SantaFe.com

The U.S. Forest Service has filed suit to remove a barricade blocking access to a popular hiking trail in Tesuque.

A nearby landowner first erected the 7-foot steel fence in March 2004 and has reinforced it with locks, barbed wire and chains in the years since. The barrier blocks a dirt road, at the terminus of County Road 72C on Griego Hill, that has for decades been used by residents to access a Big Tesuque trailhead.

The fence was the subject of a heated meeting last summer in which the landowner’s representatives accused neighbors of committing “terrorist” activities by trying to take...

Friday, July 18, 2008
by Raam Wong • Journal Santa Fe

Let’s assume all the basic criteria have been met. You slept well last night, didn’t drink too much, and you ate a healthy breakfast this morning. You’ve told someone where you’re going and what you’ll be doing. You wear your seatbelt. You stretch. In fact, these are the habits you keep for your outdoor life and they’ve served you well. But do you know what poison ivy looks like? Did you know I once got it so bad it got infected and I walked around—not itching—but in horrible pain for two weeks? Well, I did, and you can bet that I’ve kept my radar on for that God forsaken plant ever since.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008
by Toner Mitchell • SantaFe.com

Pajarito Mountain ski area plans to be making snow by winter 2009-10. “We’re fullspeed ahead,” said Tom Long, general manager of Pajarito Mountain, the last ski area in New Mexico without snowmaking equipment.

The mountain is coming off its second-straight season of consistent snow conditions. Over the previous eight winters, however, spotty snowfall brought financial strain. For four of those eight seasons, Pajarito was open for less than a week or not at all.

“That’s probably our biggest motivator (for snowmaking),” Long said. “You have this facility that’s sitting here, and this...

Saturday, July 12, 2008
by Phil Parker • Journal Santa Fe

At Heron Lake this week, a baby piñon jay stood perched at the tallest point of a juniper plant, about 10 feet high. It bobbled awkwardly, spreading its wings before retracting them in a flash.

It was trying to learn how to fly.

“His dad’s around here somewhere watching him,” said Siscily Lederman, who has worked for Heron Lake State Park for three years.

The task looked arduous, though not when compared to the ospreys who also spend their summers by the lake. Lederman watched the jay through binoculars, then turned around, craned her neck and fixed on an osprey nest. At the same time as...

Saturday, July 12, 2008
by Phil Parker • Journal Santa Fe

Go to the Cimarron River for the fishing, but bring your hiking boots — or vice versa.

With gorgeous hiking and a great chance at seeing bears, deer and elk, even the most focused angler would do well to check out Cimarron Canyon’s trails. And hikers with even a casual interest in fishing may want to wet a line in one of New Mexico’s premier trout waters.

The tiny Cimarron River, one of only a few in New Mexico that lead to the Mississippi River rather than the Rio Grande, is known far and wide for its large, healthy trout.

“I was at Sportsman’s Warehouse in Albuquerque the other day, and...

Saturday, July 12, 2008
by Bryce Petersen, Jr. • Journal Santa Fe

Santa Fe National Forest officials unveiled a proposal on Thursday that would cut in half the roads available to motorized travel and practically eliminate off-road or off-trail use of motorized vehicles.

And then they stepped back to brace themselves for public reaction.

“I understand that every time we make a big change, people are really emotional about it,” said Forest Supervisor Daniel Jiron. “We’re trying to leave Santa Fe National Forest for future generations in the best shape possible.”

The public outcry already has been heard for at least two years, the time that has lapsed...

Friday, July 11, 2008
by Jackie Jadrnak • Journal Santa Fe

While the federal Bureau of Land Management closed down some 530 acres near La Cienega last week that had been used by the public to shoot up cholla, petroglyphs, TV sets and computers, the agency now is talking with the New Mexico National Guard, the state Department of Game and Fish and the National Rifle Association about opening a 40- to 80-acre regulated shooting range a stone’s throw away.

The proposed new shooting range would be open to the public, as well as benefiting all the agencies involved. The National Guard could do smallfirearms training there instead of busing its...

Thursday, July 10, 2008
by Polly Summar • Journal Santa Fe

To most people familiar with the cutthroat trout, the fish is the embodiment of the pristine, the quarry that lures us beyond our cities, to the ends of dirt roads, miles upon miles up forested mountain creeks where the likelihood of meeting a hungry bear surpasses our chances of encountering another human being. This jewel of a fish—with color variations of an almost infinite blending of orange, yellow, red, turquoise, maroon, and green—may be the ultimate proof of nature’s superiority as an artist. As though bent on driving this point home, our state fish seems happy to take an angler’s...

Tuesday, July 8, 2008
by Toner Mitchell • SantaFe.com

The absence of the Sabinoso wildlands in eastern San Miguel County from most road maps is perhaps fitting given the forlornness of its hulking mesas and dry streambeds during these long, dusty days of summer.

It exists near where the high-desert plains along N.M. 104 east of Las Vegas abruptly sink and form sandstone canyons more than 1,000 feet deep.

Ranchers once called this place home, as evidenced by abandoned homesteads still filled with items like a rickety rocking chair and a yellowing copy of “Casper, the Friendly Ghost.”

Largely untrammeled by man, the Sabinoso is now close to...

Monday, July 7, 2008
by Raam Wong • Journal Santa Fe

A pair of human spider monkeys stood on a wall, eyeing the top of another wall about eight feet away.

“Do it,” Jaret Salas said. “That’s huge.”

“I think I could to it,” Josh Shinavier said. “But it’s the mental obstacle.”

These two parkour enthusiasts met earlier this week at Fort Marcy Park to throw their bodies around. To the relief of a gawking reporter nearby taking notes, neither tried that particular precision jump. Salas did a flip off the stage instead, while Shinavier hustled in different directions, using his hands to vault up and over the stone obstacles of varying heights...

Saturday, July 5, 2008
by Phil Parker • Journal Santa Fe