After coming down from Capitan Mountain, it was still mid-morning, and I had plenty of time for another short day-hike. Of the two remaining peaks in the area I wanted to do - Carrizo and Gallinas - Gallinas offered much shorter hiking possibilities, a nice option especially given the nature of the weather these past couple of days in which afternoon thunderstorms were the norm, and always on time. Carrizo is closer to Capitan the town, but Carrizo is a long hike, and I figured I would save it for the next morning. Gallinas Peak, on the other hand, has a road to the top to service a lookout tower and various telecommunications towers. In the worst-case scenario, I could drive the whole road to the top, although I prefered not to. In any case, Gallinas Peak was now in my sights.

From Capitan I went west on US-380 to Carrizozo then north on US-54 toward the town of Corona. The country up here is pretty, high desert and open rangeland, a mix of grassy plains, some desert-like scrub, and juniper-pinon woodlands. The elevations are over 6,000 feet, surprisingly, and most of the land up here is ranch property. Interestingly, the area features vast beds of black basaltic lava, from eruptions not that long ago (geologically speaking). Looking closely it's possible to see the obvious lava underneath the covering of grass and brush. I didn't quite go all the way to Corona, as my turn-off to Gallinas Peak was well before the town, and about 30 miles north of Carrizozo. The highlight of this leg of the trip was being tailed by a cop car. I had my cruise control to 65 mph, figuring I was okay. He started to pass me but then he rode abreast with me. Then I slowed it down... then he got behind me again. Crap, I didn't need a ticket. But then he gunned his cruiser around me and was off like the wind, 90 mph, heading north. He got a call, I guess. I was probably in for a ticket otherwise.

South of Corona I went west onto Gallinas Road, which cuts across private property a tiny bit before crossing onto Forest lands after a little over a mile. The main obstacle here were giant trucks hauling gravel out from a pit about three miles in. Once on forest lands, I followed FR-161 west then northwest for about 9.5 miles to the junction with FR-99, which is signed for Gallinas Peak, 5 miles distant (the sign my way was absent, but the sign for southeast-bound travelers was still up). I went north on FR-99 for three miles to a junction with FR-102, which is the spur road to the top. I decided to drive a bit further, and covered a little less than a mile when I found some wide areas to park, at roughly 8,300 feet elevation. I wanted to make at least a short hike to the top, and from my truck I was about 1.2 miles distant, with about 370 feet of gain. I didn't load a pack,. just me, my water and camera, and I was off.

The hike up took about 20 minutes, and there I was, the top! As I walked the last few feet I started to get howled and barked at, and quickly a little bull-terrier (?) came bounding out of the little residence at the base of the lookout tower at me. I said 'hello' and a woman's voice answered, and soon, she came out to say hi and to settle down the dog, who was barking furiously at me. The woman was the lookout lady, tasked to sit up in the tower and look for fires. She was on a break, and was very friendly. We had a nice chat, and she put the dog, Dixie, back into the residence so she wouldn't continue to bark and leap at me. This dog meant business! Linda, the tower lady's name, works for the Forest Service and offered me to walk up the steps to the top, which I accepted. The views from the tower were excellent, and she showed me the recent burns in the range, including a biggy from 2004 and another from 2001. To the north the Sangre de Cristos were barely visible while the Manzano and Sandia ranges were much clearer to the northwest. To the west were the Chupadero Mesas, while south was the big hump opf Oscura Peak on the White Sands Military Reservation. Southeast was Carrizo and my morning objective, Capitan, now engulfed in some bigger clouds. Around us we had clouds but no imminent storm activity. It was very breezy and very nice overall. Looking east was the high plains grasslands of eastern New Mexico. Gallinas really does sit on the fringe of the mountains and plains.

After about 30 minutes with Linda I decided I should get moving. She was super nice and obviously enjoys the company to relieve the boredom, I would imagine. I was her first visit for the day, but she says she'll get 5 or 6 on a weekend day. I asked about looping out of the forest via the rest of FR-99, instead of backtracking, and she said it's a great drive and suggested it, so that's what I did. This gave me some other vantage points from which to shoot photos. The road went through the heavy burn areas, plus some thick forest and some canyons. In all, about an extra 10 miles and very much worth it. In time I was back to old FR-161 and then back on to the highway. It was probably close to 2 p.m. and I figured I had enough fun for the day, and that a shower sounded real good. The drive back to Capitan took about an hour, and I spent the rest of the day lazing around. I had a meal at the nearby Smokey Bear Cafe. It wasn't great food, but the price was right.

The next morning I was on my way to tackle the biggie hike, Carrizo Peak.