Burnt Mesa Indian Plaza - Nailed!

Was going to hike Sawyer Mesa with Monday group but only one local hiker could make it so we switched the hike to finding the Indian plaza ruin on Burnt Mesa.  After she recently saw a depiction of an Indian plaza on Burnt Mesa at the newly reopened Bandelier National Monument Museum, she asked if I would take her there, quite possibly because she remembered my mentioning it.  I didn't have the map because we didn't change the plans until we met at Ponderosa Campground this morning to leave a car for the Sawyer Mesa car shuttle.

I knew the general area of where to turn off the main Burnt Mesa Trail.  We wandered a little, looking back all the while to see landmarks to find our way back.  I have a GPS but why use it if you don't need it.  Eventually, we saw what looked like a mound and then also spotted a large elk exclosure and I remembered that the plaza was near an elk exclosure so we moseyed over to the mound and, bingo, there was the plaza!  It's small, doughnut-shaped and right next to it is a straight line of blocks outlining a foundation.  We both sat at the edge of the plaza for a long time, enjoying the 360 degree views.  From here, you can see across to Frijoles Mesa where another Indian plaza is located. 

We decided to head due north from the elk exclosure, back to the main trail, to see where we came out.  We saw a number of stakes along the way but it wasn't clear what they were marking.  We both have a good idea of what landmarks to look for that tell us to turn off the main trail. 

We continued walking out to the end of the main trail.  I pointed out various small house mound ruins.  We passed a male hiker walking back from the end and said hello.

As we approached the cars, we met a ranger.  He was touching up some trail work that young volunteers did this summer.  They filled some trenched and eroded portions of the trail with old pieces of wood.  The ranger is hoping that they will come back next summer and as there is more trenching and erosion to address. 

The ranger said that the Bandelier supervisor, Jason Lott, is very interested in improving the trails.  I'm happy about that!  He suggested that we email Jason Lott to give kudos for the Burnt Mesa trail work.  I will but I'll also ask for an update on turning the official route up Cerro Grande into a real trail and if the national park will take over the Valles Caldera National Preserve anytime soon.

The ranger told us that red-haired ranger is retiring next month.  When you reach a certain age in national park law enforcement, you're forced to retire.  Everyone's hoping they will find another position for him at the park.  He's young - only 57? - and has a son in high school.

Cerro Grande Walk and Talk

Tom Ribe, author of Inferno by Committee: A History of the Cerro Grande (Los Alamos) Fire (read it!) gave a walk and talk on Cerro Grande yesterday.  It was sponsored by PEEC (Pajarito Environmental Education Center).  Twenty seven people showed up and all but 3 made it to the top - two turned around because they had other commitments and one's trick knee wouldn't permit him to go to the top but he made it to the high pass.  I'm sure that a lot of people had never been up Cerro Grande before and this event gave them motivation.  The pace was slow and some made it up before others.

In the parking lot, Tom first pointed out on a map various features about the fire so it was a while before we started walking.      Some WI hikers attended.  Two of them got tired of all the stopping and standing around and headed for the top from the high pass, including the marvelously fit 85 year old.  At a certain point, I too headed for the top. We all had lunch on top. I stayed with the group during the rest of the hike and we didn't get back to the parking lot until around 2:30 pm.

The most interesting part for me was seeing where the prescribed burn escaped from the west fireline as a crown fire and jumped NM4, going uphill on an eastern arm of Cerro Grande. We didn't walk over there but it was somewhere in the meadow with the small exclosure and then headed across the flat area near the big elk exclosure and downhill into Frijoles Canyon, jumped NM4 and tore uphill in a narrow path on an eastern arm of Cerro Grande. 

Near the top of Cerro Grande, Tom showed us where the test burn was started in May 2000.  I had seen this area before courtesy of a hiker who pointed it out to me so it was good to see it confirmed.

I'd highly recommend reading this book.  Tom started researching it back in 2000 when the ground was still smoking from the fire.  The author has had some fire fighting experience and this shows in how he's able to explain fire behavior.  For those who want to delve deeper, the book is well footnoted.  There is some repetition in the book but that served to help me  better understand the Cerro Grande fire.