Rio Grande del Norte is one of our more recent National Monuments, having been designated as such in 2013. It protects the confluence of the Red River and the Rio Grande which are both designated Wild and Scenic Rivers. Both gorges are gorgeous and the point of land above the confluence, called simply El Punto, provides amazing views from high above the two rivers. I hiked the Little Arsenic Trail while I was there, which brought me down to the Rio Grande and led me straight to the confluence. It was one of the better hikes I did during my stay in New Mexico and was very rewarding around every turn. I spent the night at the campground on the canyon rim and enjoyed a beautiful sunset in the evening and a magical sunrise the following morning. In between, the stars were spectacular. I debated whether to drive out to this park as it was somewhat out of the way, but I’m sure glad I did as it is stunning from end to end. If you’re ever in the area, you should as well. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Rio Grande del Norte National Monument.
Hello Everyone! It’s been a wildlife viewing week out here on the roads of Northern New Mexico. I’ve seen eagles and hawks in the air, deer, bighorn sheep and pronghorns in the fields and lots of prairie dogs running around searching for their underground tunnels. I like seeing wildlife. These animals make me smile. I’ve actually done a lot of smiling this week as I’ve found myself in wild places surrounded by beautiful landscapes and breathtaking sunrises and sunsets. I’ve managed to keep most of the demons in my head at bay this week and have felt pretty good all around. The weather has generally been great this week as well which hasn’t hurt. Warm, sunny days and cool, pleasant nights work really well for me. I do find that I need to change from shorts to long pants very soon after the sun goes down – it doesn’t take long to cool down in this dry air. It’s hard to believe I’ve been in New Mexico for over a month at this point, but I’m starting to make plans for the final stretch of my time here and then I’m off to Arizona for the rest of my winter/spring. My month in New Mexico has been special and memorable and I definitely understand why they call it The Land of Enchantment.
When I left you last week, I was in tiny Clayton, New Mexico in the far northeast of the state. I did head out to Clayton Lake State Park that evening which has a fascinating “pad” of over 200 dinosaur footprints from when the area was the muddy shoreline of a vast inland sea. Some of the footprints were very pronounced in the evening light and while it was very windy out there it was still really cool to see. I decided to spend the night at one of the campgrounds by the lake and ended up having the whole place to myself which was really nice. It was windy and cold, but I stayed out to watch the sunset and then popped out periodically to check out the stars which were really bright and mesmerizing.
Thursday morning I stuck around my campsite for a bit, enjoying my coffee and the warm sun on my face by the lake. I’ve been rereading the book Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides which essentially tells the history of early American New Mexico. It’s an excellent book, and I’m enjoying it even more now that I’ve been to a lot of the places he writes about. A pair of bald eagles were cruising around the lake while I read which was awesome. Eventually I pulled up stakes and headed back into town to take a few more photos and then got on the road west to Capulin Volcano National Monument. I had noticed on my way out to Clayton Lake the evening before that the landscape was much more volcanic in that part of the state and it became even more pronounced as I went west. I drove past Sierra Grande, which is an incredible example of a shield volcano and then headed towards Capulin which is one of the country’s best specimens of a cinder cone volcano. This volatile and quick-forming volcano (which looks like what you imagine in your head when you think of a volcano) formed sometime around 60,000 years ago. The fertile soil it produced made for some fine grazing land so ranchers have used the land around the volcano for centuries and its distinct and easily recognizable shape made it a landmark on the Santa Fe Trail. Today, you can drive right to the top which is pretty cool but probably not for the faint of heart as there is a pretty severe drop-off and not many guardrails on the road. Once you get up there, though, you are rewarded with remarkable views in all directions and you can hike around the rim and down into the crater. You can look east at the seemingly endless plains stretching to the horizon and west to where they run into the Rocky Mountains. When I left the park, I headed north to Folsom and planned on taking the road over Johnson Mesa to Raton so I could drive past the Folsom Man Site, an archaeological area similar to the Clovis Man Site I talked about last week when I visited the Blackwater Draw museum. Somehow I took a wrong turn and ended up going a half hour down the wrong road but it was a beautiful road and a nice detour. When I finally figured out I had gone astray, I returned to Folsom and found the road I wanted to take. It was poorly marked and when I made the turn, I found it was also closed. Two hours later, I was back at Capulin but thankfully it was only a short drive from there to Raton. Raton is a cute little town on the railroad line with an old theatre and an older train station. I did wander around town a little bit but I was pretty tired and didn’t find out much about it. I stopped in for a great craft beer and one of the best burritos I’ve ever had at the Cellar Brewery (which is actually on the first floor, but they brew the beer in the basement) and then called it a night.
On Friday morning I headed just down the road to the town of Cimarron. Their sign reads “Where the Plains Meet the Mountains” and you can look west from town and see the Rockies emerging from the flat plains. Cimarron is also home to the Philmont Scout Ranch, a massive wilderness area donated by oilman Waite Phillips to the Boy Scouts in 1938. Way back in 1992, I came to Philmont on my very first trip to New Mexico and my first trip anywhere west of the Mississippi. My Boy Scout troop spent 10 days backpacking through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and covered about a hundred miles on foot if my memory serves. It was an amazing experience for a city kid like me and a formative one…
Organ Mountains - Desert Peaks National Monument is a beautiful park in Southeast New Mexico managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Just 25 minutes from Las Cruces, this park makes for a great day trip from the city or a stop-off on your way to or from White Sands National Park. I enjoyed a wonderful 7 mile round-trip hike up to Baylor Pass, a saddle with wonderful views out over the Chihuahuan Desert. In the afternoon, I made a 3 mile round-trip hike to the ruins at Dripping Springs. This area, which contains a natural spring deep in a hollow, was once home to Boyd’s Sanitarium and Van Patton’s Mountain Camp. The sanitarium catered to tuberculosis patients while the mountain camp was a fancy hotel and resort. Opened in 1897, the hotel had 15 guest rooms, a dining hall, a concert hall, a gazebo and a roller-skating rink and hosted the likes of Pat Garrett and Pancho Villa. The resort fell on hard times during World War I and Eugene Van Patten sold it to Dr. Boyd who ran the sanitarium. The Great Depression would be the final blow to the resort and it closed for good in the 1920s. Today it is maintained in a state of arrested decay and makes for a cool walk in the late afternoon. There is so much more to this park than just these two hikes, but they were all I had time for during my visit. I hope you enjoy these photos from Organ Mountains - Dripping Springs National Monument.
