The Continental Divide Trail (CDT) has a section that runs through the canyon. We drove back down the river to Skull Bridge and parked. Once you leave the road you are in the Chama River Canyon Wilderness. The trail heads out through the Ojitos Canyon where cattle are being grazed on the grassland. The walls of the Chama Canyons are a striking variety of colors from yellows to maroons marking the distinct sedimentary layers of rock. We hiked several miles across the canyon and then the trail headed up a side canyon and began to gain some elevation. We continued to follow it and it eventually started paralleling a small stream.
The clouds settled back in but they were high and did not seem to be threatening rain so we continued for awhile until we got tired. Didn’t see any wildlife to speak of but the canyon walls were quite interesting throughout the hike. We thought we might get to the point where the canyon narrowed down but decided we had best turn back. The hike back went pretty quickly and by the time we got back to the car we had covered eight miles. We hadn’t planned to go quite so far but it felt good to be out and about and not cooped up by bad weather.
