Friday, November 18, 2011

A Hiking Trail, or an obstacle course… you decide!

Today turned out to be another beautiful day here in New Mexico.  About 68 deg. F. and sunny!  Just perfect as far as I am concerned!

We took off early this morning in the Jeep and did a little tour of Silver City, and a visit to the Visitor’s Centre for some info… then we were off for the CAT!

No, we did not get another cat… we decided to go and hike the Catwalk Trail, which is a National Site, and turned out to be 130 klms. north of us at City of Rocks State Park!  What a decision that was! 

Below are the main gates to the Trail… it is 1.1 miles in length, but is very dynamic for sure! 

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Some great trees along the route… a great day for a hike!

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Things started out great as we started… but this was the easy part as we were soon to find out!  Judy looks in fine form below…

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We soon encountered this bridge, only to learn it was just the beginning…

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Some very impressive peaks came into site, as we hiked up this canyon… there was also a river running by us and below us the whole way!

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Pictures never give this things the justice they deserve!

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We got into the trail about 1/4 of a mile and learned that the first 1/2 mile of this trail was fully accessible!  Only in America!

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OK… so below, after the first 1/4 mile, things started getting a little crazy!   Check out how the trail developed!

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The only way to continue this trail is to do what they did with these ramps… WOW!

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The canyon gets thinner… but the trail keeps going…

 

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This trail is simply beautiful!  For sure!

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What a place…

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I had to hold up the two rocks below for Judy to get through…

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Another obstacle in front of us… a wee bit of a bridge, with a see through grate to walk on!

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This bridge was brand new, and probably just built this year…

 

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There was all these neat little waterfalls, all over the place…

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Cactus grew from the canyon walls…

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After the 1/2 way point, the trail was no longer wheel chair accessible, and got a little ruff… just the way we like it!

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These are the markers, so you know how far you are into the hike…

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Below is a set of stairs straight down!  To the swimming hole of course… check out the waterfall to the right of the pic… no, we didn’t!

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The next obstacle to overcome was a weird set of stairs below…

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We crossed back and forth across the river… here is another big bridge…

 

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Augh… the final bridge below… a swing bridge no less that really moved!  It was a blast!

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The trail ended under this big overhang of rock… what a trail!

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I have about 4 million other pictures for you of this trail… however I could never get them posted… what a great hike, and we would recommend this to anyone!  It is a must see, and has become a highlight of our time in New Mexico!   We made it back to our RV and the City of Rocks State Park, only to find the sun setting below…

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what a day… it is hard being a Tourist!

Till tomorrow…

7 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun day, so much to see and an exciting trail. Nice pictures, that rock overhang is impressive as well as many of the bridges and paths.

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  2. what a great hike and a fabulous adventure!..looks to be a very well maintained trail..love all the photos of the bridges!!!

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  3. Love the photos, on our way east we were thinking about going through Silver City area now I think it is must see and do

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  4. i had backpacked into that trail back in the day...

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  5. What a great day you had... a fantatic hike and a beautiful sunset! GREAT photos...
    Have fun & Travel safe
    Donna

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  6. We may just head up into that Glenwood area with the rig next week sometime, do that Catwalk and have us look around the general area. Ghost town of Mogollon as well.

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  7. Wow! What a fantastic looking trail hike - all those catwalks! Thanks for all the pics, they were indeed awesome!

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