Off the Beaten Path

Over the last few weeks of travel, we’ve spent 80% of our time at remote climbing areas that require a bit of off-roading. But Caballo Lake – in Truth or Consequences, NM – took it to a whole new level.

The GPS coordinates placed the Caballo Lake climbing wall only about four miles east of i25. The description mentioned a rough road, but said that cars with decent clearance should be fine. We figured we could handle it…

What it really consisted of was about 10 miles of driving on a rough dirt road, followed by 1.5 miles on a nearly impossible rocky path at a steady incline. There was nowhere to turn around, so we continued to chug along at an incredibly slow pace. Our rear differential occasionally hit rocks, our siding was frequently scraped up by plants, and our side runners took a beating. Sometime after midnight – and hours of driving – we hit a point that poor Ludwig could not get past. We ended up having to reverse down the rugged hill – in the dark – until we found a point flat enough to even consider stopping for the night.

Ludwig on a flat turnaround that required a lot of reversing on a rough road to get back to.

The next morning, we heading out to take advantage of all the hard work we put into driving there. After a few wrong turns, and over 1.5 hours of exhaustingly steep hiking, the scene opened up to some spectacular looking walls. While most of the climbs were surprisingly boring, John did climb an amazing 12a in the famous Bat Cave. It’s famous primarily because a professional climber decided to turn the cave into his own gym by manufacturing holds on the routes; it resulted in some great climbs but a lot of controversy.

John climbing a 12a in the Bat Cave. He came close to getting his first 12a onsite, but his shoe got stuck in a hole, forcing him to stop climbing to get it out.

The view from the climbing area at Caballo Lake. If you look closely, you can see the tiny speck that is Ludwig near a bend in the road. Needless to say, it was a long hike up.

While there, we came across a tiny hole that opened up to a massive cave. Inside, it was clear that a few miners had lived there for a while, leaving the place trashed. There were jars of 23-year-old peanut butter and jelly, propane fuel cylinders (still full, so we took those), rotted mattress pads, old cots, and more. Considering how difficult it is to get in and out of the area, I can’t blame them for setting up accommodations near the mine.

That small hole is the entrance to the massive, cavernous cave where we found traces of people who used to live in it.