Bospue del Apache Wildlife Refuge

Bosque del Apache is Spanish for “woods of the Apache,” and is rooted in the time when the Spanish observed Apaches routinely camped in the riverside forest. Since then the name has come to mean one of the most spectacular National Wildlife Refuges in North America. Here, tens of thousands of birds–including Sandhill cranes, Arctic geese, and many kinds of ducks–gather each autumn and stay through the winter.

The Wildlife Refuge was not on my “do” list, but as I was driving to the destination on my itinerary I happened to decide to take old US 85, the Camino Real trail, instead of the Interstate. How lucky I am that I like to drive like an old person, otherwise I would have driven right past the refuge.

Here I am in winter, all the trees and grass hibernating, yet this place is still full of beauty. I can only imagine how it would look in the spring with the grass, and in the autumn with all these trees. Even today, it was the colors… bright and burning gold grass, deep dark blue waters, and the glaring white trees… that stood out. The birds were nice, but it was the trees an grasses that did it for me.

I took the time and dropped the trailer at the visitor’s center so I may take the auto-tour through the refuge. Although it was miles of dirt/gravel road, the van is growing accustomed to such terrain. I just puttered along without even using the gas pedal, peering left and right more than looking through the windshield. Lucky it was a one-way road or there would be more accidents.

I stopped when ever I wanted, right in the middle of the road, to hang my camera out the window for that snap shot or two and enjoying the New Mexico sun. I must have spent an hour and a half to do the 4-5 miles of the loop, which might have been a little bit fast as I passed 4 vehicles going much slower than I. It would be easy to spend the entire day at a place like this… bring a picnic basket and some binoculars and you are set.

While I am not the biggest bird-lover, I do appreciate them. I know little to nothing about them, but I thoroughly enjoy seeing them in huge numbers like this. It is saddening to hear the not-so-distant gun shots every time a flock would come in on approach to land. It kind of defeats the purpose of a Refuge if the hunters are just outside the boundary lying in wait with shotguns. I like guns and all, and I’d like to hunt some day, but I draw the line here… hunting at a refuge? Not for me.