In the July 2023 issue of The Black Range Naturalist there is a description of the slot canyon on Wicks Gulch, at the confluence with Percha Creek. Upstream on the Percha, from the Wicks Slot, there are some narrow canyons which don’t quite meet the definition of “slot” but which are impressive never-the-less. I have been experimenting with some new (to me) video technology and some editing programs which I have not used before. What better place to try my elementary skills out than a narrow canyon.
Before I continue, let me cut to the chase. I have posted three short videos of one of these canyons to the Videos of the Black Range portfolio on Vimeo. This is a catch-all portfolio which has a variety of material in it so I have loaded the three side canyon videos at the front, so they appear on the first page. All were made from the same raw material, which is part of the experiment. “Percha Creek Side Canyon” is a flat file made from 360° raw video. For those of you prone to motion sickness you may wish to approach this video with care. “Percha Creek Side Canyon B” is the previously mentioned video, edited to be somewhat shorter and “dewarped” (meaning it does not have all that curvy stuff at the edges). “Percha Creek Side Canyon B&W Filter” is the dewarped video with a black-and-white filter. Although they are all from the same raw video they present differently. This is part of the experiment and if you have an interest in this type of topic you may wish to watch all three.
The walk to the canyon starts at the end of County Road B023 (which starts at a gate on NM-152). At this point you will find yourself on a point overlooking Percha Creek (left side of the map below). Make your way down to the creek, which is just over 200 feet below, and head down stream for about 2.2 miles. There are no established trails. The map below shows this portion of the walk, ending at the start of the canyon shown in the videos.
The walk is quite interesting, an old adobe cabin is in the flat (between “Ready Pay Gulch” and “The Box” on the map) and on this outing I found a ~12' section of iron pipe (perhaps 18” in diameter) near the cabin. The only place I can think it came from was the “pipe bridge” which crossed the Percha in the late 1800’s (photos below).
A nice way to start the new year. I hope yours started this way too - and that the year continues well for all of us.
- Bob Barnes, Hillsboro