Straddling the Continental Divide: Western New Mexico,(May 2009) VIII

Ring muhly (Muhlenbergia torreyi) at the edge of the pinion-juniper woodlands
Bear Mountain Lodge, Silver City, NM

Short Detour

On Tuesday morning, May 19, 2009, before we explored the cultural resources of central Silver City, we accompanied the volunteer naturalist at Bear Mountain Lodge on a guided tour of one of the lodge grounds' trails. The driest, sandiest, and most exposed portions of the the trail were bordered with a strikingly unusual grass (at least for this Easterner): ring muhly (Muhlenbergia torreyi). The grass obviously gets started from a single plant in the center, then the center dies back and the grass expands outward from the origin. It has a an umistakable growth form that can spread for dozens of feet.


The Catwalk

One of the main reasons we wanted to visit the Silver City area was to walk The Catwalk National Recreation Trail in the Gila National Forest. After we finished birding at The Nature Conservancy's Gila River Farm on Wednesday morning, May 20, we drove a half-hour north on US 180 to the town of Glenwood, where we turned east off the main road and drove five miles to The Catwalk trailhead.

The Catwalk is a trail developed through Whitewater Creek canyon that replaced a pipeline originally built in the 1800 to provide a dependable source of water for mining and refining operations near Glenwood. Workers who created the original trail penetrated a mile into the canyon to install pipe. Where the creekbed filled the entire canyon bottom, the workers bolted the pipeline to the canyon walls and installed a metal grate on top to allow them to walk up into the canyon to service the pipe. The grating was narrow and precarious, hence the nickname "catwalk." Over the years, floods have washed out most (but not all) traces of the original pipeline and walk, but the Forest Service has rebuilt and modernized the popular trail, making it among the most popular attractions in southwestern New Mexico.


When we arrived, the skies threatened rain, but we had driven over an hour north of Silver City, and we didn't want to waste all that time just to come back another day. So, we began walking the trail. The walk begins as a rocky footpath, but quickly reaches the steel grating affixed to the canyon walls. When we reached the suspended section, we asked a couple leaving the walk to take our pictures, then we quickly moved on into the canyon. The walk was disconcerting but exhilarating as the creek roared and foamed under our feet. After a few hundred yards, the metal grating ended and the trail continued up into the canyon as a rocky footpath with occasional wooden steps in the steepest sections. At its upper end, the trail terminated under a huge overhang of rock, with the creek surging among gigantic boulders below. (It is possible to continue up the canyon on the Whitewater Creek Trail into the Gila Wilderness.) That day, a group of high school kids was wading and swimming in the creek despite the cloudy skies and cool temperatures.

Whitewater Creek near the terminus of The Catwalk Trail

Just as we reached the upper end of the trail, it began to rain. We decided to wait to see if it would stop, but after 10 minutes, with no end in sight, we started back down the trail. We stopped every place there was a rocky overhang in the cliff to get out of the rain, waiting at one point for 20 minutes, mashed up against the rock in a really uncomfortable position as the rain poured down.

Finally, the rain let up a bit and we continued down the trail. We encountered a couple and their dog (the guy was tall, slender, and very good looking) equipped with rain gear.

Naturally, by the time we reached the parking lot, the rain had stopped. As we sat in the car eating our lunch, a car pulled up and disgorded two bedraggled looking backpackers who plodded up toward the trailhead, headed for a backcountry trip in the Gila Wilderness. While I yearned to accompany them, I thought about backpacking in the rain in the mountains and gave the whole concept another thought. (It ended up raining for the next several days, so they probably had a soggy trek.) I recognized the person driving the car that had brought the backpakers to the trailhead--it was the woman who had taken our picture as we first entered The Catwalk. I expressed surprise at seeing her again, and she said that she was an artist who lived in Glenwood, and that she had seen the two backpakers walking past her house. She took pity on them and drove them the five miles to the trailhead. Glenwood sounds like a nice community.

Two more birds on this trip (neither "life listers"): Canyon Wren (Catherpes mexicanus) and American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus).

Straddling the Continental Divide: Western New Mexico (May 2009) VII

Gila River at TNC's Gila River Preserve (View upstream toward Gila Wilderness)

A Banner Day for Birds

Wednesday morning, May 20, after breakfast we headed northwest from Silver City to explore The Nature Conservancy's Gila River Farm Preserve just outside the hamlet of Gila, NM, on a guided tour with Mike, TNC's premier birder in New Mexico. This section of the Gila is just outside the border of the Gila Wilderness, and by this point the river has emerged from the mountains and has begun to flow through low hills in a broad valley.

Gila Wilderness as viewed upstream from the Gila River at TNC's Gila River Farm Preserve

Once our caravan arrived at the preserve, Mike gave us an overview and orientation, and then walked us over to an irrigation canal to give us an introduction to water rights in New Mexico. He explained that water rights must be used or that they will be rescinded and reallocated. He also explained that The Nature Conservancy is in the forefront of making the case that maintenance and restoration of natural ecosystems is a legitimate use of water rights (cf., consumptive agricultural use), but that such use was not yet approved. Therefore, TNC partially uses the water rights that came along with the farm that it bought to create the preserve to encourage the development of wetland habitat at the low ends of existing agricultural fields and to recharge groundwater.

After the water rights primer, we spent most of the morning birding on the irrigation canal bank, in an artificial pond, and in the riparian corridor along the Gila River. This two-hour birding trip may have yielded more species per hour than any other birding venue I have ever enjoyed. What follows is a list of all the birds we encountered, including several new "life-listers" (indicated with an asterisk) for this Eastern birder.

• Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
• Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
  
• Common Black-Hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus)--rare, pair on a nest
  
• Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
• American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)
  
• Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
  
• Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) *
  
• Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)
  
• Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)
• Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker (Colaptes auratus)
  
• Ladder-backed Woodpecker (Picoides scalaris) *
  
• Western Wood-Pewee (Contopus sordidulus)
• Cordilleran Flycatcher (Empidonax occidentalis) *
  
• Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
• Say's Phoebe (Sayornis saya)
• Ash-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens)
• Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis)
  
• Cassin's Kingbird (Tyrannus vociferans)
  
• Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus)
  
• Common Raven (Corvus corax)
• Chihuahuan Raven (Corvus cryptoleucus) *
  
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis)
  
• Violet-green Swallow (Tachycineta thalassina)
  
• Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
• Bewick's Wren (Thryomanes bewickii)
• European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
• Lucy's Warbler (Vermivora luciae) *
  
• Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens)
• Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)
• Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra)
• Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
• Blue Grosbeak (Guiraca caerulea) *
  
• Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)
• Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
• Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus)
• Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)
  
• Bullock's Oriole (Icterus bullockii)
  

One thing that truck me when we finished our walk was how much of the avifauna of the grasslands and shrublands of New Mexico is comprised of flycatchers. Of the 37 species we observed that morning, nearly a quarter (eight) were flycatchers.

Gila River flowing southwest from TNC's Gila River Farm Preserve

As we were driving out of the preserve after our walk, headed for the Catwalk National Recreation Trail, we came across a huge King Snake stretched across the road. The rest of the group, which was following in cars behind us, stopped to see the snake, and then gently encouraged it to move off the road.

Straddling the Continental Divide: Western New Mexico, May 2009 (I)

Aligned windows
Pueblo del Arroyo, Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Introduction

This was our third vacation trip to New Mexico. Nearly two decades ago, we traveled in northern New Mexico, visiting Albuquerque; Santa Fe; Taos; Los Alamos; Las Vegas, NM; and Durango, Colorado (as a base for Mesa Verde National Park). During the course of that trip, we rafted down the Rio Grande, took a llama pack trip in Bandalier National Monument, and a horse pack trip in the Pecos Wilderness (where bighorn sheep ate horse rations out of our hands).

On our second trip three years ago, we concentrated our visit in the southeastern part of the state, flying to El Paso, TX and driving to Albuquerque by way of Guadalupe Mountains National Park (TX), Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Ruidoso (where we watched Brokeback Mountain and Heath Ledger get shot down at the Academy Awards on a gastopub television), White Sands National Monument, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Acoma Sky City, and Old Town in Albuquerque.

For this trip, we wanted to see the western and southwestern parts of the state. So, we flew to Albuquerque, rented an SUV and set off on I-40 west to Thoreau, New Mexico, where our adventure (and this account) begin.

Zuni Mountain Lodge, Thoreau, New Mexico

Zuni Mountain Lodge

Lodging options between Grants, NM and Gallup, NM are completely non-existent--except for the Zuni Mountain Lodge, located 13 miles south of I-40 in the tiny hamlet of Thoreau, NM (pronounced Thoo-ROO). Most people stay at the Zuni Mountain Lodge because they want to visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park via the southern route, and this is the closest lodging (56 miles away).

We stayed for five nights, visiting Chaco, Gallup and Zuni (for shopping), El Malpais National Monument, and El Morro National Monument, all on separate days. This was just the right amount of time to stay in the area. Zuni Mountain Lodge is, by far, the closest lodging to all these attractions and made a convenient staging location for our exploration of the area.

Zuni Mountain Lodge is a compound consisting of four rental houses (not available to travelers) plus the lodge building. All of the buildings in the complex are brightly painted wood and are of relatively modern construction (1970's?). If you're looking for a romantic getaway to a traditional stone-and-timber Western lodge set among pines you may be disappointed. But, if you're looking for very good accommodations, centrally located, in a quiet location, and have a bit of a sense of adventure, then this is the place.

The lodge is approached via a 13-mile (15-minute) drive south of I-40. The road (NM 612) first enters a scenic canyon, then opens onto an expansive vista of low forested mountains and ranch land. We found the drive calming and very pleasant--not at all a nuisance. The road travels through several small settlements and finally ends near the inn. Lodgers turn up a gravel road and park across from the inn at the end of the road.

We were greeted by Bob, the slightly eccentric owner and manager, and by one of the numerous friendly dogs that live at the inn. Bob escorted us to our room and gave you a tour of the facility. There's a pleasant gazebo in the yard with an obstructed view of Bluewater Lake (a sad little reservoir) off to the east.

Bob served breakfast and dinner (included in the tariff) in a sunny dining room. The meals were good, solid fare--not great cuisine--and Bob did his best to please his guests, especially at breakfast, where eggs are cooked to order.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the lodge is that Bob has several long-time boarders living in the lodge. These folks work at the hospital in Crownpoint, NM. Rental housing is very hard to come by in the area, so they stay at the lodge with their dogs. They joined us for breakfast and dinner, and then we joined them to watch television in the common room. The lodge sometimes felt more like a boarding house or a "movable feast" than a lodge, but we became very friendly with these long-term guests and their pets.

This lodging experience may not be for everyone. One overnight guest with whom we spoke at breakfast was a little disappointed that the lodge was not more like the traditional Western "national park" lodge. But, we were flexible and willing to enjoy the company of a rambunctious and lovable group of puppies and dogs. We were very glad we spent five nights here.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park

As our first excursion, we decided to visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park on Wednesday, May 13; visiting Chaco was one of the main reasons we decided to vacation in western New Mexico. The park is 56 miles north of Thoreau, but the last 20 miles are on a Navajo nation dirt road whose condition restricts driving speed to 25 mph or less; the whole journey took 1:50.

We got oriented at the Visitors’ Center, and then headed out on the one-way loop road. We stopped and walked around at the first ruin, Hungo Pavi, but it is only partially excavated and in relatively poor condition. While at Hungo Pavi, we saw another visitor who told us that his relatives recommended spending nearly all the time at Pueblo Bonito and not bothering with the other ruins, so off we went.

Pueblo Bonito is the most famous of the Chacoan ruins. The largest ruin in the canyon, Pueblo Bonito was the center of the Chacoan world. Planned and then built in stages, Pueblo Bonito was inhabited from the mid-800s to 1200s. It eventually grew to four floors with over 600 rooms and 40 kivas. Pueblo Bonito is one of the most extensively excavated, studied, and preserved sites in North America. We walked throughout the structure for about an hour, trying to imagine living here and marveling at the wonderful and distinctive stonework in the walls.

After completing our tour of Pueblo Bonito, we had lunch (with beggar ground squirrels) under a picnic shelter, and then it was off to hike the Pueblo Alto Trail, which afforded overlooks of Kin Kletso (another ruin that was built in two stages, the first from about 1125, and the second from 1130; it is a great house with 100 rooms and five enclosed kivas) and Pueblo Bonito from above, and of the Pueblo Alto complex on the mesa high above.

The Pueblo Alto Trail begins at the base of the cliff behind Kin Kletso. The trail ascends to the top of the mesa via a narrow crack in the sandstone cliff; a huge slab of sandstone has partially separated from the cliff face, and rocky debris has collected in the crack, making it possible to walk atop the rocks 200 feet to the top of the mesa.

Great kiva at Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Kin Kletso ruin from Pueblo Alto Trail
Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Once on top, we walked over to the Pueblo Bonito Overlook, and then further up onto the mesa to the Pueblo Alto complex of ruins. After circling the ruins, we headed back to Kin Kletso.

Pueblo Bonito ruin from Pueblo Alto Trail

Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Pueblo Alto Viejo
Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Finally, before leaving the park, we stopped at Pueblo del Arroyo sitting alongside Chaco Wash, a deeply eroded arroyo. Early white settlers reported that the wash was broad and shallow, but now it is highly eroded, deeply incised, and dry. Overgrazing by white ranchers and conversion of the native grasslands to non-native species have increased runoff, which has, in turn, led to significant erosion of the wash.

I think that I may have enjoyed Pueblo del Arroyo the most of any of the ruins. It is modest and accessible in scale, and it is very well preserved. It also features a few interesting architectural elements not found in the other ruins.

There are many other ruins in the park, and plenty of hiking opportunities, but we certainly got a good introduction to the landscape and the cultural history. Even though we were visiting in mid-May, it was very warm and we did not come prepared for any extended hiking. If we had intended to hike, it would have made sense to camp in the park campground, since making the drive from a town was such an investment of time.

Star Trek, Azaleas, and New Mexico

We went to see the new Star Trek yesterday. A very good film. The story blends seamlessly with the television show and subsequent movies. The scene near the middle of the film in which two of the Star Trek characters engage in hand-to-hand combat with two Romulans perched on the edge of a gigantic electronic drill bit suspended thousands of meters above Vulcan was especially effective--talk about vertigo!

After the film, we strolled through an arboretum renowned for its display of azaleas and rhododendrons. The plants were at the absolute pinnacle of perfection yesterday, and the weather was cool and sunny--heavenly! Most of the plants are not native, but the arboretum has a nice collection of native azaleas, rhododendrons, and spring ephemerals, too.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, May 12) we're off for New Mexico for 13 days.

Water Images and Vacation Plans

My artist friend passed along two more images, this time of streams in one of the area's city parks. She's got an "eye" that I can appreciate, and I'm a sucker for water images.


On another topic, my wife and I are planning an 11-day trip to western New Mexico in mid-May. We'll be staying at a gay-owned bed-and-breakfast outside Gallup, New Mexico. (We're not staying there specifically because it's gay-owned; we're staying there because of convenience and because it's the only bed-and-breakfast for many, many miles around. We plan to visit Chaco Canyon National Historical Park (our main reason for staying near Gallup), several other lesser-known cultural and natural attractions, plus Gallup and Zuni Pueblo to shop for Southwest Native American crafts.

From the Gallup area, we'll move south to Silver City where we'll spend some time at The Nature Conservancy's Bear Mountain Lodge birding, hiking, and visiting more Anasazi sites in and around the Gila Wilderness.

We've been to northern New Mexico (i.e., Santa Fe, Taos, Bandalier National Monument, Pecos Wilderness), and southeastern New Mexico (Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks, Ruidoso, White Sands National Monument, and Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge), so this trip should fill-out our New Mexico dance card with most of the best remaining natural and cultural attractions. We've wanted to visit Chaco Canyon especially for a long time now.