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Río Grande del Norte National Monument

High, wild and wonderful

By Kristen Davenport

Standing on top of a 3 million-yearold volcanic cone in northern Taos County, there’s not much for the eye to see but sagebrush, piñon pine, rugged rock, gnarly juniper and the distant white peaks of Colorado. It’s dry and the wind whistles high. The landscape is lonely. Someone from wetter and greener climates might say it’s desolate.

Thanks to a stroke of Barack Obama’s presidential pen in 2013, this high desert landscape will remain this way — mostly empty of human signs. Río Grande del Norte National Monument, which spans 242,555 acres — most of them in Taos County — is the nation’s largest national monument. That designation protects from development the arid, high mountain Taos Plateau and the deep gorge that the Río Grande cuts from the Colorado border to where the canyon opens up in Pilar. That means no fracking, no drilling, no mining, no suburbs, no wind farms, no new roads, no power lines. Rain and wind will be the primary factors shaping this region for centuries to come. The monument designation also protects low-impact

human uses of this land — collecting piñon nuts, rafting, wood gathering and fishing the remote waters of the Río Grande Gorge. “It’s one of those places that politics hasn’t been able to touch — it’s a true success story,” says Nick Streit, a lifelong Taos resident and fisherman who owns the Taos Fly Shop, a landmark in town since 1980. Streit’s father opened the fly-fishing shop before retiring to guide fisherman in the gorge, and Streit grew up roaming the (now protected) canyon. Later he helped coordinate and lead the campaign to get the area declared a national monument, which protects it for generations to come. Encompassing land in Taos and Rio Arriba Counties, the monument designation put nearly a fifth of all land in Taos County under federal protection, making it arguably one of the wildest lands in the country.

“There is no greater treasure than America’s outdoors, and in Northern New Mexico, you’re going to get the very best example of that,” says Pamela Mathis, the new field manager for the Taos office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees the monument. Mathis moved to New Mexico from Tucson this spring, after falling in love with the Río Grande Gorge during a rafting trip two years ago. “The peace and serenity, the birds and wildlife — it’s a joyful thing,” she says.

During the summer of 2020, the monument saw an influx of visitors, even though its campgrounds were closed due to COVID19. “The pandemic has pushed people into the outdoors like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” Streit says. “But the monument is still really isolated. Most of the time, I think it’s crowded if I see one other person. That’s the beauty of the monument. It’s the great equalizer — we can all own it together and you can find a little spot down there and call it your own.”

The campgrounds within the monument have opened back up, as have the visitor centers. Although the gorge and the river are the main attractions of the monument, there are plenty of other recreational opportunities, including mountain biking and rock climbing. Hunting, fishing, hiking and collecting piñon nuts and firewood are also allowed here. Judy Culver, BLM Taos assistant field manager for the monument, says everything will be open this year — although it remains to be seen whether the monument will hold the guided hikes or interpretive nature walks it has hosted in the past.

“There are some really nice rock climbing areas,” Culver says, and online interactive maps to help you plan your climbs. There are also petroglyphs, many of them uncharted, but climbers need to be sure to stay away from archaeological sites. In spring, some areas of the monument are closed because golden and bald eagles nest there. Check with the BLM if you have any questions about what will be open or closed when you want to visit.

The national monument designation did not affect existing roads in the area, most of which are dirt or gravel tracks crisscrossing the wide plateau west of the gorge to US 285. You might want to avoid the tracks if it’s muddy, however.

Flora, fauna and geology

The monument, which includes some critical wildlife habitat, is home to large herds of pronghorn antelope, deer and elk. A herd of protected bighorn sheep that inhabits the canyon has increased dramatically in recent years, and sheep can often be

spotted from the roadside.

The monument also contains extensive archaeological sites with elaborate petroglyphs, several ancient volcanoes, and thousands of acres of big sagebrush plateau. Those expanses of big sagebrush — Artemisia tridentata, a relative of the sunflower — are quite possibly the best places on the planet during a summer rainstorm, when you can breathe in the incredible woodsy-sweet scent of wet sagebrush.

This area of Northern New Mexico has been quite geologically active. The Río Grande actually flows along a continental rift, where North America is ever-so-slowly coming apart. (Yes, we might be two continents in a few million years.) That rift has also created volcanic activity in the area, some relatively recently. The hot springs that bubble up in the canyon bottom are a sure sign of geological activity, says Culver.

The monument holds several volcanoes — most of them active between 1.8 and 4 million years ago. They deposited layers of volcanic rock that the Río Grande now slowly wears down, cutting through millions of years of geological history. That history can be seen in the canyon walls. If you plan to schedule a rafting trip, you might want to ask about your river guide’s geological knowledge before you sign up.

As the canyon crosses into New Mexico from Colorado, it is about 150 feet deep, but at points along its next 100-mile course south, it drops to 800 feet. Just north of Taos, you can hop into the river at the John Dunn Bridge to run the Class 5 whitewater challenge known as the Taos Box, New Mexico’s biggest whitewater adventure. But many stretches of the río are peaceful or dotted with riffles and little rapids, perfectly suited to kids and those more interested in sightings of river otters and bighorn sheep than tumbling over burly volcanic rocks.

More than one hundred springs (cold, warm and hot) sit along the Río Grande, with several well-known soaking spots in the canyon bottom near Taos. Both Manby (aka Stagecoach) Hot Springs and Black Rock Springs are a quick walk from the rim along well-worn paths. (Warning: swimsuits are optional out here.) To reach Stagecoach Springs, head toward the Gorge Bridge and turn right onto Tune Road just before the bridge. Then follow the lefts to the parking area. Please be respectful if you take this private road (in recent years, increasing numbers of visitors have aggravated residents living near the springs), and don’t head out if it’s muddy. Black Rock Springs is near the John Dunn Bridge west of Arroyo Hondo, but monument managers warn of a parking problem in that area. “There are only three parking spots — don’t park in the road and block traffic,” Culver warns. There is more parking across the river, requiring a bit of a hike to the hot water. Petroglyphs in the vicinity of both hot springs suggest that modern humans are not the only ones who have enjoyed a bonewarming soak here. As for lesser-known springs, you have to find someone willing to tell you where they are. Good luck with that — New Mexicans have to keep a few secret places to themselves, right?

At altitude

While the great river is the key recreational feature of the monument, geologically it is only a small part of the Taos Plateau and the inactive volcanoes that rise out of it. Most of the volcanoes

are dotted with old roads and trails, and all can be climbed.

Ute Mountain tops out at 10,093 feet, the highest point in the monument. There is no official trail to the top, but with wide-open vistas and easy climbing, you can get there just by following your own sense of direction. From the top, you can see most of the monument, including its most prominent feature, the Río Grande Gorge.

Domed San Antonio Mountain, which arches gently to the west of Ute Mountain, is another extinct volcano, as are several other nearby peaks in the monument: Cerro de la Olla, Cerro Montoso and Cerro del Aire.

Trail mix

The monument’s Orilla Verde Visitor Center is about half an hour north of Española, near Pilar. From there, take a left and head about 5 miles upstream to the Taos Junction Bridge, where in early summer, fearless teenagers can be found jumping into the deep water below. (Note: We don’t recommend this activity, but it’s fun to watch.)

Several trails leave from the Orilla Verde area, and five campgrounds line the river here. Early morning visitors can often see beavers and otters out for a swim. The stretch between Taos Junction Bridge and Pilar is mostly flat water and safer for swimming. Do watch out for poison ivy along the banks, however. The monument’s Wild Rivers Recreation Area has several trails. On many Saturdays during the summer season, BLM staff lead hikes here, pandemic permitting.

A long time coming

Although the monument is less than a decade old, the idea for protecting the gorge and the Taos Plateau goes back several decades, Streit says. A group in Taos started trying to obtain protection for this amazing landscape back in the 1990s. Thencongressman Bill Richardson formed a committee to look at putting the Río Grande Gorge and surrounding lands into a conservation area.

But the acequia associations and economic interests feared something would be lost. “There was a lot of rhetoric at the time that if the land was protected as a monument, you can’t hunt, you can’t fish, you lose your traditional uses,” Streit says. “[Radio host] Glenn Beck even said that on the air. None of that was true.” Even so, the effort went quiet for a while.

Then Democratic New Mexico senator Jeff Bingaman, now retired, put forth legislation to protect the area. This time the local population — acequia associations, county government and others — rallied around the cause. When Taos Pueblo gave its blessing to the project, a final hurdle was cleared.

Streit now hopes to teach his own kids to fish these remote waters. And since the reintroduction of the river otter and the closure of the Molycorp Mine upstream, there are more and bigger fish, he says. “The fishing is the best it’s ever been in my lifetime. I’ve fished all over the world, and this canyon is still my favorite place.”

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2021-05-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

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Santa Fe New Mexican