It was one year ago that we made a trip with our good friends, John &
Mary, to explore the area around Mollies Nipple. We’d made plans to go back, in early March of 2020,
with their UTV’s and camp for a night while we did a few hikes in the area. Then Covid struck and everything was placed
on hold. Fast forward one year and two
vaccine shots later and they were ready, once again, to “get after it!"
Our plan for this day was to hike to Starlight Cave – a
little known and even less visited cave of the GSENM that holds some fantastic
pictographs from the ancient Basketmaker People. We were thankful for John and Mary’s UTV’s
that brought us to the base of Mollies Nipple where we began our six-mile
(r/t) hike through hoodoo country enroute to this amazing cave.
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John & Mary, graciously, brought along their Side-by-Sides for our adventure
These "machines" saved us miles of walking a sandy road on foot! |
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Boy, does this picture bring back memories!
Eleven months ago we walked this road with Tom on our way to the top of Mollies Nipple! |
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We worked our way north and east across the base of Mollies Nipple
(We probably started a little high and should have dropped down another 300 ft,
but we would have missed a lot of unique rock formations) |
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| John found this cool rock . . . actually he found several! |
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Hoodoos started popping up everywhere
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One could spend hours here . . . there's so much to see!
(We could have made a post entirely devoted to this section of the route) |
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| A balanced rock . . . so cool! |
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| Kent has a plan . . . Starlight Cave is out there . . . somewhere! |
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After a couple of hours of rambling and criss-crossing several sandy drainages,
We realize that the 'crow doesn't fly' a short enough path to Starlight Cave
John & Mary head back as Kent & Allison will continue on . . . |
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Mollies Nipple is now out of sight
New colorful formations pop up along the way |
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According to Kent's GPS coordinates, the cave should be in this canyon . . .
But the question is where? |
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After a few missteps we finally found it!
Starlight Cave is directly in front of Allison's shadow |
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| These were some of the most colorful pictographs in the cave |
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| Possibly a Kokopelli?? |
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Surprisingly, the pictographs were quite large
(Some were two to three feet high) |
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Looking to the outside from the back of the cave
(We could stand up with no problem) |
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Is this a demon with evil eyes or a skull with bull horns??
(It's unfortunate that someone added graffiti to the cave walls) |
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| Could this be an elk?? Those look like big antlers |
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| This one has cute feet |
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| The view as we exit the cave |
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This stream flowed in the canyon near the mouth of the cave
Kent is emptying his shoes of sand before heading back to meet up with John & Mary |
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Chipper enjoyed finding snow to munch on . . .
That's one dirty and sandy Dalmatian!
(But boy did he have fun!) |
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| Mollies Nipple comes into view . . . that means we are almost back! |
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Navajo Mountain (AZ) in the distance
Starlight Arch is part of the large formation on the right . . .
We were just there two weeks ago! |
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We could definitely spend more time here . . .
Kent thinks we'll return & possibly circle the base of Mollies Nipple |
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| Some of these hoodoos are huge! |
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| Colorful swirling sandstone |
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Wow! What a great day! It was full of amazing scenery, hoodoos, pictographs
and our first ride in a Side-by-Side!
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