If you’re familiar with New Mexico, you probably have some awareness of Chaco Canyon and its amazing ruins. The Chacoan culture extended way beyond Chaco Canyon in the form of communities called Outliers. The easternmost outlier, Guadalupe Outlier, happens to be on a steep-walled butte overlooking the Rio Puerco in the middle of the Rio Puerco Volcanic Necks.
The view north from Guadalupe Outlier.
The Rio Puerco Volcanic Necks are believed to be the largest concentration of volcanic necks (or diatremes) in the world. They were described to some extent a few months ago in another blog post: Cabezon – Shark Tooth Ridge – and the Rio Puerco Necks. The entire area has scenery worthy of a nation park.
Guadalupe Outlier (Hike 37) was added to the 3rd edition of 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Albuquerque because the drive to get there is so fantastic. In fact, when I give talks on the 60 Hikes book, I always mention the drive and say that it rivals California Highway 1 for sheer beauty!
After one of the talks a woman from the audience came up to me and said that she had hard time believing my claim. All I could tell her was to check it out. I happened to bump into her again a couple of months later at another event, and she told me, “you’re right, the drive does rival California 1.” Continue Reading →
