New Mexico 26 September 2010

Dropped down into New Mexico (NM) from Colorado on Highway 84 near Chromo.  It was a relief at first to find good grazing land immediately but this changed and varied as we travelled as can be seen in the selction of photos below.

First impressions were of cattle grazing on reasonable pasture.  A significant change from the scrubby land of Utah and the little of Colorado we went through.

We were soon rapidly increasing altitude as we climbed through the Carson National Forest but not away from cattle grazing.

A grazing permittee's mountain grazing base at over 7,000 feet ASL in the National Forest.

While the sign looked impressive the corners were not so dramatic.

Nice highway driving through the forest.

Even at over 6,000 feet hay was conserved.  Typical stock handling yards.

A shock was awaiting out on the plateau above the Rio Grande River.  Unpalatable scrub and scattered shack settlement.

It appeared to go forever but when viewed on the map is not very large, being about 25 miles across as the road goes.

The bridge over the Rio Grande was completed about 1966.

It must have been a special feat.

This is the bridge.  The carrigeway is concrete.  While it may be an engineering feat it did not feel to secure standing on it with traffic crossing.  A normal utility vehicle crossing made it vibrate which made me wonder how long this can go on without metal fatigue occurring.  Bob Hall may have a comment on that.

The parking area was a market for local trinkets and some produce.

The river was little more than a samll discoloured river at the bottom of a deep and impressive canyon.

El Prado and Taos situated a few miles further east featured adobe buildings.  These were also being built on a nearby "lifestyle" subdivison.

Some of the livestock near Cimarron on the historic Santa Fe Trail.

This little chap had a large harem and took pride in overseeing them.    Frequently seen across the plains.

A large working ranch owned by the Boy Scouts Assocaition of America just out of Cimarron.

Some of the extensive range of very well maintained buidlings on Philmont Ranch.

It was not long before the extensvie plains lay before us to the east.

The extensive cattle grazing depended on stock water pumped by windmills filling very large round shallow tanks providing both storage and a drinking troughs.