At a music teachers' happy hour get-together last summer some of us started talking about hiking to Quemado Falls near Truchas, NM. The only catch -- we needed a high clearance 4WD truck to get to the trail head. At first I thought I'd drive the Silver Beauty, but after more discussion we decided to ask Stephen to be our driver. Boy, are we glad we did, because I would NOT have been able to do it!
Rebecca called the ranger for detailed directions. The road to the trail head crosses the Nuestra Senora del Rosario San Fernando Y Santiago Land Grant, and the ranger strongly recommended getting permission from the president of the Land Grant, which Rebecca did. We were glad of that when we had to stop for two men on horseback with rifles and sidearms. The last 7 miles of road are unimproved. The directions were tricky, and the road was horrible. Stephen had to do most of it in first gear and 4WD. Finally, I lost my nerve and asked if we could park and walk the last mile or so to the trail head, which we did. As it turns out, Stephen could have gotten around the worst part of the road and driven us all the way to the trail head. But we didn't discover that until we were out of the truck with our backpacks, ready to hike.
Finding no outhouse, I went to find a private tree. While I was there, some very curious cows came along. They were FAR too interested in what I was doing for my comfort! These pictures are the only ones we have of the road. The photographer was driving, and I had my eyes closed.
After the cow adventure, we started hiking up the road.
It was maybe a mile and a half to the trail head.
It was an absolutely perfect day for hiking. Sunny and in the 70's. We couldn't have asked for a better day.
It was about noon by the time we reached the trail head. Driving the unimproved section of road took much longer than we had anticipated. Some men were on lunch break from working in the area, and they said we were starting awfully late to hike, but they probably thought we were going all the way to the peak.
The ranger said they had been working on the trail, but there were many places where we had to climb over downed trees. The trail follows the stream, and there were some boggy and muddy spots where we had to walk on the logs or hop across wet rocks. Parts of the trail were steep and rocky.
I didn't think Stephen would hike the whole way, especially considering that we started over a mile before the trail head, making the round trip at least 8 miles. But he got caught up in the beauty of the day and the excitement of thinking the falls might be just around the next bend in the trail. When we arrived at the falls, he definitely thought the effort was worthwhile!
We started hiking at about 9,300 feet. According to the GPS, the waterfall is at 10,550 feet. I got excited when I thought we were almost there and started running up the last bit of mountain. That's when my lungs told me were were over ten thousand feet! Otherwise, I didn't notice the elevation. I did notice that the types of wildflowers and trees I saw changed with the elevation.
Julie took off her hiking boots to soak her feet in the water while we were at the falls. The rest of us decided we didn't want to get our feet wet.
Our intrepid driver and official blog photographer:
We left the falls at 2 PM. Originally we thought we might hike all the way to a lake that Rebecca had heard about, but we decided it was getting too late. It's a good thing we turned when we did, because when we started driving back, we somehow got onto a different unimproved, unmarked road that was worse than the first one. Stephen's GPS told us we were headed for Truchas, so we continued on and eventually the road intersected with our original route. But it was past 6 PM by the time we got to a paved road, and it was 8:30 PM when we finally got home. It was a long day, but a fantastic adventure!
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