Wandering through Guadalupe Canyon to the Southwest Corner of New Mexico

In the course of working on Wandering in the Clear Light of New Mexico and after other travels, I managed to get to the Northwest, Northeast, and Southeast corners of New Mexico. But I never ventured to the Southwest corner of the State, where New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico converge. This gave me the idea that I should check it out. (If you’ve read The Gentle Art of Wandering, you may remember the importance of having an Idea to initiate a wandering adventure.)

While gathering information, I learned that the Southwest Corner is located in a very rugged and remote tract of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. I also learned that the best (and only) access would be from Douglas, Arizona and that the adventure would involve walking through Guadalupe Canyon on private land. Fortunately, after reading various write-ups that I found on the Internet from other people who had explored the area, I learned that access is okay if you’re on foot and don’t hunt or trap. (You may also remember from The Gentle Art of Wandering the value of fleshing out your Idea by developing some Context for your adventure is important, but ultimately the Idea and Context only have meaning when you take Action and actually get out there and do it.)

In further readings, I learned that Guadalupe Canyon has plenty of history related to the Apache and Old West Lawmen and Bad Guys, but more importantly it is located where multiple eco-zones and wildlife from both sides of the border come together to make this a sought after location by birdwatchers. It is also where jaguars are believed to cross from Mexico into the United States.

And this brings us to another component of Guadalupe Canyon and the Southwest Corner of New Mexico – the Border Wall. With the rugged mountainous terrain, the Wall is not complete. Building the Wall near Guadalupe Canyon required blasting away a huge portion of the mountains, and with all of that construction the Wall is still not done and has not reached the New Mexico border. According to what I have read, at a cost of $41 million dollars per mile, this is one of the most costly sections of the wall.

With so much to check out, I was chomping at the bit to go! In full disclosure, it took me three attempts to see the Corner Monument. But I like to think of those first two attempts as reconnaissance trips to test out possible routes. Even better, the additional walks gave me more reasons to visit this incredible corner of the world. Each walk was fantastic and I can’t wait to get back!

 

If you want to check this area out, you’ll start in Douglas and go east on 15^th Street. When 15^th Street crosses Airport Road it becomes the Geronimo Trail. At this point you’ll be leaving the townscape and entering the desertscape. The pavement ends in a little over four miles, but the road continues to be very good.

The Geronimo Trail follows the topography in and out from the border. So you’ll have plenty of chances to see the Border Wall and may even ping a Mexican cell tower and get a Welcome to Mexico message on your phone. But in all likelihood, you’ll be out of cell phone range for most of the drive.

In just short of 14 miles, you’ll pass a Mormon Battalion monument and pass the entrance to the Slaughter Ranch (now a National Wildlife Refuge). The Morman Battalion marched from Iowa to San Diego during the Mexico War of 1846-48. There are several monuments marking their route. Additionally, if you’re old enough, you might remember the 1958 TV Western – Texas John Slaughter – and its catchy theme song.

Texas John Slaughter made ’em do what they oughter

Cuz – if they didn’t – they died!

At 20 miles or so you’ll reach a major junction. The Geronimo Trail heads to the northeast while Guadalupe Canyon Road heads southeast. (The Geronimo Trail was the route of the Mormon Battalion.) Take Guadalupe Canyon Road. In 9 more miles, you’ll reach another junction. The wider road to the right leads to a construction staging area for the Border Wall. Take the smaller road to the left. It reaches the Guadalupe Ranch gate in a little over a half-mile. It’s now time to park the car and start walking.

 

The gate has a pass-through and is currently open to those on foot. But please don’t do anything to cause the ranch owners to change their minds regarding access as they have every right to close off their land and will do so if they sense problems. If the current sign is replaced with a No Trespassing sign, it’s game over!

And when you do walk through the pass-through and follow the road on foot, you’ll be leaving the desertscape and entering a beautiful grove of sycamore trees, cottonwoods, and Emory oaks. It is one of the most gorgeous and peaceful places on earth. I was totally taken away by it’s beauty. And with a light breeze, the moment was perfect. As my dog Sparky and I continued walking, the 1960s Chad and Jeremy song popped into my mind.

Trees swaying in the summer breeze

Showing off their silver leaves

As we walked by

As we kept walking by more and more sycamore trees, I recalled how Annie Dillard mused in her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek that sycamore may be most beautiful word in the English language. The same adage could be applied to walking through Guadalupe Canyon.

But it’s not only the trees in the Guadalupe Canyon that make it special. There’s also the wildlife. When I walked through the canyon in the Spring there were hundreds if not thousands of birds. I am not a birder, so I can’t tell you what they were. But there were definitely many birds that I had never seen before and bird calls that I had never heard before.

On another visit, I saw a javelina prowling through the brush. And on my most recent visit, I noticed a fluffy white furball just ambling up ahead without a care in the world. And when I saw its black lower side, I realized it was a juvenile hog-nosed skunk. Not wanting a long ride home with a skunk-drenched dog, I immediately tightened my grip on Sparky’s leash. After several minutes of just slowly moseying about the little furball finally turned into the brush, and I could relax my grip on Sparky’s leash.

There are many places along the road where you can get a close look at the wall. Even in a canyon that couldn’t be more harmonious and wonderful, there are always reminders that the world is not always harmonious. But eventually the road swings to the north and the wall is out of sight. After two-and-half miles of walking, you’ll reach a corral. It’s at this point that you’ll be leaving private land and stepping onto BLM land.

If all you want is one of the most wonderful walks in the world, this a great place to turn around. But if you’re an obsessed explorer-nerd like myself you can continue. Just to the right of the corral, there is an old jeep road heading to the southeast. The road is totally beat up and only fit for foot travel or ATVs and is the way to go if you want to find the State Corner.

In a half mile, you’ll reach a barbed wire fence. This is the New Mexico/Arizona state line. As you can see, the terrain is way too rough for bushwacking along the fence line to the Corner. When you cross into New Mexico you’ll be walking through the BLM Guadalupe Canyon Wilderness Study Area. But if you follow the old road into New Mexico for another half mile, you’ll find another drainage with better access to the Corner. That route too requires a serious bushwack.

As for bushwacking. If you look closely at desert plants and shrubs, almost all of the them have thorns or sharp points. When you throw in mesquite, the brush can become impenetrable. There is a very good reason why cowboys wear heavy leather chaps when taking cattle out of heavy brush. I know that on my first attempt to reach the Corner, I was wearing a tee-shirt and had to turn around because my arms were becoming a scratched-up mess.

With the coordinates for the Corner set in my handheld GPS, Sparky and I headed uphill from the drainage to walk the last three-quarters-of-a mile toward the corner. What looked like a reasonable grade on the topo map was full of rock walls, huge boulders, and a brush filled drainage. Every now and then we found traces of a faint path on the flatter portions of the route. My first thought was that other people like me had followed this route to the corner.

But then I saw a cigarette butt, and thought what in heck is that doing here! Who the heck would come all the way out here to smoke a cigarette? And then I saw a one-gallon plastic jug filled with water. A few minutes later, we ran into empty water bottle. I realized that we were clearly on a route coming in from Mexico. Fortunately Sparky and I reached a high point just after the water jug and could see the Border Monument, still a quarter-of-a-mile away, perched on the side of a mountain.

Being only with Sparky and clearly on route used by people coming in from Mexico and still facing a difficult quarter-of-a-mile of serious bushwacking, I decided that a getting a picture from a quarter-of-a-mile away was as good as a three-point field goal. And way better than being stopped cold in the red zone. Taking the win, Sparky and I turned around and headed back down to the drainage and the old jeep road.

And even better, we got to go through Guadalupe Canyon again. With a different angle of sunlight, it was a whole other experience and just as a wonderful as the first pass! As long as Guadalupe Canyon is open to walkers, it will be a perfect place for a wonderful casual walk during the day. But if you head away from Guadalupe Canyon into the BLM backcountry, I would carry a handheld GPS and make sure that you know what you’re doing.

I know that I have every intention to come back and visit this wonderful corner of the world again and have to put Guadalupe Canyon up high on my list of wandering adventures!