Our first drive for 2012 was in a FSJ out in some beautiful canyon country. Most of this land has been made inaccessible by the BLM but there are patches of private property scattered through the 160,000 acre monument and there is also some gas and mining activity going on so there are a few 2 tracks you can drive. We did spot one side track that went steep up out of a canyon with a nice step near the top that looked interesting to try but the Holley on my 401 was starting to load up on the slow, bumpy, shaky spots so I opted out of that until I can do some work on it. This is the first real trail run since I put it on so to be expected. We are having unusually warm, dry days the past 2 weeks reaching the hi 40s - low 50s. The sun was bright and there was a bit of haze as the day wore on. The views were incredible and a camera can't do them justice.
We are on the north rim of McElmo Canyon looking south to the Sleeping Ute mountain.
Looking SW, East Rock Creek Canyon feeding down to Battle Rock on the McElmo Canyon floor.
Beautiful goose neck formation in McElmo Canyon.
There was snow on the north facing slopes, some ice with a bit of mud a slush.
We had lunch on a nice outcrop of rocks near the top of McElmo Dome with the canyon floor about 2000 feet below.
We have known these folks with the H1s for several years through Krista's folks. They have been scouting the area from Las Cruces for a while and recently bought some property in McElmo Canyon. 48 acres up on a hill with a commanding view towards Monument Valley. Real nice folks that we plan to wheel with more and show them some mountain trails.
about 40 pix in the photo album:
http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee18 ... 01%202012/
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