G.E.T. Guidebook

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Segment 27: Monticello Box  24.7 miles

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Segment Length	from PHX	to ABQ	Segment Status	Season
24.7 mi.	462		finalized & accessible	spring, summer, fall
Resources
OVERVIEW MAP ELEVATION PROFILE G.E.T. Topo Maps 70-74 Town Guide: Winston | Monticello Water Chart Image Gallery: Album 7				Additional maps: Cibola National Forest: Magdalena Ranger DIstrict (USFS) visit PLIC website Land management agencies: Cibola NF Magdalena Ranger District: (575) 854-2281

PLEASE NOTE: THIS CHAPTER REMAINS UNFINISHED. SEGMENT OVERVIEW AND ROUTE DETAILS INFO BELOW ARE IN DRAFT FORM AND HIGHLIGHT ONLY THE ESSENTIALS NEEDED FOR NAVIGATING THIS SEGMENT IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE TOPO MAP SET.

SEGMENT OVERVIEW

Monticello Canyon is truly one of southwest New Mexico's hidden gems. Flanked by colorful rock formations, rugged cliffs, and occasional narrows, a ribbon of verdant splendor unfolds through the heart of an arid grassland. Sustained by the year-round flow of Alamosa Creek, this nearly 20 mile long riparian corridor is home to the familiar Fremont cottonwood, the common assemblages of willows and ashes found elsewhere along the trail. The chortle of songbirds fills the air on spring and summer mornings, while birds of prey watch cautiously from leafy roosts, or soar indolently, high overhead. Yet despite such obvious similarities with other desert-bounded creeks, much about Monticello Canyon feels unique as well; this place would not be mistaken for Aravaipa Canyon, the Blue River, or Eagle Creek. At an elevation of 6000 feet, Monticello Canyon is unmistakably a high valley, much higher than its counterparts to the west. The surrounding landscape is distinctly New Mexican: austere, the scene contemplative, the terrain self-evident yet somehow unknowable, full of mystery. And a riparian community of this nature and extent, set against this high desert backdrop, is a rare thing indeed. Javelina roam this canyon at the very limit of their geographic range. Large herds of mule deer are often seen, while the smaller coeus variety of Arizona is not. And nowhere along those distant canyons to the west are Rocky Mountain elk as at home - if home at all - as here.

Monticello Canyon is unique in other ways. Scattered ranches and homesteads - the canyon was named by pioneering Irish settlers - dot the valley in its broader expanses, as they have for generations. A dirt track threads the canyon, tumbling back and forth along the nourishing creek. This is a landscape whose natural and human histories still coexist in harmony, each somehow complementing rather than competing with the other, a place little influenced by the outside world, so far removed and unseen as even now it remains.

The canyon's creek is artesian, born of a cluster of springs that surface just above the canyon. These perennial waters, including Ojo Caliente - "warm spring" - made the area a favorite of the ancestral Apaches, including Chief Victorio and even Geronimo. During the Apache wars of the 1870's the area tribes were moved here by the US Army. Yet with white settlers increasingly drawn to the region, the Warm Spring reservation never flourished, and the tribes were eventually relocated to the larger San Carlos reservation in Arizona. Today the only evidence of the old Warm Spring reservation, once occupied by some 3000 souls, are the remnants of a few adobe walls, crumbling and all but forgotten.

This segment of the Grand Enchantment Trail also serves as a linkage between the vast Gila National Forest to the west and the scattered, island-like districts of the Cibola National Forest to the east. The route first descends out across rolling foothills at the edge of the Black Range, where pronghorn antelope are often spotted along grassy hillsides dotted with soaptree yucca. Easy cruising along lonely dirt roads leads to a few sections of cross-country travel in open terrain, and navigation remains relatively straightforward. The route enters the old reservation boundary and crosses NM Highway 52 within sight of Monticello Box, the dramatic, and seemingly improbable, cliff-bound entrance to the water-blessed canyon beyond. Hikers with a maildrop waiting in Winston can try their luck hitchhiking via the sparsely-travelled dirt highway, while those who've sent supplies to Monticello first continue along the GET through Monticello Canyon. (See the Town Guide for more about the pros and cons of resupplying in either town, and why it's a good idea for thru-hikers not to forego a maildrop altogether.)

Alamosa Creek is most often an easy, gentle slosh, no more than calf deep. Flood events can occur following heavy summer storms, when hikers would be well advised to keep a backup plan, but the high water tends to subside fairly quickly. A primitive dirt road in Monticello Canyon fords the creek repeatedly, such that wet feet are unavoidable (eastbounder thru-hikers are old pros at this by now), yet little about the experience here suggests a slow-go challenge, at least on foot. (Passenger cars, however, do occasionally get stuck in the sand, apparently lured in by the legal, county road designation.)

Six miles down the creek the main GET exits Monticello Canyon and climbs via 4WD road toward segment's end at the edge of the San Mateo Mountains. Eastbound hikers intending to resupply in Monticello would instead continue down the canyon via the Monticello Loop (alternate route). This scenic loop reaches the village of Monticello in about 11 miles, then returns to the main GET near the end of this segment via 4WD roads across the foothills of the San Mateo Mountains. All told, the loop is 25 miles long, and avoids the need to backtrack after visiting town, (eastbound or westbound) and this will hopefully make Monticello a more appealing resupply option, so useful to hikers as it is given the remote nature of this country.

Because Monticello Canyon is mostly private land, camping is not allowed along its length, nor within the old reservation boundary to its north. As such, the distance between public land camping opportunities in this segment is about 11 miles. See the route details below for more info.

ROUTE DETAILS

From the Trail 60 trailhead turnout in Duck Canyon, head east along the dirt road. Keep right at a fork, then turn left at the next junction onto better, unsigned FR 913. Soon after crossing a minor drainage a lesser track heads right (east) to reach a solar-powered well with stock tank at the Gila National Forest boundary (waypoint 780). (No camping allowed within the fenced area here, which is private.) Exit the N.F. at the metal gate and follow the faint 2-track that remains to the left (north) of the drainage (don't cross the drainage). The track ends at an obvious dirt "ranch road" at 1.0. Turn right, following the road south. The road passes through a gate in a corral with troughs (usually dry) at waypoint 782. (Westbounders, the little-used dirt 2-track to the USFS boundary is hard to spot. Heading north from the corral, cross a pinyon-juniper stringer of a drainage along the road, then look for a faint track in the grasses atop the next rise, at waypoint 781.)

Reach a triangle junction at 2.6, and ignore both right forks. (Westbounders, keep right.) The road passes through a gate near Ridge Windmill (often defunct), then reaches a corral at 4.7, with trough(s) that often have water. Just beyond the corral, leave the road at right and head southeast up to the edge of a low rise and seek out a gate in the east-west fenceline here (waypoint 785). Now in BLM land beyond the fence, head west x-c into the nearby drainage and follow it down-canyon to an open bench on the north side of Knisley Canyon's wash. Now veer southeast to cross over the wash around waypoint 784 (or thereabouts), joining a 2-track road on its south side (5.2). (Westbounders, leave the 2-track around waypoint 784 - this waypoint or use of the map coordinate grid is helpful due to nondescript terrain, and note that if you reach a gate in a fence along the 2-track, you've gone about 0.2 of a mile too far. Cross the wash, and walk northwest into the minor canyon whose drainage intersects Knisley's. Be careful to remain with the most prominent drainage at the splits, forking right near its head. Finally, climb out of the drainage via its right (east) bank before reaching a fenceline, and seek out a gate in the fence atop the next rise, at waypoint 785. Join the good "ranch" road at the corral beyond the gate.)

At 6.5 the 2-track reaches a windmill (functional) with tank that often contains good water. Here ignore a 4WD road that goes south, and continue east, now on a better road. The road climbs to a gate, then turns more southeast. Where it turns sharply south to pass through a minor gap, leave the road and proceed cross-country to the east, keeping a low ridge on your right. Reach a little saddle, where the ridge drops away to the east, and turn northeast, following up and along the broad crest of the grassy, pinyon-dotted ridge. A wire fenceline across the ridge at 8.3 can be climbed over at the very southern edge of the ridgetop. (This marks the end of legal camping along the main GET route in this segment until milepoint 19.0.) The way ahead now becomes less definitive, but remain generally at or near the crest of the ridge for a half mile or so, then find an easy way north or northeast down into the primary northeast-trending drainage there. Follow its wash to its intersection with graded, 2WD dirt NM 52 at 9.3 (waypoint 077). The community of Winston is 22 miles south via this road. (The place name of Dusty, 4 miles north, offers no services.) (Westbounders, from the junction of FR 140 and NM 52 at 9.6, turn left (south) onto NM 52 and continue 0.3 mi. to waypoint 077, where a ranch house back to the north is now nearly out of view, and leave the road at right (southwest) to head cross-country up a minor drainage. When the drainage itself becomes difficult with pour-offs, leave it at left and climb generally south/southwest to attain a minor ridge. Walk southwest, at or near the crest of the ridge, negotiating a fence at 8.3. When the ridge drops to a minor saddle, leave it and walk west, at contour. You may intersect with a faint 2-track, but aim for a much better 4WD road near the gap to your left (waypoint 075). Head west [don't descend south] on the 4WD.)

From the wash - NM 52 junction at 9.3, the GET turns left (north) on the road, then right (east) at 9.6 at a signed junction with County Road E-14 (aka FR 140). This road turns left (north) at an unsigned junction at 9.9, but our route continues southeast toward Monticello Canyon on a similar 2WD dirt road. You may note signs indicating private property, which will reappear sporadically as you continue through the canyon. These refer to the lands alongside the roadway and not to the public (county) road itself. Please respect the wishes of those who live along the canyon and do not camp or linger away from the road until rejoining USFS land at milepoint 19.0. One exception to the rule is the side trail to Ojo Caliente at 11.0, which begins at a signed trailhead of sorts on the left. The foot trail leads a few tenths of a mile up an intriguing side canyon which flows year-round with artesian water from the spring. The warm spring itself, which is a mild 85F or so, has been improved to form a small wading pool. (One could continue the better part of a mile up the wash beyond the spring to the USFS boundary and legal camping.) The ruins of the old Warm Spring Apache reservation, back across the main drainage beyond the road, may also be visited. The few remaining adobe structures are little more than rubble now, and are difficult to spot until you're nearly upon them, but are located where the map indicates.

The increasingly primitive county road now reaches the dramatic entrance to Monticello Box. Here and beyond, the road shares the canyon floor with Alamosa Creek. This perennial creek, here still in its infancy, is formed in part by Ojo Caliente just upstream, the waters of which comingle with other springs and surfacing flow within the main drainage. Beyond the sheer, highly metamorphosed volcanic cliffs of The Box, the road passes through a gate, briefly entering state land, and continues alongside the serpentine creek, fording back and forth as dictated by the terrain, still in a wild and scenic setting. It passes the first homestead en route (near BM 6050 on the map), though at a casual distance. (For best water quality, plan to fill your bottles upstream of here. In drier times, the drainage itself is often dry for several miles below here, as the creek's waters are diverted into the "Monticello community ditch" in order to serve the canyon's agricultural and ranching interests.) Another set of gates (~14.5) demarcates first the northern, then the southern, boundary of the Monticello Box Ranch, with distinctive Montoya Butte standing sentinel to the west. Beyond here the road travels through the expansive "74 Ranch" for several miles. (Most of the cattle grazing doesn't take place in Monticello Canyon itself, and as elsewhere the riparian canyon remains relatively pristine.)

The appearance of an old homestead on the right - a few dilapidated ranch buildings on the far side of the creek among cottonwood trees - and an old corral just beside the road, mark the point of the main GET's departure from Monticello Canyon. Here, at 17.2, the road forks, and the main GET bears left onto unsigned FR 76, which bends clockwise around the corral, then climbs away. The county road in Monticello Canyon instead continues straight, leading to the community of Monticello in about 11 miles (via the Monticello Loop). This road remains a pleasant, nearly flat walk as it continues to cross back and forth over Alamosa Creek among private lands, and the canyon occasionally narrows, with more interesting volcanic cliffs on display. Although vehicle use remains very light, anyone heading your way (particularly locals) may be willing to offer a ride the rest of the way into town. (Don't stand around waiting, though.) In any case, this Alternate Route is the recommended way to resupply via the Monticello post office. Eastbounder hikers would then return to the main GET by continuing clockwise along the loop (refer to the topo map set), rejoining the route at MP 24.1. Westbound hikers would follow the loop in reverse (counter-clockwise). Alamosa Creek often flows again between MP 0.5 and 5.0 of the Monticello Loop, before returning once more to the community ditch. Legal (USFS) camping, for eastbounders who need it prior to starting toward town, is 2 miles east along the main route.

The main GET beyond 17.2 ascends out of Monticello Canyon via 4WD FR 76, also known as the Burma Road, soon tracing the crest of a broad grassy ridge. (The Burma Road, which for many miles follows a torturous course along the western foothills of the San Mateos, is very scenic, rugged, and sparsely travelled. The colorful name for this Forest Service road is borrowed from the original Burma Road that was constructed between the nations of China and Burma around the time of the second World War, and which was notoriously winding and mountainous.) The high peaks of the San Mateo Mountains, previously hidden from view by the folds of Monticello Canyon, here reappear and draw ever closer, and the scene is a memorable one. At 19.7 the suggested route leaves the road by heading cross-country due eastward, dipping across a grassy drainage, then climbing out to rejoin the Burma Road (now FR 377) eastward (this shortcut is around 2 miles shorter than the non-xc alternative). The Burma Road descends into the wide wash of San Mateo Canyon at 21.2, then climbs out on a switchbacking traverse, with another (steeper) x-c shortcut available here. Regaining a broad ridge, the road ascends gradually eastward, arriving at an unsigned junction where it levels out by a cattle guard at 24.1. Here the Monticello Loop continues south via the Burma Road (for westbounders resupplying in Monticello), while the main GET turns left (east) onto a lesser 4WD track, technically the start of Shipman Trail 50. Gradually ascending, the track arrives at a turnout by a gated fence at 24.7 - the unassuming trailhead for Trail 50, which becomes singletrack trail as it enters the Apache Kid Wilderness in Segment 29.

ELEVATION PROFILE: MONTICELLO LOOP

Segment 26

Segment 28