New Mexico really is like the license plates say----Land of Enchantment.
I've never had an issue in New Mexico, in fact I've a great time on all my trips there.
Just be prudent, especially in border areas considering the current problems.
New Mexico really is like the license plates say----Land of Enchantment.
I've never had an issue in New Mexico, in fact I've a great time on all my trips there.
Just be prudent, especially in border areas considering the current problems.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
If you go to Mesa Verde NP, which is spectacular and can be busy, consider Hovenweep NM, just over the border in Utah. There are some great ruins and it is easier to shoot with a big camera.
Right. Just remember that CBP may patrol and setup highway checkpoints within 100 miles of the border, so be careful what you carry...Originally Posted by John Kasaian
I love NM. The last photography road trip I did was to Tucumcari with a 5x7 in March two years ago. White Sands is beautiful and so is Las Cruces.
Of all the border States, NM has the fewest number of people crossing the border -- legal or not. One of the reasons is that there are basically no roads -- paved or not -- anywhere near the border. If you are in New Mexico, and you want to get close to the Mexican border, you have to "go out of your way". Pancho Villa State Park is not on too many "must-see" lists.
I'd suggest speaking with local authorities whenever possible based on my experiences in CA, where some areas (not many, and the only two I personally know of are actually several hundred miles from the border) are very active when it comes to cartels and gangs.
These are places the Highway Patrol won't even be found after sundown.
Like I said, I personally have never experienced any trouble in New Mexico going about my tourist schtick, however
locals with first hand knowledge are invaluable.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
I'm sure there are a certain number of bad people in every state. Every big city has certain dangerous neighborhoods, and dicey druggies are now everywhere. But frankly, I'd be more worried about simply walking down the tourist streets of San Francisco than anywhere I've ever been in New Mexico. Most of it is wide open spaces. It's pretty much common sense : if people are hanging around drinking or looking stoned, move along. A gun might not necessarily help. It might just provoke someone, or tempt them to steal it. In gang-prone areas, just seeing a gun could start a melee.
I've always been a lot more worried about drunken deer hunters, and have had several close calls with them shooting randomly. So anytime I car camp in the woods, especially in autumn, I always drive around a little first to make sure there is plenty of distance between me and where boozing hunters are hanging around telling tall tales and foolishly playing around with some firearm they only unpack once a year. National Parks are usually quite safe, that is, unless you're the type that backs up over a cliff taking a selfie. There have been quite a number of those incidents!
Most cartel activity is back in the brush somewhere out of public view. We have multiple "narco counties" in California, as well as major cartel activity even within the hot brushy sections below or even within Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks, and they've been found even within Pt Reyes Natl Seashore as well as in some of our bigger Regional Parks. These tend to be well concealed, heavily armed industrial scale marijuana operations using helicopter dropped-in labor and supplies. They get discovered by official overflights when forest fires lay bear their operations. Hundreds of them have probably been destroyed by our recent huge fires, especially up around Mt Shasta. They're a big concern due to how they divert so much water, and use large quantities of cartel-supplied illegal pesticides and herbicides which get into the water. Otherwise, they're deliberately placed way back in deep brush well off roads and trails where nobody generally goes unless you particularly enjoy interaction with ticks and poison oak. They certainly don't like drawing attention to themselves. Different topic, really, than typical Southwestern travel, where you get a very long line of sight.
Sometimes locals don't appreciate seemingly nosy outsiders with cameras for entirely different reasons. Same advice - just move on if someone seems hostile. But many other spots do depend on outsiders with cameras and hiking shoes for a significant portion of their local income. I've been stopped a few times and hassled by "law enforcement" in the vicinity of polygamist colonies north of the Colorado River, who suspected me of being an FBI spy due to my camera gear; but that's more of a regional issue and rather rare nowadays.
Along the same lines different reservations have different laws/rules and National Parks/Monuments are something you should check out ahead of time.
You're not the only one. And YUP, it's HUNTIN' SEASON. Years ago, I was backpacking with a friend DEEP into Bandalier National Monument. The entire southern half of the Monument is NO CAMPING for Autumn and Winter for Big Horn Sheep protection. You can hike there -- but there are no trails, and no camping. One of the reasons we selected the National Monument is that hunting is not permitted anytime, anywhere in the Monument.
My friend and I were camping on a trail on the edge of the preserve -- a very beautiful and remote area, and on the morning of the third day we ran into herd of maybe two dozen wild burros. Quite a rare site, but moving too fast to take a picture. Shortly after that two hunters -- both with rifles, in camo, etc. -- appeared. We explained to them that hunting was not allowed anywhere in the Monument, to which they responded, "We have special permission". What was I going to do? They are armed, right?
They headed off, unfortunately in the same direction of the burro herd. They could not have know it was there, but soon after we heard repeated gun shots. They probably massacred most or all of the heard -- in a wildlife preserve of all places. When we eventually left the Monument, we reported the incident, and was told that Park Rangers had apprehended the hunters, but they did not know anything about the burro herd. With the help of my eye witness information, the bastards had no alternative but to plead guilty in Federal Court. Fortunately, it was not necessary for my friend and I to return to Albuquerque for a trial.
SUPPORT YOUR RIGHT TO ARM BEARS!
Well...I did once get weirded out enough at an almost empty campground (Rhianna) near Abiquiu by a couple of guys at a campsite next to us whom we overheard plotting some trouble upon us to up and move to another campsite - but aside from this, and perhaps some interesting characters living up in Mogollon, all has been well...and on balance I must say that New Mexico has so much to offer and that the great memories (and images) far outweigh any weirdness I’ve experienced.
Here are a couple of images - Yucca pods at White Sands and rock formations at City of Rocks campground, near Silver City:
(edit: city of rocks pic looks fuzzy when posted here)
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