Arroyo del Tajo

I used the fact that part of Chad's motorcycle luggage setup didn't show up until after he left on his trip as an excuse to meet him and Will for a night of camping. Naturally, that meant I needed to find something interesting do on the way down to meet him,

and that was all the excuse I needed to find a little canyon to bushwhack down. In this case, I drove the Quemada Backcountry Byway east of Socorro to a spot where I could scramble into the Arroyo del Tajo.

After a couple of miles of walking down the scenic wash, it narrowed and got more interesting. This is my favorite kind of hike.

One could see signs of the recent rain, but there were no major hazards.

As an added bonus, once I got through the fun half mile or so of slot canyon, there were pictographs. The fact that this fairly soft sandstone still holds painted pigment figures after hundreds of years is amazing.

Retracing my steps back up the canyon was just as much fun as coming down.

And then I enjoyed the rest of the backcountry byway on the way out.

Quite surprisingly, I beat Chad and Will to the campground, and got to watch them come up the road to the very windy site I chose. I figured it was windy everywhere, so we might as well take the site with the good view!