Kai Huschke - 50 Hikes in Northern New Mexico (Explorers 50 Hikes)

OTHER BOOKS IN THE 50 HIKES SERIES

50 Hikes Around Anchorage

50 Hikes in Washington

50 Hikes in Oregon

50 Hikes in the Sierra Nevada

50 Hikes in Utah

50 Hikes in Orange County

50 Hikes in the Ozarks

50 Hikes in Michigan

50 Hikes in Michigans Upper Peninsula

50 Hikes on Michigan & Wisconsins North Country Trail

50 Hikes in Ohio

50 Hikes in West Virginia

50 Hikes in the North Georgia Mountains

50 Hikes in South Carolina

50 Hikes in Northern Virginia

50 Hikes in Eastern Pennsylvania

50 Hikes in New Jersey

50 Hikes in the Lower Hudson Valley

50 Hikes in the Berkshire Hills

50 Hikes in the White Mountains

50 Hikes in Vermont

50 Hikes in Coastal & Inland Maine

Over time trails can be rerouted and signs and landmarks altered. If you find that changes have occurred on the routes described in this book, please let us know so that corrections may be made in future editions. The author and publisher also welcome other comments and suggestions. Address all correspondence to:

50 Hikes Editor

The Countryman Press

P.O. Box 748

Woodstock, VT 05091

2007 by Kai Huschke

Second Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages.

ISBN 978-0-88150-680-8

ISBN 978-1-58157-546-0 (e-book)

Cover and interior photographs by the author

Series cover design by Steve Attardo

Cover photograph Ralph Lee Hopkins/National Geographic/Getty Images

Back cover photograph Kai Huschke

Published by The Countryman Press, P.O. Box 748, Woodstock, VT 05091

Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

To all those who experience grace, humbleness, and satisfaction by stepping through life led by a sense of wonder.

CONTENTS

N early ten years have elapsed since the first printing of this book. In that time, though on the surface all may look well, the life systems of northern New Mexico and the rest of the planet have been in the throes of human-caused climate change that has grown in volume, erratic nature, and intensity. Northern New Mexico has always been a place where geology, over spans of millions of years, has ushered in fantastical changes to geography, ecology, and human enterprise. But because of the excessiveness of destructive human enterprises, we see that people are not only redefining geography, ecology, and even the geology of places like northern New Mexico, but that the climate itself, the atmosphere that makes life possible on Earth, is gasping for air. All of these man-made, monumental shifts have occurred in a span of time that isnt even a nano-blip of a heartbeat when it comes to the Earths existence and its recipe for change unfolding now for billions of years. Through this book, northern New Mexico awaits your companionship, and I sincerely hope you squeeze every precious drop from it, but be aware that this unique place also needs your care at a time when it and its people are at a crossroads of survivability.

NORTHERN NEW MEXICO HOLDS A SURPRISING NUMBER OF BEAUTIFUL HIGH MOUNTAIN LAKES

N orthern New Mexico is a unique place, recognizable by name and identifiable on a map, even without artificial lines boxing in its physical features. This is not a static setting, however, but one that is ever-changing. It is rich in names, events, and stories told and retold by the people who have roamed, settled, warred, prospered, suffered, and lived in communities across this region, but also in its varied landscape and the immense history it possesses. To understand northern New Mexico, you must realize that it is ancient in people and place. This region was once part of a great sea, and over millions of years layers of sedimentary rock have created a stratified history. Volcanic eruptions, the birth of mountains, and a dome of ice also helped create the complex, diverse geology and geography we experience today.

There have also been many human layers reaching as far back as 20,000 years ago. Clovis and Folsom mannamed after the artifacts and animal bones found near Clovis and Folsom, New Mexicomoved along places like the Pecos River valley and the volcanic fields around Capulin. Their movement meant life in the game they tracked and the edible plants they gathered. The ancient human history here is recorded with an amazing depth of information, much more so than anywhere else in North America. The Anazazi people, descendants of Folsom man, crossed the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and were responsible for the very first cities in this country. What the land could provide in crops held these people in placean agrarian culture was taking its first steps. They lived in pit houses in the beginning, digging large holes covered by roofs made from timber beams, tree bark, and soil. They lived this way for hundreds of years, hand farming and supplementing other needs with hunting and gathering, and eventually with trade.

In A.D. 850 an Atlantis of sorts arose inside a desert canyon called Chaco that had no visible means of providing for a societys survival, let alone the creation of the greatest ancient civilization in North America. Chaco Canyon had civil engineering projects that lasted for 150 years, driven by a kingless society without slaves. Thousands upon thousands of timbers had to be hauled from distances as far as 60 miles without the aid of horses or oxen. And tens of thousands of stone blocks were shaped with rudimentary hand tools as part of the meticulous process of constructing stone walls. These were dry fitted and mud mortared with laser-like precision. Corners came together seamlessly and the straight, level walls stood as high as five stories. Many thousands of tons of dirt were excavated to create regal kivaspredecessors to pit houses that became places of worship and elder council. The Chacoan people created multiple pueblos (mini-cities) without written plans and without tools for measurement. From what archeologists can tell, all this work was more for the purpose of ceremony and spiritual function than year-round habitation. The results, much still visible today, were palace villages set against stunning orange and red sandstone walls and alongside massive boulders that littered the canyon floor.

There are many mysteries about the people of Chaco: the way they lived, how they lived, the mecca for trade that this place was, and why their civilization collapsed in less than 300 years. Why did structures with hundreds of rooms contain only a handful with fireplaces for cooking and heat in the cold winter months? Why was a lunar and solar calendar built on top of Fajada Butte in a hard-to-reach place over half a mile from the nearest pueblo? Why did a society without horses or wagons build some 400 miles of super roadway spiraling out from Chaco Canyon? Why are there few to no burial sites in a place that had thousands of inhabitants over hundreds of years?