Yellow warbler, photographed at the New Wave Rafting Co. headquarters, on the Rio Grande river, near Taos, New Mexico
Flocks of songbirds are migrating up the Rio Grande corridor in numbers we’ve never seen before. We have yellow warblers, yellow-rumped (Audubon’s) warblers and Western Tanagers around right now. It’s a birders’ delight!
Kathy and Steve's place on the Rio Grande
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I’m posting this photo so that those of you who have not had the opportunity to visit us can see the layout. We’re located at Mile 21 on Hwy 68, in the spread-out village of Embudo (“funnel” in Spanish), about equidistant from Espanola to the south and Taos to the northeast. Our more precise location is known as “La Bolsa” (the “pocket”, in Spanish), which consists of a few homes located between the highway and the river. Additionally, our place is located on the “Bosque” stretch of the river, which begins at the County Line (3 miles upstream of us, and the take-out for the Racecourse stretch), and concludes at the mouth of the Rio Grande Gorge, at Velarde (about 8 miles downstream of us). “Bosque”, in Spanish, translates to grove of trees, most usually cottonwoods in New Mexico and the name “Millers Landing” was bestowed on our piece of shoreline by the BLM, who regulate river use on the Rio.
This photo was taken on 10/20, as it began to rain. The storm (which is now clearing out) provided the first good snows of the season at the higher elevations, which includes Taos Ski Valley. They got at least 4” at the base, and our rafting colleague John Weinmeister has reported (on Facebook) that he and crew have begun snowmaking operations there. Yeah!
The New Wave gang that headed out to raft the Green through Canyonlands NP about 3 weeks ago returned last night. They had a great time, and saw a lot of fantabulous scenery. It was the first trip on that portion of the Green for all of them. The crew consisted of: Britt Huggins, our NWR Operations Manager (and contributor to this blog): Neil Oberheide, longtime NWR guide and nephew of Kathy Miller; Patrick and Jenni Chandler, who arrived back from their Honeymoon in Italy, Turkey, Greece and Egypt just the day before leaving on this trip (they are, respectively, NWR guide and NWR Office Manager); Jesse Mogler, NWR Rookie Guide of the Year and Sara his girlfriend. You can look forward to seeing a post from Britt on this trip, featuring his usual great photography. And, he was shooting his brand-new Nikon D 90!
Also, this morning, our friend Martha Clark Stewart and husband Thad arrived. She just got off a commercial Grand trip. She’s been a Grand Canyon guide for umpteen years, and before that, she, Kathy and I worked together for the Southwest Outward Bound School, in Santa Fe. We all did a Grand trip in 1979, which preceded (and perhaps led to) her decades-long career. Thad also was a Grand guide for many years. He had just arrived from a 3500-mile car trip from Haines, Alaska. They own and operate a Mexican food restaurant there, in the summer, called Mosey’s Cantina, and they came to New Mexico for the express purpose of buying a summer season’s worth of roasted green chile, peeling it (with the help of friends), freezing it and then, ultimately, driving it and themselves back to Haines for the summer season. Wow! They spend the winter in Springdale, Utah, at the mouth of Zion Canyon, where they own a home. They and friends will be camping with us for the next few days while they peel the chile.
Our big cottonwood
I’m not the first to observe how much more you appreciate home after returning from time away. Kathy and I have traveled a lot in the last two months (and we’re probably not finished yet), but feel very fortunate to be back home at this time of year. This is the time of year, of course, when the cottonwoods go gold, bringing magic to the river banks.
The Rio Grande, in the Bosque stretch
Yesterday afternoon, Kathy and I took out our canoe, for a 4-mile trip downstream, from our place to Embudo Station, a riverside restaurant. I was up front, with my fly rod, while Kathy navigated from the rear. The river remains low and clear, good for fishing. I caught two brown trout, both in fast water. I was using a purple bunny jig, which has a lot of wiggle. The day before I landed a nice pike, along with a few rainbows, up in the Orilla Verde section – and using the same fly.
Brown trout, caught in the Bosque stretch of the Rio Grande
The mild weather we’ve been enjoying since we’re back is soon to be replaced by rain and snow at higher elevations, as a storm system sweeps in from the west. We’ll rejoice in that, when it arrives, because we’re now looking forward to our winter occupation – teaching skiing at Taos Ski Valley. If we get sufficient late Fall snows the Ski Valley could open up by Thanksgiving. If not, then sometime around Dec. 15.
Great Northern Pike, caught in the Orilla Verde section of the Rio Grande, near Taos, New Mexico
It’s likely that we’ll spend the next few weeks at South Padre Island, Texas, just a few miles away from where the Rio Grande (yes, the same Rio Grande) runs into the Gulf of Mexico. We have a small travel trailer (and fishing boat) in storage down there, which we’ll set up at the Isla Blanca County Park, in the company of the “snowbirds” (aka winter Texans), who spend the entire winter there. The main attractions of the place are that it’s practically tropical (at the same latitude as Fort Lauderdale), it’s not too long a drive from New Mexico, it’s a relatively inexpensive way to live, AND, the fishing is great!
This big Redfish puts a big smile on my face
And then, it’ll be time to go skiing. Come ski with us!
Kathy and Steve Miller, Ski Instructors at Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico
