This is another belated addition, from a beautiful camping trip in September to far northern New Mexico. The Cruces Basin Wilderness nearly touches the Colorado border, about equidistant between paved highways 285 (to Antonito) and 84/17 (through Chama to Cumbres Pass). On the map below, the blue circle is the approximate location of the wilderness, and the red highlighted roads delineated the nearest paved roads.
That’s quite a large area of dirt roads, much of it beautiful high-country (9,000 to 11,000 ft) of mixed pine and aspen forests interspersed with grazing meadows. I’ve written about it before; the Brazos Ridge overlook is just to the west of the wilderness, and Osier station is to the north.
On the Southeast side, there’s a finger of national forest that protrudes into the wilderness to provide access. We camped right at the end of that road, within sight of the trailhead into the wilderness.
It should be said that there are plenty of great dispersed campsites to be had in this area and we nearly stopped at several of them. The only thing keeping us going was our desire to check out the wilderness trail at some point during the weekend. We figured that if those closer sites were taken we could always backtrack. It was prime hunting season and we saw numerous hunting parties along the drive but there’s enough space for everyone without feeling crowded.
A few day hikers parked at the trailhead over the course of the weekend, but luckily no one else was camping anywhere near us. This time we had a loud camp: six boys, three adults. Carissa was boldly solo-parenting three boys and a dog so large it might as well be a wolf. Watching them pack into their crossover SUV with all their gear is like watching a clown car scene—and that’s even without Mike in there.
The aspens were perfect. Brilliant yellow, yet without any hint of the impending winter austerity that one feels later in the season. Moreover, the breeze stayed steady throughout the weekend to provide a continuous gentle shimmer of the leaves, and the wonderful sounds that go with it.
I went on a bit of a run to check out the wilderness farther to the northeast. The whole area is stunning, with streams running through meadows, boulders interspersed, some cliffs rising to the north. There are a fair amount of grazing cattle down in there, but they didn’t detract from the experience because there’s plenty of open space in that valley.
This map includes the drive starting where the pavement ends. It’s a decent amount of time on dirt roads. All but the last short section is completely fine for a 2WD sedan. The finger that protrudes into the wilderness needs maybe a bit more clearance than a sedan, but bold sedan-drivers might be a-ok.
