LF around Colorado / New Mexico

[Darren H]

For nature in Colorado and New Mexico, I'd say look at the northern NM and SW Colorado. Several neat and different areas to draw your interest. Some of my fav's from that general area that offer scenery/hikes/day trips/etc in fairly close areas.

Great Sand Dunes NP
Ridgway/Ouray great base to take forest service roads to hikes or views of the San Juans
Rio Chama country in New Mexico
High country around Red River Angel fire is scenic
Bisti Badlands
Chaco/Mesa Verde for historic landscapes

The best part is all of these are only a few hours apart. On the other hand its a full days drive from RMNP to Ouray.

Check out the Rocky Mountain forum on Nature Photographers Network (some of the posters here are regulars there too) for alot more info as well as location info.

Have fun!

[al olson]

To clarify my prior post, outside of Engineer Pass, American Basin, and Yankee Boy, the other locations I mentioned are pretty light on tourist traffic.

As far as New Mexico is concerned, Aztec Ruins, Bisti, Chaco Canyon, and Bosque del Apache, that I mentioned previously, are all located on the far western side. A little more toward the east there is Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu, habitats of Georgia O'Keefe. Ghost Ranch has some very picturesque formations and not a lot of tourists. Then there are the artsy towns of Santa Fe and Taos, very touristy, but quaint and photogenic, especially if you are looking to get people in your photos.

If you are looking for a little bit of history there is an abundance of narrow gauge railroads, besides the Durango-Silverton, such as the Cumbres and Toltec between Chama, NM, and Antonito, CO, and the La Vita out of La Vita, CO. There are more narrow gauge railroads farther north in the Georgetown area. The Old La Vita Pass Road (not the RR) is rustic and has a lot of possibilities.

If you venture farther to the north, there is an abandoned mining town called Russell's Gulch that is located on Oh My God Road between Central City and Idaho Springs. In recent years they have added a few guard rails on the hairier sections of the road. The last time I was through there many of the abandoned buildings were occupied by squatters. I should mention that there has been a lot of tree kill along the I-70 corridor with entire brown mountain sides.

On my list to explore this summer are a couple of old mining towns south of Taylor Reservoir, Tin Cup and Pitkin. They are north of Creede, already mentioned by Nathan. The Creede mine tour route is excellent for fall Aspens if you should come back later. There are many old mine structures. I also find abandoned mine structures, cabins, and houses up many of the gulches that go up from the Animas River that lies to the northeast of Silverton. There are more gulches that I have not yet explored.

Compared to looking at the map, the distances in the SW Colorado - NW New Mexico area are vast and outside of major highways, the mountain roads are much slower because of the potholes and large rocks embedded in the road surface. Considering travel times plus the time you will be hiking means that I would recommend you select an itinerary that encompasses a manageable area.

Wishing you the best for your trip.

[Thebes]

Hmmm. The Pueblo, the Ranchos church and the Gorge Bridge ridge are the most photographed things near Taos. Not saying that you need to do so as well, but the other day I saw someone on the gorge bridge with an 8x10. Most would say these are the "don't miss" type places in the area.

The rivers, which are what most places would call creeks, are high with snow melt right now, and there is still some dirty snow in the higher mountain areas, this will persist in patches until late July or so, we had a heavy winter. Rio Grande gorge is pretty this time of year and the river is up. Currently you will also find water in some places which are typically dry.

Really, I can't see going wrong almost anyplace in Northern New Mexico between Chama and Las Vegas and Santa Fe. I can't think of a single place I've been that isn't sometimes photogenic depending on the clouds, weather, light, etc. You have mountains, gorges, architecture, open areas surrounded by mountains, strange people, old trucks in fields, llamas and lamas, culture and clouds, adobes and tipis (hippies live in them sometimes, as well as school buses and tire houses).

Ishould note that wind storms are common this time of year, and high winds are typical, almost daily sometimes, in the open areas and ridges. This will persist until mid-late May and the summer monsoons will probably come early like last year and the year before starting sporadically as early as late May and becoming almost daily by mid-late summer. These make for beautiful skies and muddy back roads, bring a shovel and supplies to gracefully handle being stuck even if the roads are dry when you first venture down them- watch your oil pan and transmission on ridges between the ruts even when dry. In the higher areas of Northern New Mexico it can snow any day of the year but mostly doesn't from now till Oct.

Just a question, are there any large cactus in the area of northern New Mexico? Or is that cacti? I'm going there too in the not to distant future, around Santa Fe and area.

Not really, not like you are thinking of. We have some Chollo cactus which are really pretty when in bloom and can grow taller than a man, but are spindly like tree branches. We have some large clusters of prickly pear here and there and some yucca. Its all smaller than what you are probably thinking of as large cactus though. This is mostly in the lower areas below the juniper and pinon, though some nice yucca grows in the fringe areas where it starts turning to trees, again really nice when in bloom. Really big cacti are much further south and at significantly lower elevations.

[John Schneider]

I used to live in Montrose and Al about covered it, IMO. Anywhere between Lake City and Silverton is amazing. If you're up for hiking I'd recommend Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre Peaks. In the area north and east of Animas Forks, Hurricane Pass is a special favorite. Black Bear trail if you've got a stout 4x4 is great as well. Yankee Boy Basin is about the best in the lower 48 for wildflowers in the late summer.