I wanted to get out today with the camera, but my original idea to go down to White Sands and Alamogordo lost its luster when I learned White Sands was closed for sunrises, except on special photographer days twice a year. I just felt I’d do better going down there on one of those days to get “good light” opportunities at sunrise and/or sunset.

I wanted to go somewhere, though, so I pulled a destination guide off a living room book shelf that was put out by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. Within it are descriptions of public lands and some of their features, and in a number of cases, the lands and their features may not get as much attention as their kindred state and national parks, but the guide makes them worthy of checking out.

I thumbed through the guide, and in the section on places in the Central Rio Grande area, one option stood out to me for the day.

Ojito Wilderness is about 12,000 acres of wilderness land northwest of Bernalillo, and it is about 45 miles from Albuquerque. It is accessed via Cabezon Road off of Route 550 between Zia Pueblo and San Ysidro Pueblo, and the wilderness lies west of the pueblos.

The road through Ojito is dirt and often runnelled, and there are few defined trails in the place, but upon arrival there this afternoon, it was clear it was like for two main sports. There were mountain bikers on the road and bike trails on slopes and inclines here and there, so Ojito clearly has some fans in mountain bikers.

The other fans sat or stood behind pickups and under tents and before fold-out tables, firing shots of all calibers at cardboard and foam and plastic targets on stands or posts or pallets near the slope of hills. Driving through the area and later hiking, I heard the report of gun shots bouncing off the bluff sides all day, when I wasn’t driving by a guy or two set up with their private shooting range.

I guess if you want to get out of town and shoot at targets, Ojito could your place. I didn’t know it was legal for someone to just wheel out there and start blasting, but I passed 6 parties on my drive doing just that, unconcerned about legalities. And I had no idea that you could just do that. I was the guy hopping out of his truck here and there waving at gunmen, just hoping I didn’t get shot.

Bikes and guns aside, Ojito invited me out because it was described as a mini-badland, complete with periodic hoodoos and arches, and the location I went to to hike was towards the backside of the westbound ride through the area. There were four parking areas where visitors were meant to leave their vehicle and potentially walk, hike, or ride, and the last one, listed in the Wild Guide book, was Hoodoo Pines. Hoodoo Pines was said to have a trailhead, and a mile hike would take you into an area with hoodoos and other funky rock formations sprinkled among ponderosa pine.

I parked there mid-afternoon, and just my luck, I took what I thought was “the trail” that went towards the formation- and I lost it. And found it. And lost it. Which, in time, made believe I had never found the trail. And compelled me to just climb the thing in front of me.

Long story short: I climbed up onto the first level of the thing and enjoyed the view around the wilderness, but I supposed I had to get to the top of the thing to really appreciate what I could see. And after a hard fought effort trying to slowly crawl up soft ash and shale side inclines, I saw where I had gone up on this incline would not easily grant me access to the top. It was hot. I was thirsty. And no other easy looking access routes offered themselves to me. I let go of my hope to get to the top of the thing, and I began the invigorating task of descending the slippery slope I had just come up. I made careful progress laterally as best as I could, and I finally reached the mesa floor and walked around the perimeter of the butte until I was in front of it again, and before my truck.

By late afternoon, all of the guys out for shooting practice were gone. The area was quiet, except for the soft grumbling of thunder heard from a front sitting northeast of the region.

As I drove out of the Hoodoo Pines parking area and went back up the road I had entered on, I saw what appeared to be another trail off of the road about 400 feet back from the parking area, marked with Wilderness Area posts, appearing to head into the same area I had just been. And I am guessing that trail was probably the one I needed to find and take- and I’d like to try again and take it. But with someone who for sure knows it is the right one.

Ojito does have some of the wonderful land deformities you see in Bisti, where erosion in the various kinds of rocks uncover various colors of minerals and sediments in oddly balanced or inverted cone structures. I enjoyed visiting it and will consider visiting it again- but maybe next time, with a good rifle and some targets as well.

Now, I just have to finish rehydrating and get these cactus needle heads out of my feet.

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The guide that steered me out today was the “Wild Guide: Passport to New Mexico Wilderness”, put out by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. It is an attractive and informative book about New Mexico’s accessible wilderness areas, and it is available for purchase here.