New Mexico Archives ~ Page 2 of 2 ~ Rambling ranger

I thought I was used to driving on narrow roads. After all, I live at the end of the infamous McCarthy Road in Alaska.

The McCarthy Road

The McCarthy Road has a reputation. It used to be considered the worst road in Alaska. Barely over one lane wide, the road had features like Hug-A-Boulder Bend, a dangerous blind corner.

The Kuskulana Bridge, a remnant of the old Copper River & Northwestern Railway, was another challenge. When it was built in 1910 the Kuskulana Bridge was the 17th-highest bridge in the United States.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park — Kuskulana Bridge

Thirty years ago, the Kuskulana crossing was just a couple of planks wide with no guard rails. Imagine crossing then, with the river over 200 feet below and nothing to stop you if you misjudged the width of that plank! People used spotters to make sure their wheels stayed on the boards while crossing this perilous chasm. Most people turned back.

We still had Hug-A-Boulder Bend when I moved to McCarthy, but the Kuskulana had been upgraded to a full one lane. With guard rails! The road still had a reputation, though, for potholes, mudslides, and railroad spikes turning up in people’s tires. It would still take a good 3 to 4 hours to travel its sixty miles. In the summertime. On a good day.

Times have changed. Hug-A-Boulder Bend is no more, blasted away, no longer a safety hazard. The road is wider, mostly 2 lanes now. Part of it was chip sealed, which actually made it worse when the frost heaves hit after the first year of smooth sailing. Although flats are still common, nobody finds spikes in their tires anymore. The road is graded more often, although it still can get a bit rough due to potholes, mudslides, and beaver dams. These days it only gets really bad in the winter. But it would still be considered narrow by most folks.

the narrow dirt McCarthy Road — The McCarthy Road is still potholed and narrow.

The Denali Park Road

Another narrow road I know well is the Park Road in Denali National Park. I drove this road frequently when I worked as a ranger there for a couple of summers. Sections of the road are so narrow and hazardous that a driver needs to pull over at the wide spots to scout the upcoming curves and wait for approaching traffic. You have to go through a training session before you are allowed to drive on this narrow road.

That road is even narrower now. It is literally sliding right off the cliff because of melting permafrost. Last summer heavy rains exacerbated the problem. Mudslides stranded about 300 visitors for a couple of days until road crews could clear the debris. This summer the narrow road may not be open at all past Mile 41 as park and highway personnel search for a longer-term solution for the worst section.

the narrow Denali National Park Road — The Denali Park road may be closed this summer due to geohazards caused by permafrost melting.

I thought I was used to driving on narrow roads. But this winter’s travels have put a new spin on narrow for me.

Northern California Coast Roads

This month I’m housesitting on a narrow, winding road in Mendocino County, California. I have to slow down to 20 mph for the last half mile, then completely stop and throw the truck into first gear to negotiate the steep hairpin turn into the driveway. The road is so narrow that turning out of the driveway takes both lanes and I still nearly hit the massive redwood on the other side of the road every time I leave the house. The convoluted terrain along the northern California Coast means most of the roads around here are like that, extremely narrow and squiggly.

Like Denali, geohazards such as mudslides and roads falling off cliffs complicate matters here. Some of the ways climate change impacts these roads include rising sea level and increased severity of storms.

Narrow roads in Mendocino County — Take a sharp left switchback at the mailboxes.

These narrow roads all feel like four-lane highways, though, when compared to the Bursum Road. This New Mexico road leads to the tiny mining town of Mogollon.

The Road to Mogollon

This is Gila River country. the mountains where Geronimo and his band lived. I can understand why he was the last chief to surrender. It’s incredibly wild terrain; challenging, rough and remote. The first time I traveled in these mountains I learned to respect just how rough and remote they could be. This year’s travels made me respect them all the more.

Mogollon is kind of a ghost town. A couple of the old buildings have been refurbished into summer businesses, and a few residents live there year-round, but walking through on a winter’s day, you probably won’t see another soul.

Which is a good thing. I certainly wouldn’t want to run into anyone coming the other way on most of the Bursum Road. It’s a one-lane road hung on the edge of a cliff, and it’s relentless. It’s a long way in between spots wide enough to pull over enough to let another car pass in the opposite direction and it’s one blind curve after another for miles and miles. It was the scariest road I’ve ever driven.

Narrow road in Mogollon, NM — The road to Mogollon is dangerous and scary!

I couldn’t find a spot wide enough to turn around safely. I was praying, “Please let me survive this. Please, don’t let there be anyone coming the other way. I promise I’ll never come here again. This trip is not worth my life.” Just to make it even more challenging, the late afternoon sun was in my eyes on the way out. The prayers changed to “Lord, please don’t let me drive over a cliff.”

I was lucky. No one was coming the other way until I crossed the cattle guard and hit a wider pavement and safety. Right then I passed a big pickup pulling a trailer full of mining equipment headed to Mogollon. If I had left less than 5 minutes later I would have run into him at the most hazardous curve on the road. Perfect timing! Whew! The Universe heard my prayers! The Bursum Road was the scariest road I had ever driven.

I didn’t take any pictures to show you just how scary it is. There was nowhere that felt safe enough to stop. But here’s a link if you want to travel this road virtually. It’s the only paved road I’ve ever traveled that I wouldn’t drive again because I feel the risk is too great. This is one scary road.

A Little Advice

Some advice for folks traveling narrow roads, wherever they may find them. SLOW DOWN around the curves!! PLEASE slow down. Someone might be coming the other way and on most of these roads, you’re a long way from help. Just sayin’.

Thanks, Amy, for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, “Narrow”.

I recently had the great good fortune to visit Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. It’s a special place.

The refuge is an incredible winter destination for those of you who are fellow nature addicts. The Bosque is bird nerd heaven.

You’ve probably seen the pictures. Thousands of snow geese and sandhill cranes, that’s what the Bosque is famous for.

And for good reason. The cranes are everywhere – in the marshes, in the fields, flying overhead.

The snow geese are a little more elusive. My first day in I didn’t see any at all. But when you do find them, you find a lot! Thousands. The snow geese travel in huge flocks of hundreds, even thousands, of birds as they move from pond to pond.

When I was there, the geese were spending most of their time on the other side of the river, where they didn’t have to deal with tourists like me.

The Entrance Pond

But there is one time and place where you are very likely to find them. No guarantees. (I did get completely skunked by the geese my first day.) There is a long, shallow. marshy pond located shortly after you cross into the refuge on Old Highway 1. Flocks of geese show up just before sunrise and take off soon after the light hits the water.

You’ll find the cranes, there, too. After all, the cranes are everywhere. The shallow pond is a great roost for them at night. It’s deep enough to keep the coyotes at bay but shallow enough to sleep in.

It’s a tradition for the bird nerds who frequent the Bosque. It’s kind of like watching the sunset in Key West, a crowd gathering to applaud an everyday natural phenomenon.

Lines of photographers gather along the berm next to the pond, like combat fisherman in Alaska, tripod to tripod. Instead of salmon, they’re trying to catch that perfect shot, waiting for that sometime moment when all the geese take off at once. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does…

Photographing Bosque del Apache — Bird Nerds

These are die-hard nature photographers. I was part of the maybe 3% who DIDN”T have a lense as long as your leg.

Most of these folks come from a different tax bracket than I do. I overheard a conversation -“Well, I didn’t get the upgrade to the balcony room for the Antarctica trip because they wanted another 25,000 and I thought that was a little steep.” Uh-huh. No wonder she has that big long lense and I don’t.

As a photographer, I found it a great place to practice, and learn the art of nature photography. Low light and lots of movement are difficult taskmasters, teaching new skills in the art of capturing the essential moment. Practice, practice. I could see my photos improve with every day I had to learn here.

Refuge Roads

If your lense isn’t long enough to get that National Geographic shot at the pond, head on up to the other refuge roads and trails. There are plenty of other birds to see here, too.

Nestled in farming country along the Rio Grande River, the Bosque provides a patchwork of different habitats. From grasslands to marshes to patches of woodland, it’s a peaceful, pastoral setting.

Red=tailed Hawk — Immature Red-Tailed Hawk

Bosque del Apache is intensively managed to recreate conditions similar to what was found along the Rio Grande before the river was dammed and tamed. Fields are flooded to create temporary marshy areas, just as if the Rio Grande had flooded its banks with summer monsoons or fast-melting snow from the mountains. These ephemeral floods create an everchanging mosaic that supports nourishing plants like chufa and millet for the birds and other wildlife to eat.

Although there are two wonderful loops you can drive and half a dozen trails, most of the 57,331-acre refuge is not easily accessible to the general public. Thirty thousand acres of Bosque del Apache are managed as wilderness.

Stressing out at work and need a little more peace in your life? Come here and slow down. It’s zen, a perfect spot for a bit of nature therapy. A dozen varieties of waterfowl feed in the ponds and flooded fields. Raptors perch on branches and songbirds flutter by or rustle through the grasses. There are always birds flying by. This land is so full of life!

It’s not all birds, either. You might see deer, javelina, even a bobcat. I watched a skunk trot down the road one afternoon.

This land has a subtle beauty. It grows on you. It’s a place you could come day after day and never tire of. It’s a place that changes with every passing day, with every passing hour, yet still remains constant. It is a place to which I know I will return again and again.

Lodging

There is no camping in the refuge. There are a couple of spots where you can camp near San Antonio, the nearest town. However, it is very cold at night, with temps in the teens, during the prime time of year for the birds at Bosque del Apache. The camping areas are a muddy mess whenever it rains, too.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge — It’s a zen kind of place.

San Antonio has limited lodging. There are a couple of Bed & Breakfasts, an RV park or two and a couple of trailer/camper options available through Airbnb. There are two restaurants in this tiny town vying for the title of “best green chile cheeseburger in New Mexico”, though, so you may want to stop for lunch one day.

Most visitors stay in Socorro. It’s a charming town, big enough to support a good coffee shop and a micro-brewery but with a decidedly working-class feel to it. Socorro has not been gentrified, not quite yet. It means getting up a little earlier in the morning, though, as it is a 20-25 minute drive from Socorro to the pond.

But it’s worth the drive. When the cackling of the geese rises from a murmur to a roar and you watch thousands of birds burst into flight instantaneously, you will experience that National Geographic moment. You, too, will hold a special place in your heart for Bosque del Apache.

Tag: New Mexico

Driving Down Narrow Roads

The McCarthy Road

The Denali Park Road

Northern California Coast Roads

The Road to Mogollon

A Little Advice

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