Forces of Nature
RANGERS AND VOLUNTEERS at the Río Grande Nature Center State Park have decades of knowledge about the bosque’s plant life, birds, mammals, and trails. “We have two instructional coordinators at this…
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Category: Nature & Wildlife
More Than Gold
LEAF PEEPERS DON'T HAVE TO hit the high country or even leave the city to spot fall colors. Joran Viers says park hoppers can find bright red ornamental pears and peach-to-burgundy Chinese pistaches…
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Cottonwood Heaven
AS IT TUMBLES ACROSS the Colorado state line into New Mexico, the Río Grande nourishes a forested garden running the length of the state. Seen from above, as thousands of migrating birds do every…
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Here's How Leaves Get Their Fall Colors
Leaves contain yellow and red pigments all summer, but only as the chlorophyll molecules break down do those colors become visible. Illustration by Chris Philpot. Fall Fade As days shorten in the fall…
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Moved by Nature
Catch a glimpse of "shimmering" Aspen along the Aspen Vista Trail in the Santa Fe National Forest. Photograph by Tira Howard. ASPEN LEAVES ATTACH TO BRANCHES with long stems, called petioles, that…
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Essential Guide to Fall Color
Watch fall colors come alive across New Mexico. Photograph by Jay Hemphill. See Pockets of Fall Color Shimmer Across the Jemez Mountains In the Jemez Mountains, fire reshaped the landscape and taught…
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In Search of Bigfoot
Jesus Payan Jr. seeks the notoriously shy beast in a forest near Cloudcroft. FOR YEARS, JESUS PAYAN JR. SPENT LONG NIGHTS in the Tularosa Basin, peering into the darkest corners of the desert sky and…
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Botanists Strive to Identify Every Plant at Gila Cliff Dwellings
Patrice Mutchnick inspects a leaf of dock (Rumex sp.) , a common riparian plant in Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. AS WILLIAM NORRIS AND RUSS KLEINMAN drive through the pink rhyolite-lined…
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Discover These Great and Gross Turkey Vulture Facts
Beauty the turkey vulture’s cameo in the film Copshop sheds light on the raptor’s importance. Photograph courtesy of Copshop . THEY EAT THE DECAYING FLESH of dead animals and vomit as a defense…
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Trek Back Through Time
An El Morro National Monument trail leads to the onetime home of Atsinna Pueblo. IF PEOPLE HAD BEEN THERE TO SEE IT—and there’s a chance Ancestral Acoma or Zuni people were—lava flowing across what’s…
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