Leader and Author: Francesco
Grilli
Trip Participants:
Linda Klosky, Leslie Champ, Mark Zander, Martin Staley, Francesco Grilli
Francesco's Photo Gallery : click
here
Jan's Photo Gallery
(4/20/2008): click
here
Climbing Beta: click
here
Hiking Reference: "Hiking
Adventures in Northern New Mexico", by Joan and Gary Salzman
After
gathering in the parking lot of the Northern New Mexico Community
College, out of Espanola, we drove past Abiquiu for 15.8 mules, then
drove west (left) on dirt road FM
151 for 12.5 miles and parked. This long dirt road is a 13 mile road
that leads to the Christ in the Desert Monastery. The traihead is
about 0.3
miles before the monastery, and a short walk from the parking area in
the same direction. The first part of the trail is a old
dirt road that leads to the entrance of Chavez Canyon. The
canyon narrows quickly and offers many Utah like views. It soon
splits into two branches, where the adventure begins.
 |
 |
|
Linda |
Francesco |
We followed
the right branch, which immediately offered an awkward passage
requiring some butt-jamming. The next obstacle was a smooth
pour-off, which Mark climbed putting a couple of pieces of protection
in a crack, mostly for psychological aid. The soles of our boots
were by now full of mud, which surely didn't give us good friction on
the rock. The final passage to get out of the canyon was
apparently simple; in reality it required some belly moves, surely not
elegant, yet very effective.
 |
 |
|
Leslie |
Mark |
We came back
on the left side of the canyon, walking on very unstable terrain until
we arrived just above the pour-off of the initial left branch.
We continued upstream in the narrow canyon, which again offered a
couple of interesting climbing passages. The second one, which
had good exposure, was bravely led by Mark. We descended again
on unstable terrain and had fun rappelling and climbing up the long
pour-off of the initial left branch. After that, we took the
trail back to our cars.
Total time:
approximately 4:30 hours
