New Mexico Landscapes

New Mexico is a crossroads of the southwest and draws geographical character from all sides. There are high plains from west Texas and Oklahoma, and red buttes and painted deserts from Arizona. To the north is the southern end of the Rocky Mountains. From the middle of New Mexico, I could hardly decide which direction to head off in!

The high desert country near Santa Fe is a mix of geography, climate and culture. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, ten miles east of me, are snow-capped for much of the year, while the desert valleys desperately need water. The tourists hope for those lovely clear turquoise skies, while the locals (and photographers like me) look for the clouds. There are thousand-year-old roads out in the desert, while fragments of “old” Route 66 still cross the state. I live in a place of contrasts.

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are hundreds of millions of years old. The Jemez Mountains, a similar distance to the west, are only one or two million years of age—young and volcanic. The San Juan Basin is west of that—millions upon millions of years of sandstones layered with petrified trunks of trees and the bones of dinosaurs. Vast lava beds are nearby, some only thousands of years old.

When I moved to New Mexico I thought I would use my location as a launching point for excursions all over the Colorado Plateau. I was happily mistaken. There is more to see and experience near to me than I ever could have imagined. My list of places to explore in New Mexico never seemed to get shorter, or less interesting. Happy Trails!