Church Rock and Pyramid Rock Loop in Gallup, New Mexico

 After two days of questionable weather, we were blessed with a beautiful day on Sunday.  So we extended our stay in Gallup for another day so we could take the loop hike that has been tempting us since our arrival.  Pyramid Rock (above) is visible for miles along the Interstate; and we have seen great views of Church Rock (below) from our campground.  So it seemed fitting that we headed towards Church Rock on this crisp Sunday.

As we made our way through the canyon, we really enjoyed the changing views.  The horizontal stripes on the canyon walls were spectacular in the changing light.  It's a 1.5 mile hike to Church Rock from our campground, and the elevation change of 350 feet comes mostly as we approached the rock.






We are used to rock cairns to lead the way through rocky hikes.  But most of the time those cairns will be 5 or 6 rocks piled on top of each other. We concluded that these were the largest cairns we've ever seen, and there are lots of them to follow.  We did wish for some signage, however, because we wanted to take the loop trail towards Pyramid Rock.  Blindly following the cairns resulted in an extra mile on the trail before we realized we were going the wrong way.

Church Rock continues to loom larger as we got closer.  We should have kept track of the number of times we uttered, "This is so pretty!" as we continued onward and upward. 

We also noticed the soil colors changing from yellow to pink as we got closer to the church on the hill.  It was at this level that we started to make the circle around the Church.

Again, it would have been nice to have some signage, but we were able to get close to the pinnacle just following random paths.  You can tell from the picture of Denisa near the top, that the top formation (that seemed so small when we first started this hike) is close to a hundred feet high.


Now it's time to make our way across the canyon landscape towards Pyramid Rock.  There is a very casual trail of 1.3 miles that connects the two rocks.  We describe it as casual because it looks like there are many trails across this desert landscape, and we never were quite sure if we were on the right one.  We looked back towards Church Rock, now seeing it from the west and noting that there are huge limestone caves beneath it that we hadn't seen before.

The hike to the top of Pyramid Rock means some serious elevation change, but the views were awesome.  There's an  880 feet elevation change to get to the top of the Pyramid. Looking down on the canyons below made for a great place to make Mother's Day calls to both of our Mothers.

Even on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, we had the pinnacle of the pyramid all to ourselves for an hour.  While Denisa was calling her Mother, Mark got a little nap.  It's a good thing that he's not a restless napper, because rolling off the edge could have made for a rude awakening.

We did meet other hikers as we made our descent.  We actually had the best views of the pyramid as we got further away from it.  The layers of color and the different rock structures were beautiful in the afternoon light.

On the day we arrived in Gallup, we saw that the high winds can really move a large amount of sand.  It looks like the wind and the rain had eroded the soil right from under this tree on the trail.  The roots were just hanging on by their tips.

The hike from the top of Pyramid Rock to the base of its canyon is 1.7 miles.  You actually end up in a canyon with the rodeo arena, convention center, and parking for large events held at the amphitheater.  During the weekend we were in Gallup, they were hosting the state high school rodeo championships.  The crowds and the noise were never a problem for us, and we would have enjoyed attending the event.

We ended up back to the motorhome about 5.5 hours after we started this loop hike.  Considering that we spent close to an hour at the top of Pyramid Rock, and we explored the top of Castle Rock, we weren't hiking near all that time.  According to Mark's tracks app we hiked over 7 miles total.

As we prepared to go on down the road, we will have fond memories of Gallup, New Mexico, especially because of the hike today.  In the light of the setting sun this evening, Church Rock gave us a fond farewell.  We have experienced another of God's wonders as we continue to wander further.