across a very small spring.  At this junction, there was a trail down the gully going into Paliza Canyon and a motor bike and cow trail going left which eventually led to Paliza Pass.

The motor bike trail bypassed the old wooden bridge and continued due south to parallel the Paliza Canyon road that runs north and south up to the Paliza Pass area.  On the trail we took to the left, we followed a fence line down to Paliza Pass at 9400’ elevation.  From here we headed due east, crossing the Paliza Canyon road at the pass.  This Paliza Canyon road heads north and down to SR4.  This road starts on SR4 at 8400’ and goes a 1000’ uphill in about 2.5 miles so this road is unavailable to access the rim trail at Paliza Pass without a very high clearance 4WD vehicle as the road is very badly eroded and very steep in parts.  This road is an extension of FR271 which comes up from the town of Ponderosa on the south.

From the pass, we traveled due east up a very steep forest road labeled 2585.  This road was heavily rutted by motor bikes and is severely eroded.  There was even lots of snow, 2-3 inches on it from the previous snows on Monday and Tuesday.  There was one stunning view on this road of Los Griegos to the west AND Redondo Peak to the northwest, framed by golden aspens in the foreground.

As we continued up to the Peralta Ridge, we intersected a road to the left which is labeled FR291 on the SFNF map.  Gary stated this road going north turns into a trail which skirts Las Conchas Peak and goes to Corral Canyon off of SR4.  He mentioned that he has hiked this trail up to Paliza Pass many times.

From this road junction, we met another road going left and continued up to 9700’ to come out on the Peralta Ridge road that leads to the Electronic Site south on the Peralta Ridge.  This Electronic Site road is FR280 coming from SR4. 

We turned left, going northwest, passing a motor bike trail on the left, just past a cattle guard.  If one would take the motor bike trail north, a true rim trail walk would be made back to the intersection of the FR280 road.  Our group hiked the road that led most directly back to the vehicle, saving this rim trail adventure for another day!

We followed the road down about a mile to 9200’ elevation where we had parked a vehicle earlier.  The hike was 5 hours long as we got to the vehicle at 2:45 pm after hiking approximately 5-6 miles from start to finish.