Deadman Peaks: Continental Divide Trail

Yesterday it looked like the wind was minimal and as always that sun was out. Perfect day for a hike! The most difficult thing about hiking here is deciding where to go. We have a couple books, there are meet-up hikes and so many places everywhere that the decision-making is what takes time. We settled on a hike with "minimal shade" since it is winter...something around 5-7 miles (that's long enough for me) and something under 2 hours from home. The Continental Divide Trail is out near Cabezone on the road toward Cuba. It involves driving around a bunch on two track dirt about 35 miles from the nearest food/gas. The trail itself is over 3,000 miles long.

We got directions from the book Albuquerque 60 Hikes within 60 miles by Ausherman. We have done quite a few hikes in this book to lesser known sites like yesterday's...we didn't see a single person on the hike and only saw two trucks out there miles away. According to the book the unusual red rocks we saw were called "red dog" and are the result of  low-grade metamorphic changes in mudstone due to coal seam fires. There were lichens all over the rocks and hoodoos and layered rocks and mounds of very thorny cacti. The only way you would know there was a trail was if you noticed the cairn piles. This trail is out there!

Jeff is the teeny tiny orange dot on the top of the "Deadman Peak."

Hiking is always interesting here. The geology makes things very interesting but mainly it is the light....boy is there light and it changes how everything looks hour by hour!