Page:Field Notes of Junius Henderson, Notebook 4.pdf/128

 Rito de los Frijoles, N. M. Monday, Aug 22, 1910

Bright hot morning. Had a talk with Harrington about some proposed field work in the Colorado River near Needles next winter. Hope I may go. At 8:20 I went up on the south mesa and started down the old trail, reaching the rim of the Rio Grande Canyon at 10:30, very hot and tired. Saw few birds and no mammals. A few bluebirds, 4 white throated swifts piñon or Woodhouse jays, small sparrows, 1 nighthawk, 1 rock wren which I took for identification. Saw coyote tracks and dung at various places on trail. In places trail worn to a depth of 6 or 8 inches in the tufa. Both walls of deep, narrow Rio Grande Canyon where I reached it are basalt, but the vertical contact on the N side is only a short distance from the rim as shown in lateral gulches. Canyon opens to a wide green valley a few miles down. Started back at 11 a.m. travelling slowly and resting occasionally on account of the extreme heat.

No rock pines on lower part of mesa, only piñons and cedars, rock pines coming in some distance up the mesa.