Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire New Mexico help

I grew up there and just spent 6 weeks hiking south to north through it.

It’s a stunningly gorgeous place; not all of it, but most of it. That said it’s got some real issues. It’s way to complex to go into here, and this isn’t the right place anyway to try to converse about anything serious. PM me if you want. But the short of it is, it’s a deeply complex, old, place, culturally. It hasn’t gone well for some of these cultures. Yes to the notion that Cuba and north of there is not a place to screw around acting, I dunno, entitled. On the other hand I had the best chile rellenos of my whole trip in Cuba.

Northern NM is often what you’d expect of Colorado, which makes sense as it’s the southern Rockies. The exception being the Farmington area. I’d say just avoid that.

Southern NM is a mixed bag. There’s some very genuine hardcore desert; I know, I just hiked it. If you are adventurous and physically able I’d say check out the Gila. Use Doc Campbells as a jump-off point and head up the Middle Fork canyon. I’ll put a pic below. Beyond stunning.

If you are car-touring exclusively the Gila is worth breezing through but you’ll just be on the edge of it and it’s way out of the way unless you are headed towards the Chiracawa’s in SE Arizona or something (also awesome). I’d focus on northern NM if I was car touring.

I know a lot about NM and will gladly give up some secrets in private conversation. Have a great trip. Oh- red or green, correct answer is green. And someone said Hatch chile can be mildly spicy. That’s true, but it can also be ferociously spicy! But nobody is gonna spring a surprise on you that way. If you are there in the fall, there will be folks roasting chiles in barrels at the roadside and the smell is divine.