Journal July 12 Box Canyon
We began our day at Ghost Ranch with breakfast in the dining hall. Breakfast was a basic cold breakfast but satisfying with plenty of coffee, which we lingered over until the office opened at 9am. Our supply box was waiting as planned. We picked up the box, returned to our campsite and reorganized our food and supplies.
Originally we’d planned on a day off here at Ghost Ranch, but since we took an unnexpected day off in Cuba just three days ago, we were both behind schedule and still reasonably rested. We decided to spend the morning getting stuff done, have lunch and then get in a half day of hiking.
Delays set in, but we finally got on the trail just before 3pm, following the ranch road to it’s end then picking up the Box Canyon trail. Entering, as the name implies, a box canyon of dramatic cliff wall and rock formations, the trail was beautiful bit very difficult. The climb out involved a rough trail where footing was rocky and uneven. The trail was heavily eroded in places, crossing several arroyos requiring deep down and up climbs. Finally, the canyon got so narrow and tight it squeezed the trail right to the top of the rim and onto the mesa top.
We passed up through several levels of the mesa from the rocky stage to the sage stage, to oak and juniper and finally into mixed pine and some actual shade. This would be our final transition from the deserts of New Mexico to the mountains and plateaus of the Tusas Mountains in northern NM.
Our transition was comlete as we bushwhacked up a steep slope to a higher plateau and returning to Ponderosa Pines.
We came across some ranchers out using their horse trailer, OHV and even two horses to move cattle to higher summer pastures.
Eventually we found (just before dark) a bench where the slope leveled off enough for a camp among the ponderosa pines.
10.5 miles
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