New Mexico?

[xkaes]

Wife & I do love lesser known spots rather than overrun tourist areas. For camera gear my plan is to bring: Nikon D850, Nikons 20mm f1.8 (night shots and interiors), 24mm PC-E (panos, architecture), 24-120mm f4 (general purpose), 300mm f4 PF (wildlife), TC-1.4Eiii, and Chamonix 4x5, 90mm f4.5, 135mm f5.6, 300mm f9, FP4+, and Zeiss Super Ikonta (6x6), TMax 400, along with travel carbon fiber tripod. I fill a 3L water bladder and place in m Osprey pack for outings, and carry a good assortment of emergency supplies.

Kent in SD

This brings up another important travel tip -- which is not specific to NM. Wherever you are don't make yourself conspicuous -- especially your "valuables". And that's not just camera gear. It can be camping gear -- or even what you are driving. Lots of places from airports in cities to National Parks in the boonies have signs saying "DON'T LEAVE VALUABLES IN YOUR CAR", etc. My 30-year-old, rusty clunker lets everyone know -- "There ain't nothin' in that jalopy".

Several years ago, a professor from the University of Colorado was driving down to Guadalajara -- as he had done many time -- to do some research. He was alone, and stopped at a gas station to fill up. He made the mistake of pulling out a wad of bills to pay. His body was found a few days later. I doubt a gun would have made any difference.

Don't make yourself a target -- wherever yo are.

[John Kasaian]

I'd stay out of Indian bars; and please don't ask why, or you'd end up with some true hometown stories more bloody than The Shining.

The Buckhorn, right?

[Drew Wiley]

The son of the bar owner was a high school pal of my nephews. The bar was in N.F. right across the River. None of that actual family which owned it would EVER enter the bar during actual business hours because it was too dangerous. It didn't help when three Hells Angels walked in there trying to looking tough. They never walked back out. Then for good measure, another individual at the bar was outright decapitated.... after that, the story get just too gory to recite. It also incited a purge of local bikers; and one in the canyon was burned out of his cabin and killed there. The particular Indians involved disappeared into the hills and I don't know if they were ever brought to justice. There was darn little sympathy for the Hells Angels around there anyway.

The kind of things which happened on our side of the River were even worse. It was quite an experience growing up since early childhood among some truly wonderful people, yet who had neighbors I also knew who turned out to be axe murderers. The trend ran in certain families. Outside the Rancherias (our term for Res), life was far more normal for them. My growing up policy was no different than what I stated on the foregoing threads. Even if someone is seemingly the mildest person you've ever met, once the drinking starts, get out of Dodge fast. That was especially important down at Sycamore (Cold Springs). Gosh is that some beautiful country in the Spring. And I've hauled my 8x10 up many a steep canyon side around there. Nobody around.
But along the curving roads, gotta watch out for the occasional drunk. After getting out of the "hotel" for drunk driving, certain ones would always visit my mother first. They were lifelong family friends, but sadly had short lives due to alcoholism. It's made me curse the Reservation System my whole life.

[Vaughn]

The Buckhorn, right?

There was a Buckhorn Bar in Covelo, CA when I worked for the Forest Service in the 80s. I only went in once, left early cause my ladyfriend did not drink. My brother stayed behind, got into a fight a local cowboy, then a member of the local reservation with a grudge decked my brother's opponent with a pool cue in the teeth.

A dozen seasons I worked out of Covelo...stayed out of the Buckhorn. Actually, stayed out of Covelo most of the time.

[Tin Can]

I spent 40 years getting mostly free drinks, bartenders and owners love me, almost immediately

Chicago has some very rough bars with nightly battles

Cop Bars, Gang Bars, Mixed Bars, Yuppie Bars, Old Man Bars, Gay Bars... you get the idea

We also had cowboy, redneck, Native American, 26 languages at the HS

One bar we called the 'Gun and Knife' as every night at the pool table...blood

It also had an illegal 5am square outside bar, quiet music, bartender in middle...

I sat on the white trash side...we had black, mexican and hillbilly sides

We all insulted each other until dawn, but never a fight at the outside alley bar

Then the BIG college bought several of the bars for huge money

Maybe it was the the street prostitution, at 2am and 5am

I walked 4 blocks home in the middle of the 4 lane street

for safety




I miss the good old days

[Drew Wiley]

Our cowboy and logging crew hangout was a different spot, and frequented by Indians too, but of the more friendly sort. After nearly all the rest of the town literally blew up when a logging truck took a wide turn and collided with the gas pumps, that tiny building became a superb family owned Mexican restaurant. Never a problem in there with one potential exception. If some "urban cowboy" swaggered in looking out of place, they'd look over his cowboy boots and hat, and if it all looked clean, he might be made to feel quite unwelcome. Prior to that, what it was still basically a bar, there were a few murders over the years, some so bizarre or colorful that there was an award-winning spinoff book of short stories about them, with names and physical descriptions switched around a little; but all the local knew who the real characters were, and that the actual stories were even more lurid. I personally knew the real individuals quite well myself. Tiny towns often contain some stunning lore and many dramas.

One thing I enjoy on the road all over the West is stopping in tiny local breakfast diners and sitting at the counter starting up conversations with the locals - cowboys, Indians, miners, truckers, whoever. Once you gain their trust they tell you about all kinds of interesting local things and places. Sharing stories is a vital part of rural cultures, something many people from the big cities always in a hurry simply don't understand. Just like LF photography - ya gotta slow down and take it in. Pressing a shutter is just part of a long qualitative process in which perception itself is the key element.

[Jim Michael]

Most of my recent trips have been to the southern half. Bosque del Apache near Socorro has abundant wildlife, Crane Festival late Nov. To the west about an hour is the VLA radio telescopes. There are some ghost towns mapped but I think most of them have been scavenged. If driving in the wilderness you're more likely to need a PLB than a firearm. Take extra water just in case.

[Vaughn]

Good on you, Drew. I'm the opposite...I tend to be quite shy in public...in and out of a diner or pub without much talk. If someone is talkative, I'll talk. Quite enjoyed my daily pub visits (but all closed on Sundays) for a meat pie and a beer for lunches as I biked down New Zealand, but missed a lot of possible interactions with locals due to my shyness, but had some enjoyable one's too. A Maori gent drinking next to me invited me to step outside and as we looked up the coast, he described the system that the local native families had for sharing the food-gathering areas.

But usually it is in and out of Dodge, and back out into the wilds. An introvert refugee from the big city (celebrating 50 years out of LA).

[tgtaylor]

Back in the early 70's I lived in Albuquerque for about 3 months – had an apartment and all that. It was my experience that the indigenous (the “real Indians”) were by far the most friendly - always gave you a smile. One night when driving home a dance let out in front of me and a large group of Indians spilled out of the auditorium to hitch for a ride. I stopped and loaded the car up. Drove a good piece on the black-top and they motioned for me to turn off on an unpaved road which I did and continued on it for a good 20 miles before I came to their home – a group of trailers with horse corrals. It was a very positive experience all around and with full moon out that night I had turned the headlights off and had an “old west” sensation while driving down that dirt road.

Of course things may be different today.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

It's not about any given day or any random experience, Tom. The remote countryside is no different from the big city. You need to be conscious that bad people are now everywhere, and that even good people can do terrible things under the influence of drugs or alcohol. And it's a FACT, not a stereotypical myth, that certain ethnicities don't handle alcohol well, especially the cheap fortified type which abounds in such areas. And now meth culture is throughout the West, affecting all kinds of people. For those of us who seek quieter places and wilderness experiences, there is little to worry about out there, once we get past drunken hunters shooting from the roads, or even across them. I'd far rather face storms, cliffs, rattlesnakes, scorpions, bears, and mtn lions than stoned people. But to and from, one still needs to be aware of their surroundings. There isn't a single parking lot in this entire city, or any adjacent city, where I don't look around before I park. Same goes for trailhead lots. Even if the statistical odds of a problem is low, one doesn't want to be that statistic, or tempt it. Just look at all the hell breaking loose in SF right now with tourists parking cars with personal belongings inside, in plain sight!

Indians were among my closest circle of friends and climbing partners. I lived among them over sixty years (even if only part time on weekends after I moved to the coast). Nicest guy you ever met might stick a knife into his brother or sister at the dinner table once drunk. When I got onto the school bus at the age of 5, nearly all my Indian classmates had personally witnessed murder or rape, or both, by that age. In some ways things have improved with the huge sums of money casinos bring in. But that's also brought in organized crime and a high degree of unfairness with respect to who is in, and who is out, in the definition of a tribe. There have been some very dark episodes of internal strife on even the bigger reservations. I'm not here to pontificate such things, inappropriately to the forum, but just as a reminder that one does not automatically escape crime in such areas. You can't take that for granted.

I sure don't obsess about things when traveling through states like New Mexico; but I'm not careless either. People have died from freeway shootings five minutes away from here; but if hit by a truck pulling a triple trailer coming over a hill in the wrong lane on the Navajo Res, a scenario I've actually encountered more than once, no difference. Just as dead if it connects with you. Had to dodge the same thing this past Spring here in CA outside Coalinga, except that it was a double trailer the semi was pulling, not triple.