Slickhorn Canyon

Ah, cool water! This deep pool is truly a gem of the desert. Unlike the much smaller pools below, this one is too deep to touch bottom on one side. The temperature is perfect. Later in the season, this pool may have a layer of green algea, but not on this day!

The trickle of water down the canyon had dried up, and I was worried that the pool might not be good. But it was good. It's fed by a spring. There are other pools above, about which I know little.

More smooth limestone up the bed of the canyon.

Slickhorn Canyon, at mile 66.7 or so, is one of those wonderful experiences that you want to enjoy as often as you can! At first, you need to climb up along a very old road and then back down into the bed of the canyon. This bypasses a difficult drop. Once in the bed, it's like walking up a gray staircase of limestone. Ledge after ledge, each one lying above others, deposited at the bottom of an ancient sea, make your walkway. You can step up each new ledge, or you can at least climb up easily.

There was once a plan to drill for oil near the mouth of Slickhorn, so a rough road was built along the edge of the canyon, finally leading down to the mouth of Slickhorn, where a final job would bring an engine to the site. But with a few hundred yards to go (having come from the railroad at Gallup, NM) the machine tumbled over the edge and was destroyed! You can still see some of the wreckage below.