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| San Gregorio Reservoir |
After hearing about the good fishing from one of our
co-workers Byron and I decided to make the drive to the San Pedro Parks
Wilderness Area. It’s an easy but
slightly long drive, divided highway almost the entire way until you turn off
on SR 126 in Cuba. We went on a Friday
to avoid whatever crowds there may be, once we hiked past the San Gregorio
Reservoir, about ¾ of a mile in, we didn't run into anybody until we were
hiking back out mid-afternoon...
The Wilderness area is on the western end of the Jemez
Mountains, in the Santa Fe National Forest.
As you are driving up on NM 550 the San Pedro Parks Wilderness Area looks
like a large table setting above and to the east of Cuba. The Wilderness itself ranges from 9,400’ –
10,500’ in elevation. We started our
hike at the Las Vacas trailhead which is at just over 9,200’. |
| Clear creek |
The San Gregorio Reservoir is a fair size lake, on this day
there are a few dozen people; families fishing.
The area is really lush with grass growing everywhere. Lots of spring flowers are also blooming.
Our hike to the Rio Puerco is approximately 5.5 miles. For the most part it is all uphill going
to the Rio Puerco until you cross the final ridge into the Rio Puerco valley,
with the last ¾ mile going downhill.
Parts of the trail followed along creeks, cross creeks while other
parts are in the middle of the forest.
Off trail, trees are down all around us, making bushwhacking a long
hard trek having to go over, under and around downed trees.
On part of the hike we hit the peak of caterpillar
season. As we were hiking we saw a few
iridescent caterpillars crossing the trail, a few minutes later we saw more
caterpillars, then more, and more again until we decided we didn’t want to stop
for fear of being overtaken by caterpillars.
Isn’t there a horror flick based on that??? Several times we did briefly stop to view the
creek running alongside the trail and saw the surface of the rocks moving due
of a thick layer of caterpillars. As we
keep on hiking and climbing in elevation they eventually thinned out until we
did not see any more. I’ve never seen such
a mass of creatures like that before. By
the way, they were still doing their caterpillar thing as we passed through on
the way back.
The open meadows are lush with grass and patches of
wildflowers. The Rocky Mountain Irises are on the decline but there are plenty of other flowers to view. Several times we saw cattle feeding on the
grass giving us the eye as we passed by.
As we make our way into the valley we hike through the
densest part of the forest. Even here
there are all kinds of small openings where grasses, ferns, hostas, wild
strawberries, raspberries and other wildflowers are in various stages of
flowering and fruiting. We cross and
follow along a few more streams which eventually become feeder streams for
the Rio Puerco.
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| Rio Puerco Valley |
When we got to our destination we are in the Rio Puerco Valley
looking out on to a lush meadow. The Rio
Puerco is a small stream, two feet wide in some areas with small ponds up to 10
feet wide by up to 20 feet long distributed along the half mile or so of the
stream we hiked and fished. We stopped
for lunch on the edge of the forest enjoying the quiet interrupted by the
occasional woodpecker drumming on hollow trees in the valley.
Portions of the valley are actually quite soggy. I have to pay attention where I step because even 50 feet
away from the river I can step into a mud hole.
After lunch Byron prepared his fly rod while I wandered down
river to photograph. I came on a fairly
large pond seeing quite a number of trout calmly swimming back and forth. Byron tried his luck on the pond and caught
several cutthroat trout. I photographed his catches
this time because I gave him a hard time because the last time he fished he didn't have any
photos to prove his fishing stories.
After catching eight or ten trout he made me put down my camera replacing it with a fly rod. After a few
casts into the grass I managed to hit the water, then finally getting it into the
general area where he suggested to put the fly.
The hardest part is seeing where the fly hit the water but after
several casts I had an idea where it was going so I could see if any trout were
interested. A couple times they hit the fly; first I pulled the
line too slow, then too fast and finally just right. I think I caught two or three cutthroats that
day. They weren't large but I did catch
some. We both believe in catch and
release so they went back to swim another day.
In all Byron caught a trout about every second or third cast. He was a happy fisherman. I enjoyed the fishing part and I am probably
one or two steps closer to taking up another hobby.
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| Rio Puerco |
Our hike back took about 2 ½ hours to get back to the
car. We passed at least half a dozen
groups of backpackers on their way into the Wilderness. There were several families still fishing at
the reservoir. In all we did just over
12 miles in/out and along the Rio Puerco.
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| Cutthroat trout |
On our way home we stopped for dinner at El Bruno’s in Cuba. Both of us had one of their specialties with very
flavorful red chile. We were happy with
our selections and will stop by there on our next trip to the San Pedro Parks
Wilderness Area.
I highly suggest going to the San Pedro Parks Wilderness Area; there is lots of room to fish,
hike, backpack and just have a wonderful time away from the city madness. We have another hike planned to another portion of the Wilderness Area later this year. Stay tuned.
Thank you for stopping by.
Mark
ah, beautiful pics, lovely story, wish I could have seen you fishing! You can come with me next time, I just sit in the boat and jig for fish... :) You'll have to wait till our snow is gone tho...
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