Continental Divide Trail – Day 21

May 22, 2023
Miles Today/ Total: 24.9 / 439.2

It started raining last night shortly after I dozed off. I closed up my tent to keep the rain out. I didn’t want to get up this morning. I woke up and saw it was getting light, but just laid back down for a few more minutes.

When I did get up and packed up my gear, I headed down the trail about a mile and the trail began going across some lava flow areas. The going was slow and the rocks were uneven. The area appeared to be a lava flow with a huge lava tube that had collapsed in several places. The trail stayed on the surface, but walked by several of the collapses.

It took me 3 hours to hike the 5 miles through this section and I was glad when the trail split off to the Bonita-Zuni alternate. I took that trail and it led toward Bonita canyon which I would be walking up for the next several miles.

The water sources on this alternate were cow watering tanks and when I made it to the first one the collected water and ate lunch before continuing on. The trail was a two track road and was rutted and muddy in places. I continued up the trail avoiding the muddy areas.

The trail then reached Zuni canyon road which was a much better gravel road. The second water source was another cow tank but this one was very green. It filtered out fine, but sure looked nasty in the tank. I rested for a few minutes under a nearby shade tree before continuing on down the road.

I had 6 more miles to get to a potential campsite listed in Far Out. After about 4 miles the gravel road turned into a paved road. I found a great camping spot up on a bluff overlooking Zuni canyon.

I cooked, ate my dinner, setup my tent and retired inside for the night as the sun dipped behind the mountains to the west.