So a few hours ago we all got back from a weekend trip through the mountains of New Mexico, which was pretty awesome. We got to camp out under the stars two nights straight, saw the city of Taos, and got to hike around the rim of a volcano. I'll start from the beginning...
We left Friday morning from WT around 10 AM and loaded all 9 of us plus Ray into the van, hitting the road pretty quick. For a few hours we watched the flat landscape of crops and cattle ranches turn into rolling hills of shortgrass prairies, saw the soil turn a deep red and not long after crossing into NM out of nowhere we see huge mesas pop out of the ground (mesa, spanish for 'table' due to its vertical slope and flat tops, were formed millions of years ago by rivers of lava flowing through and pooling in sedimentary rock which eventually eroded away to leave only the volcanic rock). we began seeing for miles around us an arid, rugged scrubland of mesquite, pinyon pine, and juniper, and from time to time a pronghorn antelope (the pronghorn is common in the southwest and as one of the western hemisphere's fastest land mammals can reach 70 mph - it actually keeps its mouth open to get more oxygen as it runs). Although mesquite has been derided by many ranchers for absorbing much-needed water and spreading over rangeland rapidly, it provides excellent soil stabilization and acts as a natural fertilizer by fixing nitrogen close to the roots, providing habitat for better quality grass species.
We drove for miles through the plains, watching the landscape become more rugged as more and more mesas popped up - "mesa country" is what they called it. Eventually we got to the Conchas Dam/State Park where we stopped for lunch. The reservoir was extremely low and there was no outflow whatsoever. The shrubs growing in the "river" bottom near the base of the dam indicated that water hadn't been let out of the dam in quite some time. After some bagels with lunch meats we played frisbee and walked around a bit, but besides some crows and small lizards scurrying about the brush we didn't see much wildlife. Back on course to Las Vegas, NM (not Nevada).
We begin climbing in elevation significantly - we begin at about 5,000 feet and just keep going up from there. In the distance, snow-capped mountains appear and the ecosystem around us is changing. We begin seeing larger shrubs, some deciduous trees and smaller pines. As elevation increases, climate cools and moisture increases, the soil substrate can support a different subset of trees and shrubs which provide habitat for a different variety of animals. As we begin winding our way through hairpin turns we see broadtail hawks, ravens, mule deer, and ponderosa pines. The air is considerably cooler as we get out and stop near the top of a large ravine for a photo op. We spot some hawks and a whiptail and after throwing some rocks and stuff down the canyon wall and move on.
After a few more photo ops at nameless mountain ridges overlooking beautiful valleys which neither words or pictures can entirely capture, we reach about 9500 feet and pull off onto a mountain road which winds upward, following a pristine montane stream. Surrounding us are huge pine trees reaching 60-70 feet and small meadows through which the babbling stream meanders. We drive for about 15 minutes before finding a suitable campsite away from other campers hauling ATVs and noisy generators.
We begin unpacking the van and cross the stream into a meadow to gather firewood. After hacking down a number of branches and feeling good about the amount of wood I've gathered, we see Brooke (another REU) carrying a 10-12 foot dead tree trunk over her shoulders like it was nothing. After getting a fire going, Ray starts cooking pasta. Zach has already wandered off in search of scorpions and tarantulas while Kyle, Brooke and I ascend the 55-60 degree angle slope for a short hike before dinner's ready. They go off to the right, while I stay left and follow a muddy creek which runs straight down the slope, which may have been a mistake because I muddied up my boots pretty bad on the way back. Within 5 minutes I'm out of breath and hanging onto a rocky outcrop. 10 minutes later I get to a larger boulder and get a pretty good view of the surrounding area - towering pine trees outlining steep valleys for as far as I can see. I descend and we eat dinner. Afterwards we wash dishes; Ray, Kyle, Brooke, Marty and I all go out for a short nature hike. Brooke identifies a number of plants; Ray, Kyle and I only spot an American Robin, broad-tailed humminbird, and pine siskin. Later on we see a beaver dam at which a shallow pool is formed where small trout were jumping (if only I had my fishing pole!). On the way back we see, interestingly enough, a small white dog on the trail which runs up the side of the mountain and doesn't respond to our calls - we assume it had gotten separated from its owner. When we get back we make s'mores and throw around some glow sticks in the dark for fun. The moon eventually rises and brightens the area, so we put our mats down, get in the sleeping bags and fall asleep quickly listening to the bubbling stream under a starry sky.
Next morning, the beautiful mountain scenery and bright sun on my face makes up for the fact that I slept on a pretty uncomfortable surface (an inflatable mat can only do so much). After some hot cocoa and pop tarts we pack up and move on to Taos.
Before arriving we stop for a photo op on the other side of the mountains we camped in the previous night. We descend from the mountains and get back into the plains and mesa country. Eventually we arrive at Taos and explore a local farmers market, which offers some organic vegetables and dairy products, various legumes and indian corn while some local musicians play huge xylophones and sing some sort of soothing tribal-esque blithe song. We walk on through the town, which is a hilly landscape of colorful gardens amidst modern adobe homes adorned with bright wooden trim. Street vendors sell chili peppers while locals seem to walk around without a care in the world with tie-dyed shirts. The 400-year-old Spanish plaza has a flowery gazebo with a few statues surrounded by shops selling jewelry, paintings, and native american crafts.
We walk on to get lunch and on the uphill climb traffic stops as an apparent hippie parade marches through. Painted buses and old VW bugs cruise by blasting 60s-era songs while people between 14 and 70 wave colorful flags protesting for peace and commemorating the 40th anniversary of woodstock. while browsing through the pictures i actually put on "get together" by the youngbloods because it reminded me a lot of the ending scene of "fear and loathing in las vegas" and many other late 60s/vietnam war era movies. i know it's not my cultural scene at all but it was quite interesting to see so many people who were still living in that moment over 40 years later, and taos definitely seemed to be the place for them. i read somewhere that about 75% of Taos's population is made up of visual artists, and if you include musicians and cinematographers it almost reaches 100%.
Fortunately, a smaller percentage of the population makes incredibly good Tex-Mex, specifically the folks down at Michael's kitchen cafe and bakery. Ray and I ordered the stuffed sopapillas, while Eric ordered (though having trouble pronouncing) flautas, jenny got tacos i believe and kristen some incredibly spicy green-chile beans. with lunch we got a basket of huge palm-sized white fluffy sopapillas, onto which you spread an interesting honey butter. the portions were huge, and after devouring the delicious pile of thick sopapilla bread, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, guacomole, onion, green chile sauce and sour cream, i was ready to take a nap somewhere.
afterwards we wandered down the paseo del pueblo, checking out the myriad species of flowers planted in front of ornamental clay and metal sculptures of all types, passing gardens in front of cobblestone walkways to adobe houses with s-style red clay roofing - i realize i love everything about southwest architecture. we get back to the main plaza; kristen goes off to find a blanket while i wander around and take some photos of the general plaza area. it reminded me very much of spain, but more mountainous and cleaner - there wasn't a bar in sight, now that i think of it. finally we head on back to the van and make our way north to the mountains.
leaving taos we first cross the rio grande gorge bridge and stop to appreciate it. the cantilever truss bridge built over 40 years ago hovers an amazing 650 feet over the rio grande, which appears as a small brown trickle at the bottom of an immense crack in the earth. the sheer height and grandeur of the bridge and the surrounding mountainous landscape just puts you in awe, and your forced to grab the railing as cars zip past at over 65 mph only a few feet from where you're walking. we spot a female bighorn sheep and a few young walking maybe 200 feet from the bottom of the gorge, quickly climbing over rocks to move farther downstream. birds soar from beneath the cliffs upward and catch the headwinds at the top of the gorge, float for a quick second, and shoot like a bullet back down to the base of the gorge. i think i got the gorge from every angle in every possible mode but still found it hard to fully convey the natural beauty of the place.
finally we get back on track toward the mountains and i fall asleep, only to wake up to rolling hills of shortgrass prairie and pristine lakes surrounded by forested mountains. we climb another mountain range and descend slightly into a valley, following a stream which winds through a campground where unfortunately all the sites were occupied. so we zip past and an hour later come upon sugarite canyon state park. ray stops the van to talk to an old-timer working at one of the campgrounds who tells us to go on ahead but warns us of black bear citings in the area. we move northward and climb switchback turns to reach campgrounds on the side of a mountain with beautiful views of the surrounding valley. above us is shrub-covered mountain ridges with red caprock jutting out, just asking to be hiked.
after gathering some firewood, ray fires up the stove to cook taco meat and we all fill our plates with meat, beans, lettuce, onion, sour cream and mild sauce. it didn't compare to what we had for lunch, but we were all hungry so i don't think anyone cared that much. in order to finish our hike before sundown we decided it'd be best to start right after dinner, so we did.
we began on the 'scenic vista' trail, which we hoped would bring us to the very top of the ridge, and luckily we were not disappointed. an interpretive map explained botanicals such as mountain mahogany, juniper and pinyon pine, while some sites explained lichens and the value of fire to the ecosystem (which seems to be a common occurrence everywhere in the arid southwest). a lichen is a symbiotic relationship between an alga and a fungi, in which the alga photosynthesizes to provide food for the fungi, which provides structural support for the alga. strangely, they have a sort of dirty yellow lichen here as well as the light green - while in new jersey i've only seen the light green type.
eric, marty and i wandered off the trail to climb some boulders, and only after we reached the top did we realize that there was too much vegetation and climb through to ascend and we would have to go back. after returning to the trail, we climbed the increasingly-steep rocky path and finally, after clambering up a few last monster rocks, we reached the top - the mountain ridge.
it was amazing - looking back to where we came from, we saw the entire forested valley and opposing mountain ridge, looking southward the valley widened until it separated and opened up into mesa-filled plains country. the shadow of our ridge from the slowly sinking sun encapsulated the majority of the valley in front of us, and we turned around to face the other side. instead of seeing another valley on the other side, we saw only an immense, flat plain of treeless shortgrass prairie. it was like we had reached the next level - and at about 8600 feet in elevation, where no road or sign of civilization existed, we began walking across this plain to find its edge. in the distance we saw another mountain rising from this plain - if we had time we would have attempted that one, for sure. unfortunately after walking about 20 minutes we realized this plain seemingly had no end, and we would have to return before the sun went down unless we wanted to descend in darkness. so we did.
that night we camped out again under the stars, this time without any tall pine trees enshrouding our view in the least. right before bed we explored a nearby montane marsh, spotted a mule deer, kyle got out a sonar device looking for bats (we didn't find any), and ray spotted a huge owl (couldn't ID it though).
i woke up the next morning to the smell of coffee roasting and the view of red rock canyon walls nearly covered in pines and shrubs, with the valley below us glistening in the sunlight. the beauty was absolutely indescribable.
we set off for capulin volcano, a million year old volcano which erupted more than a few times during the past several thousand years. we took the road that encircled the thousand-foot high monster to the mouth of the crater and began the hike around the volcano's rim. it was incredibly windy around the rim, and i nearly blew off a rocky outcrop while doing a dumb pose for my picture (which i probably deserved). small signs around the trail explained the significance of the plants, animals, and most importantly geology of the area. we found a variety of seemingly different rocks on our hike. which were made of the same material but formed in different ways depending on how the molten rock was shot straight out of the volcano or bubbled over the mouth in the lava flow. it was really hard to get a good shot of the crater because of its whole 3-D nature and ginormous size, but i tried. We could see for about 30 miles from the top, but the views didn't beat the ones from camping the previous night.
on the way back home we counted over 300 pronghorn antelope. that was about it. it was a fun trip. the next 7-8 weeks will probably not be nearly as exciting, but exciting or not, there's still much more in store.
My pictures from the weekend can be seen here: http://profile.imageshack.us/user/byates/images
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