Red Rock Canyon Trail

07-31-2012 Jemez Pueblo - Walatowa Visitors Center - Red Rock Canyon Trail

The hiking group that usually does the Tuesday hikes with Sue Watts for Pajarito Environmental Education Center got together and went for an outing. Since Sue is away having a great adventure on vacation we thought we would just get together and have a hike on our own. Thanks to all who showed up and made it a pleasant morning hike.

This is a fairly new trail constructed by Jemez Pueblo. it was a great morning adventure, the scenery was outstanding. The trail was nice, congratulations to Jemez Pueblo for a job well done.

When we arrived we paid the fee for the hike and payed for a camera permit if we desired to take pictures. Not everyone got a camera permit.

Prior to starting out the actual guided hike we were given a tour of the Museum at the Walatowa Visitors Center. The only word that can be used for the tour is  FANTASTIC. Great job in putting the museum together. It gave the history with many pictures of Jemez Pueblo, I learned a lot. A special thank you to Monique Sando the General Manager of the facility, and a member of Jemez Pueblo. She was the person to lead the tour of the museum, she is very knowledgable in the history of Jemez Pueblo. Great  job Monique.

We were then lead on a hike of the Red Rock Canyon Trail by another member of Jemez Pueblo, Kevin Gachupin. Kevin was a great tour guide, his knowledge of the trail and the plants found along the way was excellent. He even knows the names of flowers in Towa, his native language. Thanks Kevin.

We all enjoyed ourselves and could not believe how beautiful the trail was. Maybe we will have to go back and do it again.

Sorry for the large number of pictures it was hard to decided which ones to include, I took over 100 pictures. It just makes this post long but it was so beautiful that I had to include more than usual.

Below are pictures that were taken:

This is the path that we followed thanks SPOT for tracking us.

The Trail Head

Sign at the Trail Head

Spiny Dogweed (Thymophylla acerosa)

And we're off

Rick is enjoying the view

A "Robber Fly" on the end of Kevin's walking stick enjoying a meal

Yes I did a weight test on the bridge. There are more of these along the way

This burned log is what remains from the shooting of a movie

Still going and here is another bridge

Penstemon ambiguus, Sand penstemon

Rest Break

Back where we started