During the week of March 27th, ACE Arizona crew members served at Rockhound State park in New Mexico. The crews were lead by Katherine Dickey. Rockhound is located in the Little Florida Mountains and known for its abundance of minerals that visitors are allowed to collect. This is the second project ACE has participated in at the state park.
The ACE crews worked on two separate trails in the park. One crew reconstructed part of the Spring Canyon trail which has been closed since 2002. The reconstruction included creating a reroute on the trail because the original route was too steep for hikers. This involved building check steps, a rock staircase, tread widening and brushing. There were also many social trails that the crew worked to block off to concentrate foot traffic to the main trail.
The second crew worked on the Lovers Leap trail with three main objectives. The crew built a retaining wall, a staircase, and widened the tread of the trail. After the main objectives were completed, the crew provided general maintenance which included brushing and back sloping the tread.
The previous ACE crew that went out to the park and worked on the Lovers Leap trail trail created switchbacks. The ACE’s New Mexico state park partners were excited to have the crew back to put finishing touches on the trail; the crew was grateful to have the opportunity to spend time in such a beautiful park.