We heard about the CHHP from a trails book Bryan picked up called "60 Hikes Within 60 Miles - Albuquerque" by Stephen Ausherman. The CHHP preserves 1100 acres of trails, old mines (turquoise, manganese, galena (lead sulfide), & silver) and high northern NM vegetation. People have been mining in the area for over 8000 years, first were the Native Americans as they dug for the 'evil-repelling' turquoise, later galena was mined and used as a glaze on thier pottery.
View of Ortiz Mtns from CHHP
Upon the Spaniards arrival they took notice of the area and they began the first silver mining operation in 1581. Anglo miners started coming to the area in 1846, the mining boom lasted from 1879-1884 and by 1898 a millennium had depleted the resources and the area was abandoned - leaving behind towns, mills and over 5000 holes in the ground! Also in the Galisteo Basin, they have discovered the largest pueblo ruins in the US - one, San Marcos, boasts over 2000 rooms - more than even Chaca Canyon National Historical Park or Mesa Verde National park can claim (paraphrased from 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles - Albuquerque, Hike #21).
I don't believe the ruins have been fully excavated or are open to the public as yet but I'm anxious to see them.
There are several trails through CHHP - we took two: The Jane Calvin Sanchez trail and linked it with the Esclante Trail. Both were fairly steep (and we are out of shape) but in good shape and easy to access. Combined the trails were about 2.3 miles round trip from the parking area. The trails take you past several old mines with small placards describing them and surrounding areas. One curious thing Bryan and I noted were that the mines were really shallow - most were around 20 feet deep... When we think of mines, we think of these huge, multi-tunneled, deep mines. Interesting to note these were more like holes in the ground.
View of the Jane C Sanchez Trail from the Escalante Trail
After leaving CHHP, we headed south down Hwy 14, the Turquoise Trail, to the backside of Sandia Peak. We saw on the map that there was dirt road that would link the ski area of Sandia to CR165 that ends up in Placitas - so we checked it out. Quite the busy dirt road with many people parked on the sides picking Pinon nuts (pine nuts). I guess this year is a bumper crop and they are quite pricey it seems - $20/lb!! Guess we should have stopped and picked some as well... A friend on the City-Data forum said if you picked them up off the ground, to make sure you didn't pick up deer poop too (I guess they are about the same size) - that there wasn't anything worse than watching TV, munching on Pinons and biting into a deer turd. Lovely.
View from Sandia Mtns
Some kind of squirrel in the Sandias
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