Page 11 - Walks In The Black Range, Vol. 4

Lower Gallinas Campground
I stayed straight, and now made my way very, very steeply up a gully and then began weaving my way through trees up to the top of the ridge. It was so steep that I was resting about every tenth step to catch my breath. When I got to the crest of the ridge, I was not surprised in the least to see that I was much higher up than I had planned to be. In fact it was the exact mistake I was trying to avoid when I was researching on my maps and Google Earth.
Well, I got over the drift fence up there and started taking myself down towards Bull Trap. I found a pretty good trail on the other side for part of the way and then continued in the creek bed southwest until I was in the main canyon.
Bull Trap was big and wide with tall ponderosas and no sign of fire damage whatsoever. Water trickled from puddle to puddle. I had to climb around a well-constructed rock dam, and sunk into a bit of quicksand when I got back down to the stream. Luckily I had already planted my lead foot on solid ground so I was able to pull out quickly before sinking in too far in the deceptive mix of gravel, sand and water.
Further down, past the cliffs on the south side, Bull Trap gets very narrow. There are small waterfalls, boulders and stretches of bedrock. One of the falls which pulses through a chute in the bedrock about as big around as baseball bat, I decided to name Peashooter Falls.
Silver Creek Canyon