As mentioned many times in this blog, a basic tenet of the Gentle Art of Wandering is that you’ll find something special every time you wander even in the most unsuspecting of places. A good example of this is a mesa in the backcountry about forty miles or so southwest of Albuquerque.
The mesa itself is generally 300 feet tall and approximately ten miles in length. Its width varies from one to three miles. From a geologic point of view, the mesa has a volcanic lava cap (basalt) with an underlying base of sedimentary rock (typically limestone). There is an extinct volcano at the south end of the mesa and much of the limestone has been transformed into travertine.
The ownership of the mesa is a checkerboard of public (Bureau of Land Management) and private ranch land. The portion of the mesa on public land is open for you to explore.
As you can see, there is nothing that immediately grabs you as particularly special when you approach the mesa from the east. You’ll have to do some exploring to discover its specialness.
