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Camping in November; when I was younger, a long time ago,
a buddy of mine and I talked about winter camping but for one reason or
another; mainly cold weather, we never made it.
(We lived in WI at the time) It
seems the hard part of camping in NM this time of year is finding an open
campground. I have to admit I almost
always go north when exploring NM. I am
not familiar with pretty much anything south of I-40, so here is my
opportunity.Pulling out my trusty ‘New Mexico Campgrounds: The Statewide Guide’ I look for possible locations. It is dated; published in 2004, but I like the photos and description of the activities around each campground. I can always go to the web from there to see if anything has changed.
Three Rivers national forest campground immediately catches
my interest. A few years ago I had heard
of the Three Rivers Petroglyph site a few miles off Hwy 54, south of
Carrizozo. The campground is several
miles east, in the foothills of the White Mountains in the Lincoln National
Forest. Several hiking trails take off
into the forest from the campground.
Before we left I spoke with one of the Lincoln National Forest Rangers
to find out campground conditions.
“Roads are good, the campground is open, hunting season starts
Saturday”. “You may want to get there early to get a campsite in case there are
a lot of hunters”. I liked the message,
except for the hunting. Take some type
of bright colored clothing so you are not mistaken for an animal, was a further
suggestion. We will look like a lost road
construction crew hiking this weekend.
We leave around 10 on Friday anticipating a warm
weekend. Nicida has tent camped before
but is considering a small motor home for herself for future camping
trips. I thought camping in the truck
camper might be a good introduction into a more comfortable form of camping.Our drive is uneventful, we talk about our past camping experiences; mine from when I can first remember; Nicida’s only a few times, either renting a motorhome or occasional tenting.
Turning off Hwy 54 we pass a large mound of earth and rocks;
the petroglyph site. The visitor center
has a few cars, tourists and a couple occupied campsites. We plan on visiting this on our way out on
Sunday.Only a few campsites of the 12 are occupied in our campground of choice. Touring the campground we mentally select our site but continue on, making sure we select the best one. The mountains are breath taking. They are not the bare, rugged rock mountains like the west facing Sandia’s. There is bare rock but forest runs all the way to the crest with only occasional rock outcroppings. Our view to the west is also breath taking; strings of mountains on the far side of a broad valley make up the view. The north end of White Sands National Monument can also be seen.
After setting up and having a bite to eat we put on our
packs and cameras for a short hike into the White Mountains. Approaching the trailhead we spot two hunters
putting on their hunting gear getting ready to spend the night on the
trail. One is after turkey; the other
has tags for mountain lion and bear. The
bear population is high this year based on the wire traps designed to catch the
fur of any roaming animal that rubs against the wire. They both agree we will probably not see many
hunters in this area. They go on to say
that hunting this side of the mountain is hard; a lot of hiking is required to
get to the prime areas for bear and mountain lion. If they get anything they have to carry it back
out, no ATV’s. We continue on, crossing
the Three Rivers river, a small stream by most standards. Within the first few hundred yards of
crossing the river three deer scamper across a small meadow along the trail.
We are not out for a long hike this afternoon; we are
looking for photo ops. Exploring the
babbling water on one side of the trail to brilliant fall color opposite keeps
our attention on the scenery so mileage is not important. Continuing on we decide that tomorrow’s goal
is to make the crest trail, 6 miles in, with an elevation climb of 2,500’ –
3,000’, then back down. I haven’t
completed a hike that long in a long time but I am excited to try, Nicida says
she is also up for our trek.
Making our way back to the camper I notice one of the
campers has a ‘quiet’ 2KW generator running.
We have several of these at work; we comment how quiet they are in our
work environment. It is not nearly so
quiet here. Take away trucks, and
construction noise and these generators stand out like a sore thumb. Fortunately we are down the road so it is relatively
quiet; they turn it off after a short while.
We enjoy our dinner of green chile stew before settling in for an
evening campfire topped off with a couple S’mores. The moon, almost full inches over the mountain
ridge. It is bright enough that we don’t
need flashlights to see our way around.
It is also bright enough that we cast our own strong shadow, another
thing not seen among the lights of the city.
The next morning we
have eggs, cheese, avocado, and meat on arepas.
Arepas, South American in origin, basically are a dense, maize based English muffin. Nicida found the ingredients and made several
for our trip. There is a lot more to
them; Google arepas for more details.
Sharp eyed blue jays circle our campsite as we enjoy breakfast. They are unusually quiet. Finishing breakfast I toss a small bit of egg
on the ground and not more than a minute later a jay lands, grabs the egg, and
takes off in an easy motion.
We start on our hike to the crest trail. Within a half hour we arrive at the point
where we turned around yesterday after an hour of hiking and
photographing. We are making good
time. As we continue the trail crosses
the river several times with stepping stones providing safe passage. Cairns are set up at the crossings ensuring
us that we are on the right path. The
river winds back and forth with high, steep walls guiding the river. Viewing the valley from the campground one is
not able to see the layers of canyon walls within the canyon. All along the trail there are fallen trees in
and around the river. I can only surmise
the amount of spring runoff that must flow down this small channel causing this
amount of downed trees.
Further up the trail we surprised an immature eagle. It took off hastily, crashing into a downed
tree. It regained its composure, taking
off disappearing around a bend. I can
only think that after it crashed into the tree it looked around to see if any
other eagles were looking and chuckling at the mishap before trying to look
cool as it took flight. At least that’s
what humans would do.
After over three hours, five-ish miles, and 2,000’ elevation
gain I had to give in. I can go farther,
but I may not make it back down, so we stopped, had lunch, and headed
back. We arrived back at the camper
almost six hours after we stared. A
couple ibuprofen later I was ready to venture out again.
Anticipating a spectacular sunset we grabbed cameras heading
up the nearby hill to catch it. On the way I slipped with one of my legs
folding and bending in directions I didn’t think were possible. Nicida was fearful of something broken. I looked at it; didn’t feel any pain; proceeded
to unfold my leg from its precarious position, got up and continued on. My angels were protecting me. We proceeded up the hill witnessing the
clouds turning red, pink, purple and gold.
We shot images like crazy.
Remembering to turn around the sky was even better. We were excited to have witnessed the
magnificent sunset.
Sunday morning I was preparing to cook up our
breakfast. I placed a pat of butter in
the frying pan then had to get something from the camper. When I returned the pat of butter was
missing… “I thought I put butter in the
pan”. Then I noticed a jay in the tree
above the picnic table. No more leaving
food open on the table.
Stopping at the Three Rivers Petroglyph site on the way out
was enlightening. There are over 21,000 petroglyphs of sunbursts, hands,
animals, and geometric designs. The
petroglyphs date between 900 and 1400 AD.
Much like the Chaco culture nobody knows where these people went or why
there is such a concentration of petroglyphs.
All I can say is ‘it has to be seen’.
We climbed in and around the petroglyphs for over two hours. Seemingly with each step taken I had to turn
around to relook at the petroglyph I had just viewed because each side of the
rock may have another petroglyph. Trails
guide the visitors up to the petroglyphs but once there we explored.
This was a great camping weekend.
Thank you for stopping by,
Mark
These pictures are incredible!
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