The Cerro Pedernal is among the most iconic images in northern New Mexico. It dominates the southern skyline of the Abiquiu Reservoir and Ghost Ranch areas. Climbing Pedernal is a bit of challenge, but we decided to tackle it anyway.
Kelly’s thoughts…
Cerro Pedernal is easily visible from throughout the basin to the north, but also from areas all around this part of north-central New Mexico. At 9866’, It’s an easily visible and impressive landmark. The area near Ghost Ranch has been used to film hundreds of movies (portions of Oppenheimer, supposedly set in Los Alamos, were actually filmed at Ghost Ranch). Many old westerns were filmed in the valley, including scenes from the Magnificent Seven, and Pedernal can sometimes be seen in the background.
Georgia O’Keeffe, one of New Mexico’s most famous artists, painted Pedernal over and over again. According to her, God told her if she painted it enough times, she could have it. After she passed her ashes were spread on top of Pedernal.
Cerro Pedernal means “Flint Hill,” and the mountain was the source of flint and chert for making arrowheads for thousands of years.
From Ghost Ranch and much of the Chama River basin in the area, Pedernal looks like a small, high mesa top. However, the top is actually a long, very narrow ridge. From other angles, the peak looks like a sharp point as one looks at it lengthwise. The basalt sides of the top are tall cliffs nearly the entire way around, but there is one place on the south side that has a bit of a break. It’s still a climb (small Class 4), but definitely doable, not just by Josiah, but by old fuddies like us, too.
Riki, Annie, Jared, Josiah and I decided we needed to get out one more time before Annie returns to college, so the top of Pedernal was our destination. A bit of a drive to get there, we laughed and played tunes all the way there. The forest road to near the base gets progressively worse until there was finally a long, steep, cobbly stretch that I decided not to take the pickup through. So we hiked maybe a mile or to up the rest of the bad road, then up the steep west ridge to the base of the cliffs. Along the base of the cliff, about halfway, we found a bit of a cave where we took a break before scaling the short climb to the top. A steep bit took us up to the top, then along the top to the highest point on the west end. The top is exceptionally narrow and rocky with cliffs dropping off 100 feet on all sides.
What an incredible view! The vista of the basin with the canyons of the Chama River, Abiquiu Reservoir and distant Ghost Ranch with the high country beyond is incredible. From the top we could even see the southern San Juan Mountains in Colorado, some 65 miles to the north, and even the La Plata Mountains above Durango, about 100 miles northwest.
Riki found an adorable horned lizard right on top of Pedernal. Also on top is an ammo box with notebooks inside where people have signed their names and written their thoughts. Riki wrote her thoughts, and we all signed it. “I want to be the type of person that can climb to the top of Pedernal. Today I was.”
People have placed small treasures and trinkets in the box. There was a condom, a paring knife, a broken lens, a lighter, coins, shiny rocks, etc. An incredible item was a sticker from my friend Ernie Valdez’s bat workshop which I actually helped him design! What a cool thing to find, and I sure do wonder who put that in there.
The hike down was tricky, but we made good time getting back to the pickup. We found two more horned lizards, both smaller, and one really a baby, and we followed a bear who made tracks in the mud. The flowers were amazing and we saw many great insects and birds. And we had a tremendous time together. I will miss Annie again when she leaves for school, but what a treat to get this time to spend with her.
Image gallery.
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