TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

This is the area that the Rio Cuervo is in.  As you get closer you
can just see the walls of that deep thread that is the Cuervo.


In spots it has the feeling of the grand canyon with its depth and breath.
Obviously it is neither as deep or wide but it feels that way.  Especially
If you are walking and you see it by surprise.  It has a way of doing that.
It blends into the mesa in such a way that you can find yourself at its
edge if you are the least bit distracted.  There are pools of water that
fall to form it.


These pools run over during the rain and form thin chain saws of water
winding to the drops under the falls.


Here you can see such a fall with it 100 foot drop to the next level down to
the tributary gorge that feed the Cuervo.


The Cuervo drops another 100 to 150 feet in a sheer forceful way.  It cuts
everything in its path like a laser ribbon etching the floor below.
There are times that the walls close in less than 50 feet across.


Other times the walls are a half mile apart and the ribbon of water becomes
a muddy wide stream that can support a full size stand of cotton wood trees.


On our first journey into the Cuervo we traveled only a couple of miles of the
winding river bottom.  To our surprise we found that someone had build some 
walls out of the stone from the canyon walls about and lived in the Cuervo.
The walls were built into the earth back wall of the Cuervo.  


In the next
small tributary the person had fashioned a corral using the three sides of
the Cuervo as a blind canyon.  This area was a little higher than the 
bottom of the river bed and was adjacent to the main stream.  It seems
that during a dry period many hundreds of years ago this individual decided
that he could live in the Cuervo without fear of rising river flows destroying
his shelter or animals.  It was impossible to see this habitant except
from the river bed in front or the side of one steep canyon wall above.  The 
last thing we expected to find was a ruin in the Cuervo itself.  


In many spots the river had flowed so strong and deep as to reveal the 
shelves of rock from millions of years ago.  On this first journey we
saw many rock shelves on the bottom of the river bed that had sea shells
and coral petrified in it.  Greg had taken the high ground above the
river bed on the canyon wall traveling south as I was in the river bed
traveling in the same direction.  I had found a piece of petrified wood
and was yelling to him to come down closer so he could see its color.
He replied that I should look at the petrified wood next to me.  I was 
extremely curious as to how he could spot a piece of petrified wood from
so far above.  I yelled to him "where is it?".  He responded "beside you!"
I looked around but did not see a piece near me.  I yelled again, "where?"
Again he refrained "beside you!"  I was frustrated until I noticed that the
three foot high rock I was going around to find the wood was a giant 
petrified wood stump thrusting out of the ancient sea bed.




Greg came down from the canyon wall asking, "Can you see it now?"

It was gorgeous.  Clearly the largest I have seen not in a museum.  Its 
roots had grown in and out of the rock shelf like a needle pulling 
thread.  They would disappear in the rock and then protrude back out with
reds and white grains.  





On our next trip looking for petrified trees we got this one 
sticking out of the side of the cliff.  It is about 3 feet 
across.








 for more email us







email to: chuck@911nm.com





chuck@911nm.com

THE AMMONITES WE FIND

COMING SOON THE ANIMALS, SCENERY, FOSSILS, POTTERY...

copyright 2000/2006 Chuck Dawson Corrales NM

 
 



This page has been visited:
















//our home//


 1

 2

 3

 4

 5

 6

 7

 8

 9

 x

 11

 12

 13

 14

 16

 16

 17

 18

 19

 20

 21

 22

 23

 24

 25

 26

 27

 28

 29