We returned to Cruces Basin wilderness (just outside of it in the National Forest) up in far northern NM, tucked against the CO border, to get our fix of fall Aspen colors.
Our usual preferred spot at the end of the road was unavailable and we were rolling in around 9 PM on a Thursday night so we picked a temporary spot just to sleep for the night. The following morning we rolled back far enough to find a good spot, and it turned out to be a great choice…but for atypical reasons. Not long after setting up it started to rain, and it didn’t really stop until Sunday morning. The breeze was gentle at first but built over the weekend. The good thing is that the camp opened up to the SE and the wind consistently came from the NW so it was always filtered through the woods behind camp. The result was that we were heavily protected from the wind, and it blew consistently enough that we could bring our canopy right up to the edge of the fire pit so we could sit under the canopy but still be warmed by the fire. That’s a first for me. In all my years of camping, I’ve never before had a time when it would have been safe to put the canopy right up next to the fire like that. But the rain kept the canopy completely soaked all weekend, so there was never a danger of it drying out, getting hot and melting/burning.
We knew that rain was likely, so we brought a second smaller canopy to use for the cooking area. That was key, because we basically lived under the canopies and in the tents for two and a half days.
Most camping trips would be thoroughly ruined by that amount of rain, but we stayed so cozy and dry the whole time that it was still fantastic. It was awesome in a different way than usual. It was gratifying being able to not only function, but thrive in those conditions.
The boys brought cards and poker chips, that combined with the usual stick-seeking and whittling (we always bring home a half-dozen new sticks each trip) and reading books kept us occupied.
Also, the Aspens were perfect. We had been concerned that we missed the peak leaf coloring, but as we were rolling in on Thursday there were still plenty of patches that were green and few leaves were down on the ground, and when we rolled out on Sunday there was no green at all and half the leaves blanketed the ground from the wind we had received. So we had the best possible timing for this fall’s colors in that area.
