Tuesday, July 4, 2017 Cobra flight #588, PIC #601, 2 landings Tent Rocks, La Ventana, Slot Canyons, Red Mesa Ruin, Nuestra Senora, Canoncito Ruins, Rio Salado Belen: 5:57 am Belen: 9:23 am Airtime: 3.4 hrs Total PIC Time: 1562.9 Total Logged Time: 1584.1 Paul and I wanted to take another look at La Ventana Mesa and the winds were forecast to be very calm this morning. We headed down to the hangar for an early start. Recently, I have been having problems with the GoPro app to control my cameras in flight. I need two devices (cell phone and tablet) to control two cameras, which is a pain, but the last straw was occasionally loosing the link between the cell phone and the camera which is not recoverable in flight. I am try something different today, using one remote to control both cameras. Nice hair Jeff
We took off pre-dawn. I had problems with my radio in the pattern. It was ok for my initial radio check on the ramp with Paul, then the power plug must have wiggled loose. I landed and reseated the power plug and we were on our way.
We headed up to the tent-rock formations again. No decent pictures here because my video was blinded by the sun. We flew a little further to the top of the hill and saw these interesting sandstone cliffs.
We glided back towards the Rio Puerco and made a pass over the ruins. Here is a close up view of the South Puerco ruin.
Here is a close up view of the North Puerco Ruin.
After flying past the ruins, I headed over to the Rio Puerco to see if the mud water fall was running. No water at the falls today. I ll come after a good rainstorm.
As we approached La Ventana Mesa, I felt the winds pick up and knew it would be too swirly to make any comfortable low passes over the windows. Still, it was fun to fly over them just a little bit higher.
I discovered this back window on the last flight up here. I just made one pass over the windows before heading out over to the slot canyons.
There are dozens of slot canyons back here. All very mysterious.
I definitely need to explore this area on foot someday. The next picture shows a long slot canyon that extends past the end of this canyon above.
This one seems to go back forever.
While we were back here a small warbird equipped with aerobatic smoke came zooming underneath me. He seemed very low, and was going very fast. I tried to raise him on the radio, but couldn t make contact. Then he was gone.
We started to make our way home. Ahead was a small, unnamed mesa that I call Red Mesa. This mesa is the perfect size for a defendable stronghold and its unique color and beauty would certainly attract someone to live on. I have been flying over it for years, never finding a trace of human habitation. I made another pass, look for some sign that someone else appreciated this mesa as much as I did.
Then I saw it!! A ring of stone. The remains of a hogan built on top of this butte. It is near the top center just below the trees. Finally, I was vindicated after so many years of searching. I made seven more passes over the butte and now that I knew what and where to look, it seemed unmissable.
Just for kicks, I found the instant in time on my GoPro video that I first saw the ruins after so many years of searching. The ring feature is at the bottom center edge of the image above.
We turned south for Belen and I saw the awe inspiring peak of Cerro Nuesta Senora rising before me. I remember a structure top, suspected by some to be an eagle trap.
It was a relatively calm smooth day today and I made a low pass over the eagle trap. It is visible as small rectangular shaped structure in the lower center edge of the picture above. Far in the background you can see the more famous Cabezon Peak. Cabezon is taller, but I think the slender spire of Cerro Nuestra Senora is more beautiful. We were on a roll now. For the rest of the flight, every mesa would get additional scrutiny for ruins.
A few miles south was a triangular shaped island mesa connected by a narrow bridge to terrain to the east. It had vertical walls along the edge with a perimeter short enough to be defended by a family or two. A perfect spot for a ruin. I didn t notice anything on my first pass, but Paul saw a small ruin near the center of the triangular island.
You can see the ruin at the center of the triangle above.
As we continued on south I noticed a large flat topped mesa near an area I call the Valley of Volcanos. Over here are 6 volcanic stumps packed in here on both sides of Santa Rosa Canyon. We flew up to this mesa, but found it did not have a steep wall near the top, or any ruins on top either.
We worked out way south towards Chimney Rock, visible on the far left horizon behind my wing in the picture above. Near here there were 4 to 5 finger like canyons radiating from a junction that looks like a hand from above. At the tips of the fingers were deep overhangs with lots of trees. I suspected that somewhere back there were some ruins, but I didn t find any today.
We flew a little farther south over the Breaking Bad location. This is the spot that is Walter White parks the camper in the first episode. The white spot near the center is where he buried his money.
We flew south of Canoncito through a small canyon that had a butte in the center. The butte had sheer cliffs and had a short defendable perimeter. Off to the side was a stone pillar and on the tip of the butte near the pillar was the a ring of stone, another ruin.
Just a mile south of the butte was this interesting knife edge butte. The left edge of the butte has a shelf, with a narrow sliver of stone rising on the right side. I ll have to check this out again in calmer conditions. It was started to get too thermally for low altitude passes over the rocks.
We crossed I-40 and entered the drainage of the Rio San Jose. I saw this very freaky fractal arroyo that I never really noticed before. We followed the drainage down to the Rio Puerco and downstream to Belen airport.
Here are my GPS tracks of the day s fun flight. Belen Albuquerque Canoncito Buttes Rio Ruins Nuestra Senora Peninsula Ruin Finger Canyons Red Mesa La Ventana Mesa Tapia Canyon Slots