Cibola National Forest, Manzanitas - Wild Turkey/Cajun Pine loop - 8/4/2018

Hi y'all!

This weekend's adventures don't involve camping, sadly, as my wife is in the northeast visiting family and I'm house sitting. Since I'm in Albuquerque and really it's Tilly and I that are much more out of shape, I decided to take a hike in the nearby Manzanita mountains. I'm familiar with the geology of the the Sandias, and the Manzanitas are basically the same thanks to the tectonics of the area, so it was exciting to be able to hike through formations I'm familiar with.

I had wanted to wake up early, but my wife's flight was delayed and so she didn't get into the East Coast until close to midnight our time, and then didn't get to her destination til past 1, so I didn't get to go to bed until anywhere near as early as I wanted. I managed to drag myself out of bed at 7:30 and we arrived in the parking lot of Mars Court trailhead at 8:40 am.


The drive to Mars Court trailhead is actually a really pretty and fun drive. To get there from Albuquerque, you take I-40 east until the Tijeras exit, then follow NM 337 south for about 9 - 10 miles (google has the Mars Court trailhead accurately labelled, so feel free to search for it on Maps). 337 winds through the eastern side of the Manzanitas, with long sweeping curves that really remind me of driving country roads back in PA. It was really fun, but there were a lot roadside bikers, so be alert!
Then, you drive down Raven (Rd, St, Ave?) for about 1.5 miles and then turn right onto Mars Court, which consists solely of the trailhead. The pavement ends at the entrance to Mars Court, so if you drive a sedan (like me) then be careful turning in - it's a little washed out for the few hundred feet it takes to reach the FS parking lot area.

A really useful pdf of the Manzanita Mountain trail system can be found here. The route I took is in the southern half of the map.

I had intended to take the Wild Turkey trail west to FR 335, then head north on there until I hit Cajun Pine, follow that back east and south, and then take Cajun Turkey back to Wild Turkey to create a lollipop hike. The Wild Turkey trailhead is on the south side of the entrance to the FS parking lot, though - an observation that I completely failed to make. So, instead, I took FR 530 northwest, then took Cajun Turkey south to Wild Turkey, Wild Turkey east to FR 335, which I took north to Cajun Pine and then followed that back to FR 530. I did create a lollipop, even if it wasn't the one I had intended to create. The original trail distance was 4.4 miles with only 250 feet of elevation change. I think this ended up being close to that - maybe 4.5. Tilly and I struggled when we hiked in the White Mountain wilderness, so I just wanted us to get some more exercise without being wiped out.

When we arrived, I was the only car in the parking lot, which I was surprised about: Otero Canyon and Tunnel Canyon were both VERY busy when I drove past. I had considered those loops (as well as Coyote) when I was planning for this, but was under the impression that they were popular with mountain bikers. I certainly wasn't wrong! I was considering checking out one of those trail heads on Monday when I head back to Socorro. We will see! On our way down Cajun pine, we came across one mountain biker, and then at the crossing of Cajun Pine and Southern cross, we came across 3 dirt bikers (very loud, but Tilly was surprisingly unphased) and 2 other mountain bikers. When I got back to the parking lot at 10:30 am, there were three other cars along with mine. Definitely not comparable to overflowing parking lots of the other trailheads, so I was pretty happy.

Before the pictures, just a small snippet about the geology of the area: the Sandias/Manzanitas/Manzanos/Los Pinos are all uplifted along large normal faults (faults that result from tensional stress) from the Rio Grande rift pulling itself apart. The cool red rocks you see when you stand in Albuquerque or Los Lunas and look east is all very old (1.3 billion years old!) metamorphic and volcanic (igneous) rocks. Then, above it, those horizontal lines you see at the top of all of these mountains are limestone and sandstone from the Pennsylvanian and Permian. These are from a gigantic inland sea that covered a large portion of New Mexico and other parts of the country about 300 million years ago. I've found fossils on top of the Sandias, but I wasn't really looking very hard during this hike.

Because of all of this limestone and sandstone, and the fact that we are on top of a mountain, which means there's more weathering, it should come as no surprise that there are loose rocks. The forest roads were okay, but the trails themselves definitely had exposed and weathered bed rocks. I grew up near the Appalachian trail in Pennsylvania, aka Rocksylvania, and I'm used to looking down when I walk. Most trails out here are well maintained dirt trails, so just keep an eye on your path as you do this hike!

Tilly was already exhausted from the drive over here (to be fair, car rides do stress her out a bit).

FR 530 is a washed out forest road that is obvious from the parking lot! Lots of ponderosas retained some shade early in the morning.

One of two very large puddles on FR 530. Unsurprisingly, these will make a second appearance later in the day...

Wild Turkey trail was more of a single track.

Wild Turkey also wound down into a little valley, through some low oak shrub. Looks like there was a fire here within the last few years (from the trees in the background).

Looking back east at the Wild Turkey trail. 

Looking north along FR 335. This was mostly just dirt, but there were a few places where the limestone, sandstone, and igneous rock talus was obvious.

"Wilderness area, walk in only" - just thought this was an interesting sign in the middle of the meadow.

Ponderosas and forest roads (and Tilly).

As somebody who needlessly paid for a habitat stamp last summer, I'm happy to donate to this cause!

Not a very readable (or indeed even updated) map, but it was neat to see the attempt at the FR 530/FR 335 crossing.

The beginning of Cajun Pine was the halfway point, although it was a bit more strenuous than the earlier parts of the trail.

After literally only seeing Madera group limestone, we finally came across some of the Abo formation's reddish sandstone!

Tilly isn't a fan of posing of pictures, despite my attempts.

About half of Cajun Pine trail follows the border of what I can only assume is a logging area. It smelled amazing, but I'd rather just keep the trees.

Following a ridge for a little bit. Tilly is getting pretty tired at this point.

This view eluded me for most of this loop - I could kind of see it in the trees. It wasn't until a high point on the Cajun Pine trail that I was finally able to get a good shot of it. Pretty sure those are the Manzanos, as this is looking south.

Ah, yes, return of the puddle. She spent a solid 3 minutes just walking, drinking, and laying in the puddle. 

Accomplished hiking duo!