Caldera Rim Trip Report Forest Road 10 to Los Griegos

South Rim

Date: November 15, 2007 Purpose: Check the rim between Forest Road 10 and Los Griegos for roads or trails. USGS Topographic Map: Redondo Peak Participants: Dorothy Hoard, Yvonne Delamater, Ed Jacobson Equipment: Garmin Global Positioning System Model GPS 12; digital camera Olympus Camedia C-3000; notebooks. Methodology: We walk the rim as closely as possible while looking for parallel routes and points of interest. This section had a high-clearance road to the base of Los Griegos that closely paralleled the rim. Conclusions: In summary, there is a well-traveled road from Forest Road 10 to the base of Los Griegos. It follows the rim fairly well, contouring around two hillocks. Several well-traveled roads branch south from this road. The entire route is heavily wooded. There are no views in any direction. There is no road up the west slope of Los Griegos. Trip Report: Introduction: The rim between Forest Road 10 and Los Griegos is part of the El Cajete Member of the Valles Ryolite, next to last of the volcanic flows from the caldera. The rhyolitic landscape is fairly level but will erode into steep canyons. Los Griegos is part of the Tertiary Paliza Canyon Formation, primarily andesites. It forms sharp peaks and rounded knolls. One of the larger knolls is a vent of Bearhead Rhyolite. The Forest Service owns the entire rim here, apparently all that we hiked along. We did come to a fenced area with survey posts at the corner of private property, but we did not cross any fences marked as such. The Forest map lists this area as Management Area P: Cultural Resource-Timber/ Wildlife. “Emphasis is on Cultural Resource location,

inventory, and nomination with timber management and wildlife habitat enhancement.” There are grazing allotments; we crossed over several cattle guards. It appears there is some wood cutting, but the road does not look good enough to accommodate big logging trucks. The road is well-traveled and some vehicles came along while we were on the road. Some steeper places had deep ruts that could high-center a vehicle. Description: We parked at the cattle guard where Forest Road 10 tops the rim. A bermed dirt road heads east along the rim. The rim here is the sharp break at the top the south wall of the caldera. The rim is actually fairly narrow, with the breaks of Paliza Canyon descending quickly southward. We soon came upon a drivable road that actually intersects

South Rim from Cat Mesa. From right, Knoll 9207, Cerro Pelado, Los Griegos, Los Conchas In the far distance is Rabbit Mountain above the pumice mine. Knoll 9207, Griegos, Conchas, and Rabbit Mountain are on the rim. 1

South Rim FR10 about 50 feet south of where we parked. The rim here is heavily wooded and fenced. There is some dog-hair ponderosa pine north of the fence, but the entire area along the road has been thinned. We encountered several junctions with roads from the south; we did not follow any of them. At several points, our road turned south rather steeply downhill. In each case I elected to follow the rim through the forest. Some knolls had deadfall but there was little difficulty. At one point we came upon a fence corner with several survey posts implying that is was the corner of private property. The Forest map showed private property along our route but we never saw any posted. In every case where we diverted from the road, we returned to a road at passes between knolls. There were no views; the forest was too thick.

T18N R3E Section 13/Section 24 at fence corner.

Fence and forest along the fence line at the rim.

Northern Arizona University School of Forestry Experimental Research Area

Doghair stand at rim line. 2

Silviculture Lab

We could see Knoll 9207 from the top of the smaller knoll 8942. The larger knoll looked (and was) heavily wooded. We descended to the road between the two knolls. It appeared to traverse north around Knoll 9207. We went over the knoll and down to the next pass between it and Los Griegos. Here was a large, heavily grazed meadow with a ruined cabin. The road went through the pass and down into the

South Rim

Ruins of a log cabin at the meadow.

A rare view of Los Griegos from the rim.

There were no views and plenty of deadfall. I had marked the map with the place the Salzman party came up Griegos in 2005. We came close to that point and continued climbing. The climb was quite dull and seemingly endless. We stopped for lunch probably around 2 PM. Ed went up farther. He reported that he did not reach the top and the way was much the same as we had come. It was getting late with the shorter day, so we turned back. (The GPS map that I generated later showed we had about 350 more feet to the top.) We retraced our route down the mountain and followed the road to the car. It indeed went the whole way following the rim but rounding the knolls. I found this entire section quite dull. Informant: Dorothy Hoard. Time – 8:00 to 4:00.

Forest at top of Knoll 8942 on rim

canyon separating Knoll 9207 and Cerro Pelado. We followed a different road that started up the west flank of Los Griegos. This road angled north and soon headed downhill; we continued straight up Griegos. The west slope was fairly uniformly timbered, not thick but with a covered canopy. The map showed cleared areas, but they were aspen groves.

The west slope of Griegos appears as though it had a fire long ago, with aspen forest as first growth, now being reclaimed by conifer forest.

The meadow at Griegos Pass

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South Rim

Forest Road 10 to Los Griegos. Rim = red, Forest Road 10 = purple, our route = bright green. Both rim and FR 10B are under our route where they are not otherwise visible.

On October 25, 2008, David and Faye Brown and I went back to the west slope of Los Griegos to climb to the summit. I wanted to drive as close to the west base as possible, so we drove in on FR10B. The road is not marked and has a lot of side roads; I kept taking the wrong turns. We ended up at locked private gates twice. Finally, I stopped and got out to get a GPS reading to see where we really were. While I was standing there, a dog came by, followed by a man who turned out to be Bill Armstrong, chief of forest management for the Santa Fe National Forest, whom I’ve known for years. Bill was checking on a nearby logging mastication project. I was surprised that they would be doing one in such an obscure location because mastication is a sop to mollify the public that objects to ugly logging. Bill was really unhappy about the work because it is prohibitively expensive and he had more effective ways to use the money. Bill told me how to get to Griegos. We drove on and checked out the mastication area, then headed east. We came upon a steep and rutted stretch of road. I didn’t want to get highcentered, so we parked and started hiking from there. We went to the pass were the main road goes over

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toward Cerro Pelado. We hiked the road that heads up the side of Griegos and followed it to the end where it turned to the north side of mountain A trail continued east, apparently heading downhill, but we did not follow it. We turned uphill and climbed through the old aspen/conifer forest with lots of deadfall. It was the same as before—dull—with no points of interest. The slope narrows and becomes rocky toward the top. We finally topped out onto a narrow ridge. I had not realized that the summit of Griegos is so long and narrow. We could see the main, wider part of the eastern summit a long, rough way away. We ate lunch here in a forest of southwestern white pines as we had seen before on the eastern summit. It actually was getting late, so we started back. Near the top were some open spaces with fair views to the west. I had to use the GPS to get back to the road. Dave kept veering too far north and I didn’t want to end up in a draw heading down the steep north slope. I had hope we would blunder onto a logging road in this area. None were on aerial photos or maps and we didn’t find any on the ground. But it would not be hard to construct a trail on this slope should a rim trail ever become a reality.

South Rim

Parts of the slope have heavy deadfall...

... although there are some game trails.

Rocky and steep toward the top, with a forest of southwestern white pines.

Looking eastward toward the high point of Los Griegos. The summit is a long, very narrow ridge

Some limited views southwestward from near the summit. Cerro del Pino in mid-distance.

Views northward are VERY limited. 5

South Rim

Life in the deadfall...

... argues for more fires.

It wasn’t all bad.

My Honda CR-V is sort of an opera car. I don’t like to push its capabilities too hard.

October 25, 2008, second try on Los Griegos. Rim = red, FR10 = purple, our road trip on FR10B = cerise, hiking route = bright green. 6