Wild Rivers
We went to the Wild Rivers Recreation Area yesterday and spent about 3 hours hiking down and up the canyon and the rest of the day in the car.
The Wild Rivers Recreation Area is about 35 miles north of Taos, which makes it about 85 miles in total for us coming from Santa Fe. Here are two maps to give you an idea what I’m talking about. First an overview which shows the Wild Rivers area and our home on the same map:
And, second, a map which shows you the target area in more detail:
To avoid the midday heat and make sure that we are not going to kill the dog, we tried to get an early start and left home at about 7:30am. While driving up north towards the Wild Rivers Recreation area, you pass the Rio Grande Gorge. The river has sliced a deep canyon (about 800ft) through the high plains of Northern New Mexico. It’s an amazing view to see this deep, deep canyon in the middle of nowhere extend for miles and miles. After about 2 hours of driving we arrive at the Wild Rivers Recreation area and make our way to the visitor center and on to the “La Junta” trail where the Rio Grande and the Red River merge.
It’s a steep hike down from the overlook to the bottom of the canyon. There are several areas where we have to carry the dog over ladders or stairs leading down. We descend about 800ft and finally reach a flat area with the “Red River” to our left and the “Rio Grande” to the right. The water level in both rivers clearly shows that we are in a severe drought. If I interpret the markings on the river banks correctly, the water should be a lot higher now.
We continue our way towards the point were the two rivers merge. As we reach the area we start looking for a place to rest for a while. Some other hikers are down at the side of the rivers and we decide to cross a small bridge over the Red River to get to the side of the merged streams.
It’s the very first time for the dog to see a large body of water and we wonder how he will react. Thirsty, he runs to a place where Candice stands on a rock almost in the river. Of course he has to slip and of course he has to find a spot where the river is deep enough to not allow him to stand in the water. Frisco completly submerges and has this terrified look on his face. It takes him a few seconds to go back to the shore.
Fifteen minutes later we are back on the trail and make our way alongside the Rio Grande towards the North. It’s gorgeous and the hazy weather makes it a lot easier to hike. This place must be cooking when the sun is not hiding behind clouds.
After an hour we hit the “Small Arsenic Trail” which leads back up to the Rim. The signs says “0.8 miles” up to the rim, however it fails to mention that the path is constantly climbing.
Candice of course has to run up the hill (!) whereas Tobias and Frisco take it a bit more easy. This is definitely the hardest part of the hike yet and it will take us a while to arrive back up at the rim.
From there it is another 45 mins back to the car where we arrive about 3 hrs after we started.
