Hike Leader: Corey Norman

Hike Date: April 24, 2021

Hike Distance: 10 miles

Elevation Gain: 1600 ft.

This hike into the Withington Wilderness, nestled within the northern reaches of the San Mateo Mountains, was led by our fellow leader Corey Norman on an April day of varying weather. What follows is a trip report that describes the rough route while still leaving some details to the imagination.

The Withington Wilderness is one of the least visited wilderness areas in New Mexico. For many obvious reasons: it is small, there are few major widely known natural features to visit, there are few trails, and the roads to get here not are accessible by all. However, this place is a true wilderness lover’s dream! There is seldom any sign of man, the wildlife live relatively undisturbed and well (I saw two bears on one outing a couple years ago), and the best way to navigate is with a topo map (know how to use it).

For this hike, we connected a couple of canyons that I had previously hiked, primarily connecting interesting locations. To start the day (after navigating the rough and flood damaged road in), we started by hiking up Potato Canyon. There is a “trail” listed in here, but it is practically non-existent. We turned off to hike up the North Fork of Potato Canyon at a certain point, heading towards a small waterfall. From here, the geology gets more interesting, especially right as you reach the waterfall’s lair, where it is guarded by gothic cathedrals of rock. This place is surely a special one, whether the water is flowing or not. On this day it was merely a trickle.

From there, we backtracked to another tributary I call “The Other White Place”, where we started hiking up, passing many large and interesting white rock formations. At a certain point we climbed up to a saddle between this and the South Fork of Cooney Canyon. The views were tremendous in both directions, especially with the rain and snow showers visible all around us. We decided to have our lunch there and enjoy the views for a bit.

From this point, we descended a pleasant ridge that led right into South Fork Cooney. The canyon above this portion has several large pouroffs that would require ropes to descend. While there are more drops down below this point, they can all be done without having to lug out the ropes (although one spot is nice to have a handline). Once the canyon starts dropping, it just keeps dropping and the rocky sections last for quite a while. It begins with a 10ish foot vertical drop that has plenty of little ledges to make it easy enough. I could describe each drop, but that would get repetitive after a bit. Just know, there is a ton of downclimbing in here! It is a true full-body experience. There is one spot that marks the crux of the canyon, where there is another 10-15 drop that is nice to have webbing for. On my first visit out here, I used webbing for the other hikers and packed it out with me. On my last visit, and still on this visit, there was webbing left by someone else, but we packed out the tattered remains on this trip. I had left my webbing at home this trip, but some creativity got all of the hikers down the drop.

There is one nice section through the canyon where the walls are quite close, one little passage being only a few feet wide, but overall I wouldn’t classify it as a slot. Just a narrow, rocky, and fun canyon! After the last downclimb, a short hike will deposit you into the main Cooney Canyon.

A few of the hikers decided to wait here while a few others decided to make the short trip up Cooney Canyon to visit a hidden slot I’d found on a previous visit. It was just as beautiful this time around, becoming incredibly narrow and steep in its short length.

One thing that was noteworthy of Cooney Canyon was the fact that a massive flash flood has come through here since my last visit a year ago. This was noted by some massive log jams throughout the canyon and the clearance of a few feet of gravel in some sections of the canyon. The floodwaters must have been quite impressive!! They were certainly deeper than I am tall through some stretches of the canyon. A reminder to be mindful of the weather out here, especially in monsoon season.

As we exited the canyon and headed back to our cars, we were greeted by a strong wind, but nothing could put a damper on the great hike we just accomplished! The Withington Wilderness holds many surprises for those willing to get out and explore it, and we were lucky enough to string some of those surprises together to make for a full and wonderful day of hiking.

Withington Wilderness: Canyon Loop (Wilderness Challenge)

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