Otero Mesa - Cornudas Mountains Area

Near the New Mexico - Texas border there is a very large mesa with the largest remaining Chihuahuan desert grassland in the US. There are beautifully stark volcanic intrusions at the south end of the mesa and evidence of longtime inhabitation by Native Americans. This is Otero Mesa; a patchwork of land owned by ranchers, the state of New Mexico, the BLM and Fort Bliss Military Reservation.

I spent three days here with a group of volunteers from New Mexico Wilderness Alliance to inventory some BLM managed areas. We were documenting their potential for wilderness classification (as defined by the BLM).

We camped at the foot of Alamo Mountain, west of the Cornudas Mountains. There are many petroglyphs scattered throughout the Cornudas, but I did not get a chance to go view them. That will be saved for a recreational visit. There are also ruins of a Butterfield stage station around here, but a visit to those will also have to wait.

The first day we went to a unit near Cornudas Mountain. This area is already a designated "Area of Critical Environmental Concern" (ACEC). When we got there, we found that we needed a permit to enter. We didn't have a permit. We were able to only document human (ranching) impacts and natural characteristics outside the ACEC, and couldn't access Cornudas Mountain itself. Part of the mountain is on private land as well.

Cornudas Mountain from the ACEC boundary. The peak in the distance on the left is Wind Mountain.

The next day we went to an area around the McVeigh Hills and Black Mountain. There were some good views of the Cornudas Mountains from there. In the following picture, Chatfield Mountain is on the left. It straddles the New Mexico - Texas border and the Texas part (including the peak) is on private land. Peeking out from the right side of Chatfield is San Antonio Mountain in Texas. On the right is Wind Mountain in New Mexico. The main reason I took this photo was to show what overgrazing has done. Wherever cattle have overgrazed, the native grasses get replaced with greasewood and mesquite. The grassland soil is very thin and fragile.

Here is a closer view of the same three mountains.

On the way back to camp I stopped at a good eastern prospect. The Guadalupe Mountains were catching the afternoon sun off in the distance. The cliff on the right edge is El Capitan. Guadalupe Peak is to El Cap's left and is the highest point in Texas.

On our third day we broke camp and drove back to the McVeigh hills unit to tie up some inventory loose ends, then started the drive back north. We reached the north edge of Otero Mesa by sunset and had a great view of the southwest edge of the Sacramento Mountains as they turned pink. If you look carefully you will see three light specks on the left half of the ridge. They are the National Solar Observatory and Apache Point Observatory.

From there, it was a short run up highway 54 to highway 82 and home.

Agua Chiquita

I took a drive down FS 64 in the lincoln National Forest to see how Agua Chiquita was doing in this prolonged drought. This rito has a two mile stretch that is designated as a wildlife improvement area, and funds from several sources (including Trout Unlimited) have been raised to introduce Rio Grande Cutthroats there.

The road is one of the best maintained gravel roads in the Lincoln NF.  It sees a lot of traffic, since it passes through the tiny villages of Sacramento and Weed. It was also chock-a-block with hunting camps, since there were 1,500 deer permits issued in the Lincoln for November 10-14.

Before dropping down into Agua Chiquita Canyon, you drive through the Scott Able fire burn scar. This fire occurred in 2000, and more than a decade later, the main vegetation is still just grasses.

Scott Able burned areas

This was the first big fire I experienced after moving here. It roared down the canyon in one night, reaching Sacramento and Weed and burning homes. It didn't get much press because it happened at the same time as the big Cerro Grande fire that burned neighborhoods in Los Alamos. I remember watching the smoke and flames from Apache Point Observatory that first night.


The drought has hit Agua Chiquita pretty hard. The protected area is the only section with any water  until you get close to where Agua Chiquita joins with the Rio Peñasco (all private land).  The protected area is fed by two springs. I can't imagine it will be able to support too many trout. Still, it is a pretty area, even when the grass is dry and the stream is iced over.