Jack's Creek Campground and the Pecos Wilderness

I had many reasons to head to the upper Pecos: fall colors, full moon, hiking trails into the wilderness and trout. As a bonus, the Pecos River and wilderness are less than one tank of gas from home. Plus, this area was recommended by Argonaut20 over on WanderTheWest. So, on September 27 I headed to Jack's Creek campground to make that my base camp for a few days of exploring. The campground is at the north end of the road that goes up the Pecos Canyon and has trailheads that take you into the Pecos Wilderness.  Even on a Thursday afternoon the campground was about one-third full. I picked a site at the end of the upper loop that offered the most seclusion, and settled in.


The fall colors were not yet at their peak around Jack's Creek.

I hadn't had a chance to camp around full moon in several years. Full moon is less useful time for the astronomy projects I worked on, but it is valuable engineering time, and I always had to be on hand to organize the night-time engineering activities. So, this night I enjoyed being free to watch the moon peek out from behind the clouds that brought a few light rain showers. Unfortunately, my point-and-click camera  could not capture the moonlit landscape.

After a good night's sleep and a leisurely bacon and egg breakfast, Katie-the-collie and I headed down the trail to the Pecos River. We poked around, investigating various pools, and generally enjoying the day. We made it a little way into the wilderness, following the river, until brewing afternoon thunderstorms made us turn back to camp. This trail is a bear highway, based on the amount of scat I saw. I didn't take the fly rod for this hike, but planned to return the day after next.

The Pecos River

A decapitated old puffball along the way

A nice rock outcropping along the Pecos

Looking south down the Pecos Canyon. Storms are brewing.

A little color in the mountains, but some aspens had dropped their leaves before they fully turned color.

Not long after getting back to camp a thunderstorm hit. At first there was a lot of thunder and small hail, then the storm center moved north and there was a steady rain drumming on the camper roof, with thunder in the distance. That was like a narcotic to me, and I drifted into a nice nap until the rain stopped.

Later in the day and into the night the weekend campers started arriving. When I got up the next morning, the campground was almost full. On the plus side, everyone was responsible and friendly. There were no generators running late into the night, and no out-of-control parties.

After breakfast the next day I packed up the daypack and Katie and I headed out on trail 25 into the wilderness. A note for others who plan to hike this trail: there are a few unofficial access trails that go upslope from the upper loop of the campground that will save you up to two miles of hiking outside the wilderness boundary, since the main trail parallels the campground and the trailhead is at the lower end. The unofficial trails look well-used and don't show erosion, so I think they are probably okay to use.

Katie and I followed the trail to Round Mountain, enjoyed the views and wandered around a bit before the afternoon thunderstorms started threatening again.

The wilderness boundary

A view from the shoulder of Round Mountain

A closer view, looking down the Pecos Canyon.

Storms a-brewing

As we headed back, we encountered three different herds of cattle being driven out of the wilderness (yes, the USFS has cattle leases inside the wilderness here). As Katie and I stood off to the side of the trail waiting for one herd to pass, I struck up a conversation with a cowboy. He said the Forest Service was making them drive the cattle out earlier than usual. I asked if that was because they thought it was going to be an early winter. The cowboy shook his head and said he thought it was "just a urinating match" between the Forest Service and the ranchers. His words.  I thought it was odd that they would choose a weekend to drive the herds out, since there were a lot of hikers on the trail. Maybe the cattlemen deliberately wanted hiker conflicts as part of the "urinating  match"? That's pure speculation on my part, though.

My view on the hike back was of a horse's rear end.

The next day, I went back to the Pecos River with my fly rod. There were only a few afternoon clouds and the water was clear, so the trout were in hiding. I'm sure they saw me coming a mile away.  The only luck I had was when a cloud covered the Sun and I drifted a Madam X by an undercut bank. A rainbow darted out and took the fly. It was just a 10-incher, and it released itself while I was fumbling with the camera to snap a picture. You'll just have to believe me. If I said it was a 20-incher, then you would be right to be skeptical. In spite of the slow fishing, it was a glorious afternoon on the Pecos River and I didn't get back to camp until a little after sunset. I'll bet the fishing picked up at sunset, but I didn't want to hike back in the dark along the bear highway.

A beautiful day on the Upper Pecos.

Hiking back to camp.

When I got back to camp, I was surprised to find that I had the Upper Loop entirely to myself. While I was out, everyone had packed up and left. Well, it was Sunday, so I shouldn't have been surprised. The only sounds that night were from the Black Bear Percussion Ensemble beating out some rhythms at the dumpsters.

The next day, October 1, it was time to clean up around the dumpsters (the bears didn't eat cucumber peelings - interesting), break camp and head for home. But, I heeded Argonaut20's advice and took a detour on the road to Elk Mountain. It's a long drive on a dirt road that was mostly in good shape, but the recent rains created some deep puddles. Still, it was two-wheel drive until near the end of the road. The Elk Mountain summit is 11,400 feet and provides some great views.

Looking east from the summit

Looking northwest - toward the Pecos Wilderness.

Looking south at the aspens showing some color. An old fire came right up to the summit.

Hey, Argo, do you know anything about this memorial at the summit?

Then, it was time to head south out of the Pecos Canyon, down through Encino, Corona, Tularosa, Carrizozo and Cloudcroft to home. It was a great, relaxing trip and I left plenty of other trails to explore.