The Ditch - Chimayó

[In February of 2012 I realized I didn’t know much about the local ditch, and so started hunting for it more systematically. Only the pictures are dated.]

When you pass beyond the badlands, the land opens out. You’ve passed the northeast trending boundary between lithosome B from Peñasco and lithosome A from the Santa Fe section of the Sangre de Cristo within the Tesuque formation. Ridges of sediment still exist to the north, but they’re farther back from the road, on the other side of the Rio Chiquito. They’re now Quaternary alluvium.

The road no longer follows the Santa Cruz which lies farther to the right. The WPA Guide to 1930's New Mexico says the area then was "planted with fields of corn, chili, frijoles (Mexican or pinto beans), apple and peach orchards." [1] Today all you can see are houses, many announcing themselves as studios or galleries.

Here and there signs warn of possible water on the road. When you look north, you often see an arroyo that’s been turned into a road.

On the other side of the road you see steeply declining roads where water runs from arroyos and route 76 itself.

Dams were built on several of these washes in 1962, to stop silt from running into the Santa Cruz and the irrigation ditches downstream. In Sabrino’s Map, Don Usner suggests they may have had the unintended consequence of encouraging settlement along the arroyos. He says early settlers in Chimayó "took care to build their homes well away from the arroyo beds" where "spectacular floods once churned," but since the dams were built "random arrangements of mobile homes lay boldly in the path of some of the temporarily constrained washes." [2]

You don’t actually see the Santa Cruz again until you turn towards the Santuario in El Portrero southeast of the old Chimayó plaza. For the most part, the rocks again are smaller than they were downstream.

In front of the dam face, the river is dry or nearly so. The dam is releasing no water right now.

Between the two points, the Rio Quemado has joined the Santa Cruz and snow is continuing to melt from the recent flurries.

End Notes:
1. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers’ Program. New Mexico: A Guide to the Colorful State. New York: Hastings House, 1940. Reprinted as WPA Guide to 1930’s New Mexico. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1989.

2. Don J. Usner. Sabrino’s Map. Santa Fé: Museum of New Mexico, 1995.

Photographs:
1. Rio Santa Cruz in El Portrero, west of the Santuario on route 520, 16 February 2012.
2. Arroyo to north off route 76 in Chimayó area, 16 February 2012.
3. Road leading off 76 toward Rio Santa Cruz in Chimayó area, 16 February 2012.
4. Rio Santa Cruz in El Portrero, west of the Santuario on route 520, 16 February 2012.
5. Rio Santa Cruz soon after it leaves the dam, off route 520, 16 February 2012.
6. Snow melting into Santa Cruz river from route 503, 14 February 2012.

The Ditch - Quarteles

[In February of 2012 I realized I didn’t know much about the local ditch, and so started hunting for it more systematically. Only the pictures are dated.]

My plans to get a better idea where the local acequia ran below the great mound by walking the nearby farm road were dashed by the realities of life in New Mexico in February. Light snow began falling in the night and heavy clouds persisted through the morning. With no sun until noon, it was too cold to walk in mid-morning when the local paved roads are safest for pedestrians.

I retreated to my car to see the Santa Cruz dam. As you go east you drive through three zones. The first begins as you enter Quarteles where the USGS map says the elevation is 5757'. You rise 150' to the area where suburban Chimayó begins. The elevation there is 5909' and rises to 6220' where you make the turn for the Santuario. Continuing east, the road rises another 280' before the exit to Santa Cruz Lake.

The elevation increase in the first stage is emphasized by the badlands on the left which can be 50' higher than the road. At their base, there are the familiar Tertiary sediments of the Tesuque formation lithosome B that came from the Peñasco embayment. On top, according to Daniel Koning, are glacial cobbles and pebbles composed of quartzite, granite and pegmatitic quartz.

At the point where the road from La Puebla meets route 76, the badlands rise from 5800' at the road to 5950' inland.

Across the road, the Santa Cruz river level is low, fed only by recent snow in the air and melting in tributaries below the dam. Banks of those cobbles lie exposed like beached whales, white in the winter light.

About three quarters of a mile farther down the road, the Placita Road meets route 76.

The land exposed by road builders is leaching cobbles.

Across the road, the Santa Cruz is flowing through and over the rocks.

Photographs:
1. Rio Santa Cruz at La Puebla Road near route 76, 16 February 2012.
2. Badlands at junction of La Puebla Road with route 76, 16 February 2012.
3. Rio Santa Cruz at La Puebla Road near route 76, 16 February 2012.
4. Badlands at junction of Placita Road with route 76, 16 February 2012.
5. Road cut on route 76 at junction with Placita Road, 16 February 2012.
6. Rio Santa Cruz at Placita Road near route 76, 16 February 2012.

Notes:
Daniel Koning, M. Nyman, R. Horning, M. Eppes, and S. Rogers. 2002. Preliminary Geologic Map of the Cundiyo Quadrangle, Santa Fe County, New Mexico.