Hiking the Rio Grande Trail at Seminole Canyon State Park

Trail View at Mile Marker 4

After the guided pictograph hike, I stopped for lunch and then headed over to the Rio Grande Trail.  This is a short(ish) hike at about 5 miles round trip.  Much of the scenery along the way is flat desert scrub plants, but there was one spot where there were a bunch of wildflowers in bloom, and a LOT of butterflies.

The trail starts just south of the camping area, and heads south for about a third of a mile before coming to a trail intersection for the Canyon Rim trail, which was my planned hike for tomorrow.  The berm that you can see in this photo is all that is left of an old railroad bed.  This railroad was the second transcontinental railroad, and was built in 1883.

There were a couple of shade shelters along the way, but more of these sure would have been nice.  It started getting pretty warm towards the end of this hike, and as you can see from these pictures, there really isn’t any other shade to be found along the trail.  Pouring water on my bandana and wearing that around my neck was a great way to stay cool on the way back.

About two miles into the hike I came across a couple of water troughs along the trail.  Since this area didn’t seem to be shared with cattle, I can only assume that it is there for the wildlife, or maybe for hikers to cool off if they need to.  I didn’t see any pipes or a windmill for pumping water into them, so I guess they are simply filled by rainwater.

At the 2.5 mile point, I came to what I thought was the end of the trail.  The view here overlooked a canyon / riverbed, but I couldn’t see any water – only a lot of plants.  The trail continues further to the south from here, but I couldn’t see it or I would have continued on.  Had I brought my map with me, I probably would have known to scout around a little bit more to find it.  It was just as well though, because it was starting to get pretty hot out, so it seemed like a good time to head back.

This was a nice hike, and the views at the end made the trip through the flat desert worthwhile.  I have to admit that I was a little disappointed when I got back to my campsite and looked at the map only to realize that I didn’t make it as far as I thought I did.

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