San Jose Badlands Trail Ride

 

I’m sorry I’ve been MIA and haven’t had time to update my previous horseback riding adventure from 2 weeks ago, but I’ve been so busy with my kids and stuff around our little ranch, and I’ve just returned from another horseback riding weekend adventure!

But for now, I’m back to finish up where I left off…….

On Sunday morning, my friends and I gathered up our equines, tacked up and got ready to ride out to the San Jose Badlands that surrounded my friend Julie’s Starry Night Ranch.

Unbeknownst to me, my friend Loeta was taking photos of me and Apache as we waited for everyone to get mounted up.

Apache must have known, because she was posing so pretty and majestically!

While waiting for everyone else, Apache and I wandered around the ranch exploring.

And then Loeta called my name and we stopped for a photo.

And then everyone was tacked up and mounted up and we were on the trail.

Besides me and my friend Julie, we also had my friends Loeta, Colleen and Karen along for the ride. Oh, and Julie’s dogs, too.

As we neared the Badlands, the vistas became more and more impressive.

There were many photo opportunities, too!

We passed a hoodoo that resembled a frog sitting on a rock.

 

At one point we even saw some elk and a baby elk that Julie’s dogs flushed out from underneath a tree. Boy Howdy! Baby elk are very loud!

But mostly we just explored the interesting rock sculptures and hoodoos.

 

Julie is very blessed to have this amazing environment right outside her front door to ride, hike an explore!

And I felt blessed that she was so eager to share it with us, too! 

Many of the rock walls looked like they had been painted with watercolor. So pretty!

Apache and I really enjoyed ourselves and she was such an awesome girl that day! In fact, she was absolutely awesome the entire weekend. I sure do love my Apache mare!

 

Apache seems to enjoy exploring new places just as much as I do. I also think she enjoys hanging out with her horse buddies, too…….even if she does squeal and pin her ears sometimes. Haha!

Julie took us to some amazing places in the badlands. It was all so breathtakingly beautiful! New Mexico is such a diverse and enchanting state. I really do love living here!

Below from left to right: Loeta, Karen, Colleen, and Julie.

Apache and I both enjoy stopping to appreciate the views…and we did that often all weekend long!

 

The Castle

 

 

 

 

We rode up onto a peninsula-like ridge with amazing views surrounding us in every direction…..

Sometimes we looked up……..

And sometimes we looked down.

 

Everywhere we looked there was something interesting, unique and beautiful to see!

Julie is so awesome! I’m so glad she’s my friend and grateful to her for sharing her special places with us.

This huge rock sculpture mountain looks like it belongs in Lord of the Rings.

I turned around and saw this beautiful array of colorful rock sculptures and made Loeta and her boy Profe, pose for my camera! hah!

While I was taking the photo, Apache and Karen’s boy Rio were enjoying an intimate moment……

And then it was time to head back to Starry Night Ranch for lunch.

 

The San Jose Badlands are owned by BLM, but they are surrounded by private ranch land, so the only way to visit this amazing place is to have one of the locals take you in.

Riding through some of the old homesteads and across the historic ranches was an enjoyable taste of how the west used to be years ago.  

One of the newer homesteaders is a talented architect and builder. He built this charming little church, overlooking a beautiful valley, for his neighbors to come together and enjoy.

(My friend Loeta took this photo with her camera, hence the smaller photo and low quality)

There are no established trails, so we rode across country and made our own route, and we also rode on long dirt country roads, too.

 

There were a number of gates that we had to open and close as we entered and exited different private ranches that Julie has permission to ride on.

Several of the ranches had cattle, and water tanks.

This one could use a water refill…..

We never saw another person or vehicle all day, just wide open spaces, peace and quiet and beauty all around us.

And of course, we saw many cattle. Apache likes cows and always wants to go check them out. When I drop my reins, she will head straight over and act like she wants to herd them around.

After our 7 mile morning ride, we made it back to Starry Night Ranch for lunch.

We all enjoyed a nice relaxing lunch on the front porch. And then my friends, Latana and Karen packed up so they could be home by Sunday Night to spend Memorial Day with their families, while Julie, Colleen, Loeta, Peggy, CeCe and I wrangled up our ponies for an afternoon trail ride back out to the badlands.

 

Next up: Tear-inducing, breathtakingly-spiritual, amazingly-beautiful afternoon badlands trail ride!

To be continued…..

Copper Canyon Trail Ride

 

 I shared a ride with Colleen and Loeta up to Starry Night Ranch. We arrived at Starry Night Ranch in Llaves, NM before noon, and we unloaded our horses into their corrals at the ranch so they could stretch their legs and get a drink of water.

Then we loaded all our horses into Julie’s stock trailer and drove down to Abiquiu, NM, about 45 minutes away.

We unloaded our horses, got them tacked up and rode into Copper Canyon.

(Julie in the tack room, Colleen and Loeta to the right of Apache) 

 

At the entrance to Copper Canyon.

 

Riding in the arroyo that travels through Copper Canon.

 

 

 Apache and I enjoying the huge, white rock walls that line the beginning of the canyon.

 

My friend Latana and her mule Tecumseh standing beneath the impressively formed rock walls.

 

The views were pretty incredible as we rode further into the canyon.

 

We explored little side canyons and discovered exciting formations, like this large hoodoo, Apache and I are standing beneath.

 

My friend Karen and her handsome boy Rio, in a side canyon.

 

And the end of one side canyon, we discovered a shallow cave.

 

Not sure which photo is my favorite, so I decided to post both. I like them both!

Julie and her mare rode up to the top of a saddle ridge and I thought it was a perfect photo op! 

 

 Around every bend in the canyon, there was some new geological formations to enjoy.

 

In another side canyon, we rode up the high rock wall to a ledge. Latana and Julie waving hello!

 

Down one particular side canyon there was an abundance of beautiful rock formations and more hoodoos.

Latana and her mule really show the size perspective in this amazing location.

 

I took a group photo surrounded by these impressive rock formations.

 

 After my friends rode on through, Apache and I followed suit.

 

It was fun to just meander around and through this side canyon discovering beautiful and unique new rock formations.

 

The experience was like riding on a different planet. I can imagine a Star Trek episode being filmed here!

 

Some of the rock formations reminded me of sand castles.

 

And some reminded me of what it must feel like to ride a horse in Egypt!

 

The bright blue sky and white fluffy clouds made the perfect backdrop for all of the beauty surrounding us.

 

We didn’t ride for very long in Copper Canyon because we got a late start and it had gotten very hot, windy and dry. We were all feeling like roasted prunes, so we turned around and headed back out of the canyon.

 

Julie was a lot of fun, and even though, she has some of the most spectacular riding right out her front door, she seemed to really enjoy exploring a new locale.

 

On the way back to where we parked the horse trailers, we planned to cross the highway and ask the winery across the road if we could have permission to ride on their property to have access to the Chama River. Unfortunately, those plans didn’t work out because their property was fenced in at the river to keep cattle out of the winery. 

So, we returned to the horse trailers, expecting to remove our equines’ tack and load ‘em up……but our plans changed when we returned……

 

When we got back to the horse trailers, I tied up my horse, loosened her saddle and turned off my GPS.

We had only ridden about 5 1/2 miles by that point.

Copper Canyon Adventure

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But unbeknownst to me, Julie had decided to ride on ahead, to the east, by herself to scout out a different trail that would allow us all to cool off in the water with our horses………

 

 

We followed the narrow tributary, riding through the water. All our equines enjoyed taking a drink and getting their feet wet after riding through the hot sand in the canyon arroyo. 

 

Loeta and her Paso Fino gelding made for a pretty picture.

 

We didn’t ride any further because the Chama River was moving fast past the tributary we were in.

If it had been slower moving, I would have liked to ride out in deeper river to see if my mare would have just stood in the water without trying to lay down. She loves to wallow in the water getting her belly wet, so I really have to pay attention when I ride Apache into water. But someday I want to swim with my Apache mare.   

 

Apache was thankful that we parked beneath a nice shady tree.  

 

We loaded up the horses and drove west towards Georgia O’Keefe’s beloved Pedernal.

 

Below Pedernal lies Abiquiu Lake.

 

One last view of the beautiful Pedernal before we arrived at Starry Night Ranch.

 

Someday I hope to ride to the top of Pedernal with my Apache mare…..