During the long, cold Santa Fe winter I’d been playing on the computer and mooning over maps and planning trips for the coming season. Finally, in mid-April, the weather started warming up, so on Saturday, April 26, 2008 I headed for the hills. I’d read about deposits of Obsidian - black volcanic glass up on - you guessed it - Obsidian Ridge on the southeast flank of gigantic Valles Caldera. Remember me getting the Diesel Dodge stuck there last winter ?? ( http://gogittum.com/blog/?cat=46 ) It turned out that Obsidian Ridge is on the far side of a major canyon from the “road”, and would not only be difficult to access, but dangerous as well. This is rugged country. Luckily, I had also read of a site near the 289 road that supposedly had Obsidian as well, so I tried for that. This is high country - over 8,000 ft elevation, and very rugged, but also very scenic……………….

I had correlated GPS co-ordinates with the National Geographic topographical maps of the area and entered a waypoint in the little Garmin eTrex Legend that I love to hate, and it took me right to it. There was a large parking area near where the GPS said to stop, so I pulled in……………

Jumped out of the truck and found that I didn’t hafta search any more. Obsidian was everywhere……………

Some was of fairly decent quality, too, and some pretty good chunks - up to about the size of a lemon. It’s a little different, and some was fairly clear…………………..

Obsidian breaks with a “conchoidal” fracture and can be worked with flint knapping techniques. I’ve read that it can be flaked to an edge sharper than a scalpel - almost a molecular edge, so, for my next trick, I’m going to find some heavy gloves - so’s not to cut a finger off “when” I slip, and see what kind of a job I can do. A quick test on the mountain, just whacking it with another rock, got me a quick edge that was most definitely very sharp, so we’ll see. (no, I didn’t cut myself

Since I’d accomplished my excuse for the trip so quickly and easily, I decided to keep on going down the mountain for a way to see what I could see. A viewpoint a little farther down the road looked promising……………….

Yes, it was steep - 100’s of feet straight down. Cousin Guip would love this. :-)………………..

I enjoy teasing him, but he does get even, believe me. According to my figuring, this is the upper reaches of Cochiti Canyon………………

That’s a difficult name to pronounce properly. Native New Mexicans call it “KOACHeee—TEE, with almost a stop or break before the T and a hard accent on the T. Hard to get just right. Navigation is surprisingly difficult here. Maybe I should re-phrase that to “locating just where you really are is difficult.” There are many viewpoints, and figuring just which one you’re at isn’t always easy. Altitude and contour lines help, but I’ve got more learning to do, and probably switch the GPS to a different scale system. Farther down, rock walls became common…………….

See why I wasn’t real crazy about crossing the canyon to Obsidian Ridge ?? That would be a fair hike……………..

The 289 road is also known as the “St. Peter’s Dome” road, and off to the left is a huge burned & meadow area with 8463 ft St. Peter’s Dome in the middle. From left to right, these peaks are: Boundary Peak, St. Peter’s Dome, and Cerro Picacho. (Picacho seems to be a very common name in this area)……………..

But wait - there’s a funny looking bump on St. Peter’s Dome. A closer look shows it to be an old Forest Service fire lookout. Hmmm……gotta be an excuse for a future visit, eh ?? That’ll be a trip for Der Bug, tho’. The road was far rougher than I want to take the poor camper over………..

The road hadn’t been too bad up till now, and I’d seen a reference on the topo map saying that the 289 road exits down near Cochiti Lake, close to Tent Rocks, so I went for it. Farther down, well past where I would have wanted to turn around and go back, the map showed the road as a series of thin dotted lines, instead of the thicker dashes I’d been following. Did I ever get an education ! ! ! The road went completely to Phooey, and I had the Diesel Dodge down to less than walking speed for long stretches and still beat the hell out of the camper. That Lance camper is tough ! ! !…………….

Down toward the bottom was a very picturesque little farm at the exit of Cochiti Canyon……………..

But first, there was a creek (called a river in this country) to cross……………..

More bouncing, bucking, and splashing finally brought me out to the paved road leading to the lake, and as I came around a curve, a familiar sight - Tetilla Peak, that I climbed last year. ( http://gogittum.com/blog/?cat=25 ) ……………..

To the left of Tetilla Peak is my favorite stomping grounds of Caja del Rio, so once again, I haven’t gotten outside the 50 mile radius of Santa Fe that kept me occupied all last year. At the farthest point, up in Valles Caldera, I was only about 40 miles from home. Great country, this. Lar.

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Larry Bourne
Santa Fe, NM
www.gogittum.com
www.gogittum.com/blog

Posted: April 27th, 2008 under 08 New Mexico, 08-4-26 Cochiti Canyon.
Comments: 1