Backroads New Mexico - Wandering the Southwest

奇 貨可居 Precious Treasure Worth Cherishing

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. - John Muir, Famous American Environmentalist 1800's

I am always inspired and awed by mountains and deserts. Mountains are immense and make me feel smaller and more humble than an ant. Deserts have a huge sky that force me to look for far-off horizons that challenge my spirit. This is my home, where I grew up, where I go for challenge and recreation, and where I feel the most peace.

Southern New Mexico State, USA - This last week Wonderful Jane and I were fortunate enough to wander the backroads of southern New Mexico with my mom and step-dad Brock. For the casual traveler, New Mexico is often viewed as a barren desert that should be crossed as quickly as possible. For a seasoned desert wanderer, however, New Mexico offers a tremendous variety of wildlife, scenery, mountains, geology, plants and colors that overwhelm the senses. One week in New Mexico is not nearly enough time to get a sense of this immense desert and mountain region.

Wildlife - Birds, coyotes, deer, bear, wolves, foxes and more can be seen in New Mexico like a huge zoo. One morning we saw a coyote (a type of small wolf) walking casually across the highway like he had no worries about our car driving by at high speed. That's New Mexico back country - even the animals don't care about new technology.

We started our backcountry tour at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/newmex/bosque/ In the winter, Bosque is famous for being the winter feeding ground for thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of elegant sandhill cranes, snow geese, ducks, eagles, and many other species of birds.

Mountain Scenery - The next day we drove our way from the Rio Grande river valley up to the tops of the mountains. We drove past historical silver mining towns with their interesting mixture of new and ancient buildings. The narrow highway twisted its way up the mountain pass like a huge snake, forcing us to drive at low speed and enjoy the scenery. The sky was so clear that we could see other mountains more than 140 Km away (88 miles). Maybe we were being watched by spies stationed on those far away mountains. Who knows? It could happen! We did our best to spy on them in return.

Geology - Deserts and mountains are the best place to look at rocks and geologic formations, simply because the rocks aren't covered by a lot of trees and vegetation. New Mexico is a typical mixture of sedimentary rocks and igneous rocks from ancient volcanoes. In the sedimentary formations, it is common to find fossils of ancient animals and plants. The southern mountains in New Mexico are made of ancient volcanoes. All the rocks are basaltic, lava, quartz, and other hard rock. In the 1800's and early 1900's, silver mines made quite a few people rich. Some silver and gold might still be there for the taking...if you know where to look.

Ghost Towns - A "ghost town" is a historical town that had many people a long time ago but which is now inhabited primarily by ghosts of the past. Southern New Mexico has many ghost towns scattered around it. We visited Fort Cummings, near the base of Cooke's Peak, not far from the town of Deming. Fort Cummings was established in the 1860's to protect travelers from the vicious Apache Indians who killed many people traveling along the trail. At one time there were more than 500 people (including soldiers and civilians) at Fort Cummings. Now it is just a barren, lonely place in the middle of the desert.

We enjoyed looking through the remaining ruins of the buildings; examining the broken bottles, nails, and other artifacts (left where we found them, of course); and even using "dowsing" or "witching" rods to examine possible graves where people might have been buried. It was fun to absorb the silence and imagine how life must have been in that time without cars, air conditioners, cell phones, or televisions. Perhaps the people were happier with simpler pleasures.




















If you wish to visit and experience the wonders of New Mexico, you will certainly find some of the most friendly people on earth. Contact me before you go. If possible, I might be able to arrange for some friendly and knowledgeable tour guides.