Seeking the Stone Lions

[HighDesertWalker]

The Stone Lions Shrine in Bandelier National Monument is only about 4 miles from the Visitor Center as a crow flies. However, if you're not a crow, you have to first climb 500 ft out of Frijoles Canyon and then cross 5 more canyons in route to your destination. And, according to Edmund Hillary, "There's a lot to be said for getting back", which entails recrossing all those canyons on the return trip. Consequently, this is not an easy day hike, and my friends Joe and Linda had been approaching the lions through a series of hikes, each one of which takes them closer to their ultimate destination.

Joe and Linda invited me to join them last friday and, despite the fact that I had not been on their earlier training hikes and that my weight was up, I decided to go along. All three of us are planning another 3 day trek in the Grand Canyon next Nov., so all of this counts as training.

We arrived at the north rim of Frijoles canyon about 8:30AM and stopped for a couple of photos:

We parked the car near the Visitor Center at the bottom of Frijoles and began the 500 ft climb out on the south side of the canyon:

After clearing Frijoles, we quickly encountered the first of two unnamed 100 ft deep canyons:

About a half mile further along, we came to 200 ft deep Lummis canyon:

Beyond Lummis we had a stretch of open terrain:

Then we crossed another unnamed 100 ft deep canyon before getting our first look at Alamo Canyon:

Alamo is about 500 ft deep and is very narrow. It constitutes the primary obstacle between the Visitor Center and the Stone Lions shrine. Our plan was to hike to the bottom of Alamo and have lunch before beginning our return trek:

There was a whole row of tent rock formations on the south side of Alamo:

C O N T I N U E D

 

[andrew7978]

nice pictures, it looks pretty dry out there. I will be looking forward to seeing some pics of the final destination.

 

[roughedges]

Looks incredible, thanks for sharing! Can't wait to see the Lions. I've been to Bandolier but never got to spend that much time there. Just hiked the trail past the cave and cliff dwellings, a few waterfalls, and down to the Rio Grande. Between the elevation and aridity, this Florida boy ended up with one heck of a nose bleed.

 

[ROCK6]

Absolutely beautiful! Any running water in the canyons?

ROCK6

 

[DOC-CANADA]

Excellent scenery. Where is this?

Doc

 

[roughedges]

It is Bandolier National Monument in New Mexico... southern New Mexico, IIRC. I'm sure that HighDesertWalker can provide much more detailed info than I, as well as correct me if I am wrong; its been about 10 years since I was there.

There is also running water to be found in parts of the Monument and in at least one of the canyons that I know of.

 

[HighDesertWalker]

C O N T I N U E D


The route to the bottom of Alamo consisted of a series of tight switchbacks:

In places, the trail was narrow and treacherous:

It was a relief to reach the floor of the canyon, which was shady and contained a small stream:

After lunch I took the obligatory "knife in hand" pic:

This is the Mora #731 from KJ Ericksson. It has a 5 3/4" carbon steel blade.

Linda borrowed my camera and took a snapshot. Yup, that's me, all 255 lbs of "Guess Who Partied Too Much During the Holidays":

Wish I could figure out how to quit the yo-yo weight loss plan.

Anyhow, after lunch we began our return trek. To get to Stone Lions we would have to climb out of Alamo on the south side, cross another unnamed 150 ft canyon, and hike another mile and a half. Next time maybe.

On the way back I took this shot of the Sangre de Christos:

That's the Santa Fe Ski Basin in the middle and Santa Fe Baldy on the left.

It felt really good to get back to Frijoles Canyon and begin the 30 minute descent:

Here's a shot of some of the ancient dwellings on the north side of the canyon:

Here you can see some tourists following a self-guided trail along the base of the dwellings:

This trek took 5 hrs including a 20 minute break for lunch. Next time we will probably try to make it all the way to the Stone Lions.

Cheers,

 

[tknife]

Wow those canyons are awesome! Gotta love the rock formations. Your pics really make me want to explore more of the southwest.

 

[cmdr249]

Awesome. I'd love to try that sometime.

 

[kgd]

Hey I think your are in pretty darn good shape to be hiking those trails. Great scenery and shots. I'm rather jealous of your adventure!!! Makes my weekend walk in the park, well look like a walk in the park I guess

 

[omniviking]

Nice job Bill. :thumbup: How hot is it there when you hiked this? that ought to get you in shape to hike Grand Canyon. Pat

 

[mtnfolk mike]

great pics HDW...:thumbup: i love those cliff dwellings...

 

[HighDesertWalker]

Glad you folks enjoy the pics. It sure makes it more fun for me to be able to share my treks.

Hey Pat, how goes it? Temperature the morning of the hike was around 40 F, but it quickly warmed up to the high 60s. Of course that's plenty warm when you're humping it out of a canyon.

 

[sasha]

awsome pics the first ones are alot like we have here at angeles forest but the second ones are so diffrent with the cliffs... love it..

 

[GEC]

Wow those canyons are awesome! I love the love the patterns on the cliffs and rock formations.

 

[EmsRescueGuy]

Great pics, :thumbup: I really want to see more of the southwest some day, Most of my wilderness expperience is in the noth east, and wow what a different world it is down there.


Here is a stupid question though, why not do an overnight hike to get there, or is that not allowed in that area. or is it just a personal challenge to make it there.

 

[HighDesertWalker]

Great pics, :thumbup: I really want to see more of the southwest some day, Most of my wilderness expperience is in the noth east, and wow what a different world it is down there.


Here is a stupid question though, why not do an overnight hike to get there, or is that not allowed in that area. or is it just a personal challenge to make it there.[/QUOTE

As far as I know, an overnight might be a possibility. Camping is only allowed in certain areas, so we will just have to check it out. Another possibility it to hike out to the northwest, thereby missing the big barrior canyons. Makes for a longer trek but with much less climbing. We will let everyone know how it finally works out.

 

[Trout Tamer]

It is Bandolier National Monument in New Mexico... southern New Mexico, IIRC. I'm sure that HighDesertWalker can provide much more detailed info than I, as well as correct me if I am wrong; its been about 10 years since I was there.
There is also running water to be found in parts of the Monument and in at least one of the canyons that I know of.

Bandolier is in the Jemez Mountains (pronounced hay-mez), which run through central New Mexico. They lie roughly at the same latitude as Santa Fe, which means they're in the northern-ish part of dead central.

There's a creek that runs through the Jemez; yup, Jemez Springs. There are natural hot springs where the 50-year-old, nudist hippies gather. My brother calls the hot springs "the STD Pools" :barf: Water is scarce throughout NM, even when in the mountains, some of which reach above the timber line. Around here, if you don't *know that you know* that your destination has water, plan to pack in a lot :thumbup:

The Southwest is pretty, in a muted sort of way. My best friend's wife moved to Colorado from Pennsylvania. She said that her initial impression of the Southwest is that "everything is pretty, but the colors look dulled, like they're under a layer of dirt." Yeah, that hits the nail on the head.

 

[Trout Tamer]

nice pictures, it looks pretty dry out there.

What're ya talkin' about?? There are some trees in the pics! Ironically, you're seeing one of the relatively greener parts of the state.

 

[HighDesertWalker]

The Southwest is pretty, in a muted sort of way. My best friend's wife moved to Colorado from Pennsylvania. She said that her initial impression of the Southwest is that "everything is pretty, but the colors look dulled, like they're under a layer of dirt." Yeah, that hits the nail on the head.

It's true that large parts of NM are a bit dusty looking, but let me show you a few exceptions. First of all, the amount of greenery and other colors you see in vegetation varies with season and elevation.

Here are some examples.

These pics were taken high up in the Jemez Mtns in Fall as the aspen were changing:

Our local ski hill can be seen to the left in the photo.

Zooming in on the aspen:

Speaking of color, here's a couple of pics of Abiquiu Lake to the north of Los Alamos:

This area around Abiquiu and the Chama River is Georgia Okeef country.

Here's some pics from a rabbit hunt. We went to the banks of the Chama to clean our game:

Looking upstream:

and downstream:

Here are some duck hunting trips on the same river. The pics start in early morning, with mist rising from the water, and progress to mid morning. The fellow wading for the ducks is my hunting partner Steve.

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