Al, Steve, Nikolai, Frank and I found our way to the original fire pit out at the Puerco after our breakfast meeting on May 18th, 2024. We met at the power lines at the end of Southern. When you approach the sand duns at the end of southern, you are greeted with a massive 10' fence that runs as far as the eye can see. The feeling is "stay out!" and there were very few side by sides observed during the run.
Once we all arrived, we proceed south along a trail that follows closely next to the fence another few hundred yards and turned right and proceeded another 100 yards west before we could get around the "under construction" fence. It looks like the fence that runs east/west will terminate right at the foot of the dunes, which may enable egress if you are willing to climb the dunes and jet down to the rim road (or continue south to Snoopy). Once on the other side of the fence, we meandered our way north to/on the rim road and to the pit. No issue.
We tried the trail heading north from the pit but Santa Ana Pueblo had an official fence just past the wash north of the large hill (i.e. slide down the hill, over to the wash, and then as you climb up out of the wash, you hit a "no trespassing for any reason" official fence. You can run the hill, but must turn around and back track. So there is still some fun trail but no more cool stuff north - like fat man squeeze and the perched cliffs overlooking the Puerco drain.
We back tracked to the fire pit entrance drain trail and got up on the rim and proceeded north to find a way out near Northern. We turned back east, as though one was going back to northern like we use to. We didn't continue north on the rim road and need to do that before we can confirm there is no way out to the north.
About 300 or 400 yards east, you hit the fully excavated solar construction area. The boarder has an excavated berm and they will likely be putting fence up soon. We were able to follow a trail along the permitter, similar to the trail we followed along the fenced area near Southern. But then we could only cross into a construction staging area, through a gate that was not finished and then back south towards northern until we got to the end of Norther where we exited the "do not enter" barricade (thanks that the security guard was sleeping in his car, as we snuck past him).
In short, we can still get to the fire pit via Southern, for now. We may be able to find our way to the rim road going north of Northern on the improved dirt road. That needs to be explored still.
That is all for now.
Once we all arrived, we proceed south along a trail that follows closely next to the fence another few hundred yards and turned right and proceeded another 100 yards west before we could get around the "under construction" fence. It looks like the fence that runs east/west will terminate right at the foot of the dunes, which may enable egress if you are willing to climb the dunes and jet down to the rim road (or continue south to Snoopy). Once on the other side of the fence, we meandered our way north to/on the rim road and to the pit. No issue.
We tried the trail heading north from the pit but Santa Ana Pueblo had an official fence just past the wash north of the large hill (i.e. slide down the hill, over to the wash, and then as you climb up out of the wash, you hit a "no trespassing for any reason" official fence. You can run the hill, but must turn around and back track. So there is still some fun trail but no more cool stuff north - like fat man squeeze and the perched cliffs overlooking the Puerco drain.
We back tracked to the fire pit entrance drain trail and got up on the rim and proceeded north to find a way out near Northern. We turned back east, as though one was going back to northern like we use to. We didn't continue north on the rim road and need to do that before we can confirm there is no way out to the north.
About 300 or 400 yards east, you hit the fully excavated solar construction area. The boarder has an excavated berm and they will likely be putting fence up soon. We were able to follow a trail along the permitter, similar to the trail we followed along the fenced area near Southern. But then we could only cross into a construction staging area, through a gate that was not finished and then back south towards northern until we got to the end of Norther where we exited the "do not enter" barricade (thanks that the security guard was sleeping in his car, as we snuck past him).
In short, we can still get to the fire pit via Southern, for now. We may be able to find our way to the rim road going north of Northern on the improved dirt road. That needs to be explored still.
That is all for now.
