West fork of the Santa Barbara, July 15, 2016

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I’m on my own today.  My hiking, fishing and photo buddies are busy so I have the choice of deciding where I want to go today.  I have a few places on my list so I feel the need to check one of them off.  Santa Barbara River in the northern portion of the Pecos Wilderness is my choice for the day.

I have been studying the various routes between Albuquerque and the Santa Barbara River, there really isn’t anything direct so I picked a series of roads and went with it.  What I thought was the most direct route is probably the slowest but more scenic routes.  I got off SR84 just north of Pojoaque on CR 503 going generally north and east.  I passed through two hamlets; not more that a handful of houses, no stores, or post office, the two lane road I have been travelling on has become a one – to – one and a half lane road through ‘town’.  The people are friendly; waving and smiling as I pass.  The road climbs up from valley bottoms; follows ridgelines, dropping into the next valley, then repeating.  As I continue on 503 the road continuously gains elevation.  Just before meeting up with SR 76 I drop down one last ridge with the road narrowing again to something just over one lane.  I'm glad this is not well travelled.

SR 76 is busier; there are a number of trucks pulling camping trailers.  The landscape is getting wilder; the mountains of the Pecos are still in the distance but I am in the foothills.  The town of Truchas, seems to be sitting alongside a deep valley.

The flat areas between towns are green with grasses for cattle.  The foothills are rising ever quicker as I get closer to the high peaks of the Pecos and northern New Mexico in general.  The mountains fade to a light blue with the haze of recent forest fires.

Penasco is the largest town on my route; there are several stores and gas stations.  Once through I watch for the forest road to the Santa Barbara campground.

As I arrive at my parking spot overlooking the Santa Barbara I can’t help but notice bug hatches going on.  The river is teaming with insects wherever I look.

Even though it’s early on a Friday the camping area is full of people; tents to class A-motor homes.  I have to walk through the campground to get to the trail that follows the Santa Barbara.   The trail leaving the campground is a gradual climb; deep forest to open meadows full of pollinators flitting between daisies and coneflowers to name a few.  I see bees sharing space on flower heads with butterflies.  As I stop to view the activity; i hear the flowers ‘buzzing’.

A light breeze causes the aspen leaves to shimmer in the sunlight.  Upon closer inspection one side of a leaf is the normal dark green, the other has been invaded by apsen leaf miners.  The larvae of the leaf miner 'mines' the chlorophyll causing the underside to look silver.

I also notice elk aren't the only mammals to leave their marks on the aspen.

Trail oscillates between tracking along the river to a hundred or so feet above providing bird’s eye views of the rushing waters.  This is a loud, rushing, river, all along the way one hears the water pummeling the rocks and fallen trees making up the streambed.  As I approach the river, the river is all I hear.  I am reminded of a loud restaurant, lots of noise but you can’t make out anything specific.  The open space I drove by downstream is closing in between two mountains, not much more than 50’ wide before opening up again.  Once through the ‘gateway’ I have to get several hundred feet away and above the river before I can hear a normal forest; birds singing and chipmunks squeaking.

The bridge is out where the east and middle branches of the Santa Barbara converge with the west branch.  Even above the confluence the flow is substantial.  I follow along the river looking for a possible spot to ford the river but can’t find a spot without going shin deep in cold mountain stream water.  I will be prepared to cross next time.

Instead I wander between meadows along the trail; bushwhacking my way down to the river, then back up again.  I pay attention to fishing prospects.  My friend Tom has been here saying the fishing and the scenery were great highly recommending a trip here.  I notice that this portion of the river will have to be fished from the river.  There are few spots where you would not be battling trees and shrubs from collecting your flies.  Just think of Charlie Brown and the kite eating tree.

I take a different road back, through Espanola, it’s shorter but the drive is still over 2 hours to Abq.

The Santa Barbara, and northern portion of the Pecos Wilderness seems wilder and the scenery; mountains, hills, valleys and rivers are on a different scale, larger than the southern portion of the Pecos and the Jemez Mountains where I usually hike.

  
 

This is a popular area; I saw about 15 people on the trail, both day hikers and backpackers.

I am looking forward to coming back in fall to see the yellows of the aspen!

It was a good day.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark