Pecos Wilderness New Mexico

[Bravo4]

Here are a few pictures taken on a dayhike last October. This is the Pecos Wilderness in the northern portion of New Mexico. Here's where the Pecos River starts out from, as in ''the ugliest orange jacket west of the Pecos and east of the Rio Grande". Bright orange jacket helps identify me as friendly forces, don't aim here. The first 2 pics we're on a ridge at about 11,600ft/3535m, the snow was from a couple of weeks before. The guy who took the pics is from Florida and had never before seen snow or ''such an ugly orange jacket''. The next day he also got to see his first heavy-duty mountain hail storm followed by the most perfect rainbow. The bird in the hand is a little grey jay or 'camp robber' I believe and is not exactly shy. The guy from Florida was impressed I think, he sent me an Alpacka packraft. Thanks Dan, come out any time

 

[sandbender]

Wow!

:You_Rock_

 

[Prawnster]

Cor it looks nice round there!

Any more pics?

 

[Bravo4]

Cor it looks nice round there!

Any more pics?

I just got these pics the other night and only just now figured out how to post em'. I'm a little slow with the digital thing, just got a dig camera a couple of weeks ago. I'll post more pics soon, I like showing New Mexico to people, it's really not what most folks imagine.

 

[Galemys]

That looks very good, thank's for posting Bravo.
I always thought of these jays as Northern (Canada, rockies) birds, never knew they occurred that far South.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[born2roam]

I just got these pics the other night and only just now figured out how to post em'. I'm a little slow with the digital thing, just got a dig camera a couple of weeks ago. I'll post more pics soon, I like showing New Mexico to people, it's really not what most folks imagine.

Drooling warning next time please......

LOVE IT!

Grtz Johan

 

[MartinK9]

Thanks for sharing

 

[Mistwalker]

Great pics, thanks for sharing! Not exactly what I thought it was like either.

 

[Bravo4]

Not exactly what I thought it was like either.

It's funny, they film alot of movies out here because of the varied terrain. Depending on the story New Mexico is depicted as anywhere from the Dakotas to Mars.

Habitats in New Mex go something like this:
up to 3,500ft- true desert,
3,500 to 5,000ft- grasslands
5,000 to 7,000ft- pygmy forests and shrubland (pinyon/juniper forest)
7,000 to 9,000ft- Forests/sub-alpine (Ponderosa pines, spruce, aspens)
9,000 to 11,000ft- Sub-alpine fir, Bristlecone, Limber pine
11,000 and up- Alpine tundra
This is rather simplistic as the south facing side of a hill might have cacti and Ponderosa while the north side at the same elevation has spruce/fir trees.

There is a very wide range of flora and fauna, climates, and eco-systems with the Rockies being a "corridor" up into the far north so there are species in the mountains here that can be found in northern Canada at sea level.

There is so much public land out here, all that you can see in the top photo is mine and yours and anybody's who wants to go there. Makes me proud of this country, not the knuckleheads in DC, it's the land and the people which make a country great. I feel very fortunate to live here.

BTW Mistwalker, I'd like to thank YOU for sharing your pics and stories(and everyone else!) Reading what others are up to really motivates me to get out there and enjoy the world while I am able. That said, I'm turning off this computer and going for a walk

 

[mick miller]

Looks lovely, what did they do with old mexico though?

 

[Mistwalker]

It's funny, they film alot of movies out here because of the varied terrain. Depending on the story New Mexico is depicted as anywhere from the Dakotas to Mars.

Habitats in New Mex go something like this:
up to 3,500ft- true desert,
3,500 to 5,000ft- grasslands
5,000 to 7,000ft- pygmy forests and shrubland (pinyon/juniper forest)
7,000 to 9,000ft- Forests/sub-alpine (Ponderosa pines, spruce, aspens)
9,000 to 11,000ft- Sub-alpine fir, Bristlecone, Limber pine
11,000 and up- Alpine tundra
This is rather simplistic as the south facing side of a hill might have cacti and Ponderosa while the north side at the same elevation has spruce/fir trees.

There is a very wide range of flora and fauna, climates, and eco-systems with the Rockies being a "corridor" up into the far north so there are species in the mountains here that can be found in northern Canada at sea level.

There is so much public land out here, all that you can see in the top photo is mine and yours and anybody's who wants to go there. Makes me proud of this country, not the knuckleheads in DC, it's the land and the people which make a country great. I feel very fortunate to live here.

BTW Mistwalker, I'd like to thank YOU for sharing your pics and stories(and everyone else!) Reading what others are up to really motivates me to get out there and enjoy the world while I am able. That said, I'm turning off this computer and going for a walk

Thanks for the information, I'd like to hike there some day.

Glad I played a role in inspiring you to get out there. Looking forward to more pictures!

 

[Chinkapin]

I once rode my motorcycle across U.S. highway 64 from Taos up to Chama and on to State road 511 north into Colorado and eventually to Durango. This was one of the most beautiful rides I have ever made.

I recall that on one relatively short stretch I went from large mountains to rolling hills to desert. I think this was between Chama and Dulce, but would stand corrected if this is not quite right.

I recall one of the prettiest places was as we crossed a small Indian Reservation, I think it was Apache, but I might be wrong, This ride was about 20 years ago.

Like most people I had a totally wrong image of N.M. until I rode the northern part.

 

[Bravo4]

I once rode my motorcycle across U.S. highway 64 from Taos up to Chama and on to State road 511 north into Colorado and eventually to Durango. This was one of the most beautiful rides I have ever made.

I recall that on one relatively short stretch I went from large mountains to rolling hills to desert. I think this was between Chama and Dulce, but would stand corrected if this is not quite right.

I recall one of the prettiest places was as we crossed a small Indian Reservation, I think it was Apache, but I might be wrong, This ride was about 20 years ago..

They filmed parts of "Easy Rider" up by Taos, I guess that was more than 20 years ago.
The Chama to Dulce stretch sounds about right, the Jicarilla Apache Reservation is up at Dulce.

Many of the Native American tribes in New Mexico lived in permanent settlements, Pueblos, and managed to hang onto their ancestoral homelands to this day. There are numerous small reservations or Pueblos along the Rio Grande; Taos, Pojoaque, Tesuque, Cochiti. Some now have names of Spanish origin, San Idelfonso, San Felipe, Santo Domingo, Santa Ana.

As I understand it nomadic tribes like the Apache did not fare as well as the Pueblo tribes. Geronimo was shipped off to Florida and never made it back to New Mexico. The other Apache reservation out here is the Mescalero which is down south near Lincoln NM. Lincoln is where Billy the Kid hung out back in the day. Once a little black bear survived a forest fire near Lincoln and got himself the nickname Smokey. "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires"
wow, I ramble on about NM. I do a little guiding, force of habit.

 

[Chinkapin]

Thanks, that was it, Jicarilla Apache Reservation. When I was posting yesterday, I kept thinking that Apache sounded right, but seemed too short. I remembered, as soon as I saw Jicarilla in you post. The terrain as I recall it was gently rolling hills, with pine trees scattered across it and there were huge more or less round boulders strewn about.

What it reminded me of more than anything was all those Roy Rogers and Gene Autry movies that I was weened on as a kid.

Would love to ride it again!

 

[Bravo4]

What it reminded me of more than anything was all those Roy Rogers and Gene Autry movies that I was weened on as a kid.

Head just a little west of Dulce and there's Monument Valley where Johns Ford and Wayne made a couple too

I'm taking off for a couple of days this week and will be camping on a friend's place, 12 acres with the Santa Fe National Forest/Pecos boundry as the "neighbor" on the north property line. I hope to take pictures but as I said I just got a digital camera and am still figuring it out. I'm a little too cheap to go out and buy one, I honestly found the one I have now, under a bush. How's that for bushcraft?

 

[BOD]

Well done. Now that you have worked out the photo thingy please let us see more of New mexico.

We need different types of terrain to look at

 

[Bravo4]

I headed up into the Pecos this week and took a couple of pictures. Plenty of snow left and still fairly cool this time of year. Springtime is a little slow getting started at this elevation(around 10,000ft), many of the Aspens are still without new leaves. The water from these mountain creeks will descend to join the Rio Grande. About 20 miles east and nearly 5,000ft lower, the canyons along the Rio Grande experienced springtime more than a month ago. I came across this habitat/vegetation zone diagram which shows more clearly what I described previously (the diagram is for the San Francisco Peaks outside of Flagstaff, Arizona, but is very similar to northern New Mexico):
http://cpluhna.nau.edu/images/lifediagram.gif

 

[Bravo4]

• a little IT difficulty, let me try again...​

 

[Bravo4]

now I've got the pics running sideways, how'd I do that?

 

[Mistwalker]

They don't appear sideways to me. Looks like an awesome area to roam around in, great shots!