After hiking Black Mesa in Oklahoma and exploring Capulin Volcano in northwest New Mexico, we had several weeks to kill before heading to Pagosa Springs in southern Colorado. Carson National Forest, Santa Fe National Forest and parts of Cibola National Forests were all closed down due to drought conditions and extreme fire risks, as well as the huge and active Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fires.

Luckily for us, the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and its trails and campgrounds were open. Even better, they are all available on a first-come basis with self-pay kiosks. There was still a burn ban in place, but we wanted to explore and hike, not cook out.

The Rio Grande del Norte was established in 2013 as a national monument by President Obama. This gave 245,000 acres of existing public lands along this part of the Rio Grande additional protections from drilling and mining exploration and extraction. The wildlife in the area are also protected with hunting and shooting bans.

We spent 10 days at two campgrounds in the southern part of the National Monument, Orilla Verde, which was about 17 miles southwest of Taos, New Mexico. Orilla Verde comprises 7 small campgrounds situated along Rio Grande at the bottom of the Gorge. It was mid-week so we found a site easily. But over the weekend, everything filled up with anglers and families playing and floating on the river. Seven different trails offered about 20 miles of foot paths that meandered along the river, climbed the gorge walls, and traversed the top of the surrounding mesa. We hiked 5 of them while we were there, one with an interesting young couple (Grettel and Andrew) we met there. It was hot so we would hike our miles in the morning, and cool off in the nearby Rio de Taos Pueblo (a Rio Grande tributary) in the afternoon.

After a 2-day resupply in Taos, we moved to the northern section of the Monument, Wild Rivers, where we found 5 small campgrounds on top of the mesa between the Rio Grande and the Red River. These were beautiful campsites, recently redeveloped. All had water and pit toilets, covered picnic tables and trail access. Remarkably, there were very few people there, presumably because the river was 700 feet below us down one of several very difficult, very steep descents along the gorge wall. Again, we were there to hike and relished the solitude.

We stayed there for 8 more days, hiked 7 more trails, including 6 trips up or down the gorge wall. There wasn’t a lot of wildlife up here, but we did see big horn sheep (3 ewes and 2 lambs), which was pretty cool! It rained the last two days we were there but that was okay with us since it helped firefighters get control over the nearby Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fires.

We can’t say enough about how great this stopover was. We learned a lot about how BLM lands work, and their recreation areas ranging from modestly-developed campgrounds to very primitive, undeveloped and off-grid areas. We also plan to explore many more of these diverse, rugged and picturesque public lands managed by the BLM throughout New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California. We’ll let you know how those adventures go.