Chimney Rock! Thursday, 7/2/26

Ghost Ranch has several hiking trails on the property.  Since the monolith "Chimney Rock," is sooo visible, Jimmy and I looked at each other and said, "Why not?"  (We might be crazy.)  A paragraph on the Ghost Ranch info packet said we could climb to the top. Even better!  Roughly 4 miles up and back, and rated Moderate, there's a 650 ft elevation gain, from 6,500' to 7,100'.  Yowza!

But first, we got a household chore out of the way -- sweaty clothes in the washer!  In retrospect (and why don't we think of this beforehand?), we should've hiked first and done laundry second.  Or laundry not at all!  Anyhoot, it was 10am when we set off on the trail.  Already warm.

Ghost Ranch has lots of ... everything.  You see horses in a corral above, which you can take out for a trail ride.  Might not do that.  We'd already started up when I took this picture.

Well, there it stands!  Jimmy, too.  Apparently we're going up there, but we have no trail map, so we're unsure about the route.  Doesn't it look fantastic?  Wonder how we get up there?

I knew the higher we'd go, we'll be treated to panoramic vistas.

Lake Abiquiu in the distance.

Colorful and weird.

Plus a balancing act.

The trail's in full sun ... Junipers aren't large enough to provide shade.  We stopped frequently because we weren't in any hurry and we needed to catch our breath.  (Photo ops.) Our trail was a serpentine, steady incline.

Got to admire yard art along the way.

A family of five passed us as we began our trek.  They were younger and could go faster.  We didn't see them again, tho we looked for them occasionally.  Finally we heard voices, and we peered ahead.  Then we looked up.  If you enlarge this pic you'll see a white shirt atop of the mesa not far from the spire.  THAT'S where we're going!  (But, how?)

Looking back, there's our trail!  Overlooking the Piedra Lumbre valley and Cerro Pedernal (the flattop  in the distance), famously captured in Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings.  Abiquiu Lake is further away.

Such vivid colors in New Mexico's landscape. Our path ascends across high desert mesas and colorful sandstone formations, above and below, through the Junipers and Sagebrush.

We continued trudging uphill and even considered quitting as we didn't know how much further we'd have to go.  I found the above scene -- and so many others -- captivating with its overall composition.  It even had teeth!  Look below.

Monster's teeth!

Man, we were getting hot and tired.  Just then the five people were heading down and they told us, "You're almost there!"  Uh-huh, we've heard that before.  We had a treacherous uphill section left to do and we'd be HOME FREE.  You can see the five people on the trail's elbow, above.

The steepest part of the trail began at the red x.

And then, after an hour-and-a-half (!), we were on top of the mesa.  In front of us was Chimney Rock, at right.  There you go! 

Sure, the trail had numbers, but no booklet to go with!  Useless!  The lateral green strip is Ghost Ranch where our Tergel is.  Thank goodness for a brisk wind that kept us from overheating.

We did it!

This is as close as you get to Chimney Rock.

I eased out on the ledge to get this shot.  Carefully.

Jimmy found a spot in the shade of a "grove of trees!"

Looking down.

We did it!  Coming down off the mesa took half the time, but we were dog-tired before we ever got to Tergel.  Needless to say, we took naps and had long lovely showers in the (very nice) campground bathhouse.  Went to bed early, too!  

We conquered Chimney Rock.