Explore Ojito
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Exploring Ojito
The steep-sided mesas, remote box canyons, deep arroyos, and rough terrain
of Ojito and greater Ojito area provide excellent
opportunities for solitude and recreation including bird watching, photography,
hiking, game bird hunting and camping. Visitors to the area enjoy dramatic
views of Cabezon Peak, the Jemez Mountains, and the Sandia Mountains.
Businesses associated with this kind of recreation contribute over one
billion dollars to New Mexico’s economy every year!
Hoodoo Pines Hike
Round Trip Length: 2+ miles
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Imagine a place where goblin shaped hoodoos sit side by side with three
hundred year old Ponderosa pine trees. A place where ancient Pueblo ruins
hide in the rough geography and dinosaur fossils and petrified wood sometimes
reveal themselves to the watchful eye. Now imagine that this place also
boasts rare plants that haven’t even been described by science,
unique horizontal petroglyph panels, stunning redrock mesas, multi-colored
badlands, and wildlife as diverse as golden eagles, porcupines, and mountain
lions. If you are willing to go hiking in the proposed Ojito Wilderness,
you won’t need to imagine such a place. It will be burned into your
memory forever.
The Ojito Wilderness is a fantastic place for would be explorers
of nearly every age and experience level. It is big and wild enough to
get lost in, but accessible enough to take small children. If you live
in Albuquerque, you can be there almost as fast as you can drive to the
crest of the Sandias. However, you certainly won’t find cool mountain
air here. This is New Mexico desert at its best. Parched, yet sublime
landscapes made up of broken mesas and undulating badlands capped with
twisted and ancient junipers that may predate the arrival of the Spanish.
I have hiked in Ojito for many years and I’m always discovering
something new. I have traveled to well over a dozen countries and I led
an educational wilderness program for years. Yet I can honestly say Ojito
is unlike any other place I know and keeps me coming back. Combining elements
of the Bisti badlands with Santa Fe skies, Abique fossils, and southern
Utah redrock, this is a place that should be on any serious New Mexico
hikers “to do” list.
One of the easiest, yet most unique hikes in Ojito is accessible to a
wide range of skill levels. For convenience I’ll call this the Hoodoo
Pine hike because it leads to an area of mushroom shaped hoodoos and relic
Ponderosa pines growing far below where they are generally found in New
Mexico. In order to find the Hoodoo Pine hike from Albuquerque, head north
on I-25 to Bernalillo and turn West on US 550. Past Zia Pueblo and about
2 miles before San Ysidro you will see a well marked gravel road on the
west side of US 550. There is a street sign at the intersection marking
this as Cabezon Road. Turn left onto Cabezon Road (if you get to San Ysidro
you missed it) and immediately take the left fork. Hit your odometer when
you leave US 550 and use it to keep track of your mileage. It is eleven
miles to your destination assuming you don’t take any of the side
tracks. Don’t get sidetracked, stay on the main road. About 10 miles
from US 550 you’ll pass a parking area on your left. This is another
great hike in Ojito, but save it for another day. As you pass the parking
area you head downhill and through a wash. A prominent red mesa will be
just north of you. Watch for a two track on the north side of the road
at about mile eleven. If you reach an intersection with a natural gas
pumping station you’ve missed your trailhead and reached the pipeline
road which forms the western boundary of the WSA. When you find the two
track pull off the main road and park immediately. Don’t try to
follow the old track into the WSA. A sign prohibiting motor vehicles and
several wooden posts should block further motorized progress on the old
road. Get out here and follow the fading two track north to an old fence.
After the fence, the track disappears, but just follow the base of the
mesa and keep your eyes out for pine trees and hoodoos. The most interesting
hoodoos are just over a mile from where you parked.
While this could be a roundtrip hike of just over two miles, I would
be shocked if you didn’t cover much more territory wandering around
and exploring all sorts of nooks, crooks, crannies, and cliffs. I recently
spent a whole day here with my wife, our nine month old son Carter, and
our two friends who have a three year old and a one year old. The three
year old climbed sandstone formations, examined tracks from porcupines
and coyotes, and generally had a great time. I’d recommend this
hike for anyone used to warm, dry country with lots of sun and uneven
terrain. Summer is best avoided unless you are an avowed desert rat or
sun worshipper. Taking lots of water is a must year round. You won’t
find babbling mountain brooks here. Just lots of scenery, sky and silence.
Ahhhh…
Puñi Views Hike
Round Trip Length: 2+ miles
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
This is one of the best short hikes in Ojito. Puñi is the Zia
word for Ojito and means “land to the west.” The second half
of the name refers to the spectacular views of redrock mesas and badlands
on this hike. Puñi Views is accessible to a wide range of skill
levels, however if you are a seasoned hiker it is still well worth your
time. There are many cross country adventures that can begin from this
trail.
In order to find this hike from Albuquerque, head north on I-25 to Bernalillo
and turn West on US 550. At mile marker 21, look for the Cabezon Road
on your left. Take Cabezon Road and hit your odometer. Almost immediately
(at 0.1 miles) you will need to take the left fork at the “Y.”
Stay on the main road and don’t get sidetracked. At 4.0 miles you’ll
enter lands that belong to the public and are managed by the Bureau of
Land Management (BLM.) There is a great hike in the geologic formations
just north of the road here, but save that for another day. At 4.7 miles
you’ll see the GasCo road, which turns right. Remain on the main
track. At 5.8 miles another fork will occur and the main part of the road
stays to the right. At 9.9 miles you will see a parking area on your left
and a fenced area to your right. Park here and cross the road to begin
your hike. If you reach an intersection with a natural gas pumping station
you’ve missed your trailhead by a couple miles and need to go back
the way you came.
The fencing on the north side of the road is to prevent motorized access
to the wilderness. Just past the fence, you enter Ojito on an old two-track
that is fast becoming a hiking trail. Follow this trail for about a mile
and it will lead you to some fantastic views of the proposed wilderness
and the country to the south which would also be protected by legislation
pending in Congress.
The trail dies out at the edge of a small mesa in proximity to where
a Siesmosaurus skeleton was discovered. This sauropod is the largest ever
discovered. If you dig dinosaurs, a replica of the siesmosaurus is soon
to be on display at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque.
In addition, to the careful observer, many truly unique and exciting resources
are visable in this area. Badlands, complete with unique formations, petrified
wood, and gizzard stones from dinosaurs fill the gaps between mesa tops.
You may see all sorts of cultural or paleontological resources in this
part of Ojito. Please leave these exactly as you found them. No collecting
is allowed in BLM Wilderness Study Areas.
If you are an experienced adventurer, you can strike off across country
from this viewpoint and explore the badlands and other mesas visible from
the end of the trail. While water is hard to find in Ojito, signs of wildlife
are not. Surprisingly, animal tracks abound in the sandy washes. I’ve
seen tracks from deer, elk, porcupine, badger and coyote, and have occasionally
seen the animals themselves. Birds are more common and range from mourning
doves to canyon wrens to a smattering of raptors. While the area doesn’t
host large numbers of these critters, it is part of an undeveloped wildlife
corridor critical to linking deer, elk, and mountain lion populations
in the Jemez Mountains with those in the Mt. Taylor region.
This hike can be extended to take up your whole day. If you plan to leave
the trail please be prepared with adequate navigation skills and equipment.
This is an undeveloped and unforgiving landscape. Lots of water and sturdy
boots are a must year round, as is a well stocked first aid kit.
Colored Bluffs Hike
Round Trip Length: 2 miles
Difficulty: Moderate (due to climbing steep slopes)
This is the closest hike to Highway 550 and while it is easy, it is also
still well worth your time. In order to find the Colored Bluffs from Albuquerque,
head north on I-25 to Bernalillo and turn West on US 550. At mile marker
21 and about 2 miles before San Ysidro you will see a well marked gravel
road on the west side of US 550. There is a street sign at the intersection
marking this as Cabezon Road. Turn left onto Cabezon Road (if you get
to San Ysidro you missed it) and immediately take the left fork. Hit your
odometer when you leave US 550 and use it to keep track of your mileage.
It is 4.0 miles to your destination. Right at four miles you will cross
a cattle guard and you will see a sign that says “Public Lands –
Ojito.” There is a two track trail leading to the north. Follow
this and it will take you back into a sheltered area surrounded by multi
colored bluffs and badlands of red, white, buff, gray, and orange. After
exploring the local geology you can hike onto the top of the bluffs by
scrambling up the clay badlands on the west side of this enclave. From
here you can hike north along one of the ridges for great views of the
Nacimiento Mountains and the Jemez. Alternately, you can hike to the northwest
to view an amazingly well exposed anticline. This textbook geologic structure
looks like a long, deep trench with gray-white gypsum at the top and beautiful
red soils at the bottom. Be careful not to approach the edge too closely
as the sides are very steep and the edge could give way.
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