The Booby Hatcher: Northern New Mexico Exploring

The Penitente Morada in Abiquiu, built in the 1700s but restored more recently.

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New Mexico is the fifth largest state in the U.S., behind Alaska, Texas, California, and Montana (Wyoming is 10^th). I’ve lived in Silver City for not quite two years and have barely begun learning the geography during local excursions (link, link, link), a short trip to east central New Mexico, and a little exploring in the Farmington area in the northwest (Bisti Badlands, Navajo archaeology, etc.). The area north and west of Santa Fe, with its long history and classic adobe architecture beckoned, and my friend Ed Sherline suggested meeting to have a look around. He’d planned a point-to-point bikepacking trip from Cumbres Pass, on the Colorado border, to Bandelier, south of Los Alamos, and needed someone to help shuttle his car, so I agreed to do that after a few days of photography.

If you search “northern vs. southern New Mexico” online, there are reports of a friendly rift, with northerners certain that theirs is the prettiest part of the state and southerners countering with its more subtle charms. That’s a little like arguing whether Led Zeppelin is better than the Beatles (we all know the answer, right?? right?). Northerners cite the alpine terrain and the rich cultural heritage and art scene. Southerners point to White Sands and Carlsbad (and mild winters), though for me the remote desert “sky islands” and abundant archaeology are equally compelling.

As it turned out, we chose one of the hottest weeks of the summer to be out, with triple-digit temperatures in the lowlands driving us onto the Los Alamos plateau to camp under ponderosa pines and limiting our functional time to early mornings. Despite pre-dawn starts, we were seldom in the right place in time to catch good light. We visited Espanola, Abiquiu, the Ghost Ranch, and Taos, drove a few back roads, met a mud adobe artist, did a spur-of-the-moment ascent of Wheeler Peak, New Mexico’s high point, swam in the Chama River, and ate a few good meals, but we didn’t get any great photographs. The summer light was harsh, and by mid-morning it was too hot to wander far from the car.

One hopes for a few “keepers” on photos excursions, but it doesn’t always pan out that way. The trips are still fun, though, and usually you find places worth returning to in different light or different seasons. Each fills in another piece of geography, and as your mental map grows, so do ideas about where to go next.