San Pedro Parks Wilderness

Sept 15, 2013

The second weekend in September I drove to the western end of the Jemez Mountains, just east of Cuba, NM.  I read several descriptions of the San Pedro Parks Wilderness area and decided I had to see it.  I was hoping to see the start of the fall colors…

 

 

 

 

 

Spring is really my favorite time of year other than the winds that accompany our spring season.  Those of you that live in this area know of the winds I am referring to.  I do not enjoy hiking in 25 – 50 mile an hour winds which have the habit of picking up lots of sand.  Fall is my second favorite season.  Fall means we made it through another hot summer and cooler temperatures are on their way.  Fall is not quite as exciting in NM because the fall colors consist of gold, yellow and more yellow.  Being from Wisconsin I miss the reds and oranges.

The SP Parks is yet a different type of forest.  I do not know the history of this area other than it was declared a Primitive area in the 1930’s and a Wilderness area in 1964.  It looks like it has been left alone with little to no logging.  The forest itself looks ‘messy’ with downed trees all over the place.  The only places I could see tree cutting was to clear the trail.  There are aspen and multiple kinds of pines all mixed together, not a monoculture like areas that have been logged and replanted.

The Wilderness is about 100 miles NW of Albuquerque with the turnoff to the Wilderness going east of Cuba.  From Cuba the Wilderness looks like a huge green tabletop about 2500’ above the town of Cuba.  It was noticeably cooler when I got out of my vehicle at the trailhead, a nice change from the upper 80’s we have been experiencing at home lately.  The forest road (70) is all gravel and I had no problems driving in my 2WD pickup.

I decided to hike to the San Gregorio Reservoir then continue on another couple of miles with no particular destination in mind.  By using Google earth I had an idea of what to expect, forest with a number of open meadows along the way, and I was right, although more there was forest and fewer meadows than I was hoping for.

There were only two vehicles in the trailhead parking lot.  I was expecting more because I heard that the reservoir draws a lot of families for the fishing.  When I got to the reservoir I saw a handful of people fishing, a couple of them in floats in the middle of the reservoir.  The water level looked down about two feet from normal.  There were more cows feeding on the far side of the reservoir than people fishing.

Continuing up the trail I noticed grass growing everywhere.  The overhead foliage is quite sparse allowing grass and wildflowers to fill in any spot that the sun can reach.  I crossed one stream bed which had hardly any water which probably explains the low water level in the reservoir.

I came to a meadow and had to stop to take in the view.  I was still surrounded by trees but they were all a few hundred yards away with grasses and wildflowers populating the meadow.  This area was dead quiet; I could hear air rushing over a raven’s flapping wings, I had never heard that before.

I had lunch in the forest watching all the activity of chipmunks and squirrels running back and forth.  On the way out I ran into a family all carrying their own fishing poles; kids with anticipation of pulling in the big one.

The fall colors had not arrived when I was there.  I have called since then and as of the end of September they still have not arrived.

Another reason to go back.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark