Kraft Mountain Loop

Artists or painters start with a blank canvas. Some transform that canvas with oils, some with water colors and some with a photographic print.  The Kraft Mountain Loop offers the same creative flexibility.  If this is your first time doing the Kraft Mountain loop aka the Gateway Canyon Loop you have numerous mediums to express yourself.

Man rock climbing at Kraft Mountain
Rock climber dude going for it!

Today, the sun beckoned any and every outdoor adventurer to take advantage of a windless, 60º degree day with optimism and curiosity.  I have done this hike maybe 4-5 times; habitually I always do the loop clockwise and I would consider it an easy level 3 out of 10 hike with scrambling.  Today, water run-off from previous storms was a pleasant surprise.

The perfect weather in January in the desert brings world-class rock climbers to this area.  Today showcased the enthusiasm for literally hundreds of hikers and climbers challenging themselves with classic sport climbing to studious bouldering.  I have socially rock climbed in my 30’s with very little success but I had enough experience to fully appreciate the relationship you develop with each and every crag. As a middle-aged pizza-eater, I can now just enjoy seeing the ballet performed on the vertical pitches of the red rock.

 

The geology is predominantly a thrust fault of limestone over sandstone. Red, magenta, and tan colored Aztec sandstone are exposed on the eastern escarpment of the Rainbow Mountain Wilderness and the southeastern portion of the La Madre Mountain Wilderness. The soil is predominantly gravelly sandy loam. Yearly precipitation ranges between
four to eight inches with moderately rapid permeability and very high runoff. Numerous springs occur in both Wilderness areas and water may also be found much of the year in tinajas which are natural rainfall catchments or depressions formed in bedrock formations.

Fossils found in the limestone bedrock offer a glimpse into life hundreds of million years ago when the area was at the bottom of a sea. Prehistoric cultural resources abound and include petroglyphs, pictographs, agave roasting pits, lithic and ceramic scatters, rock shelters, grinding stones, and prehistoric camp sites. More recent human occupation by early settlers is evidenced by the presence of various historic resources such as range water developments, mines and mining camps, and artifacts such as glass bottles, metal cans, barbed wire, and camp structures.

Kraft Mountain is also known as La Hija, Spanish for “the daughter” or even more recently the Gateway Canyon Loop.

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ABOUT ROBERT BAKER

I have been shooting for $$ since 2000 opening my shop with a Nikon D1.  I am primarily interested in shooting adventure lifestyle and travel with a host of my  day-to-day clients being within the industrial sector.

Many of my editorial stock photos have been published in all major news outlets, with my primary focus is distributing my images on a client-by-client basis to ensure their branding is unique and compelling.

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