I could have taken this anywhere there are ducks, I suppose. But this is 800 feet below the level of the surrounding landscape at the bottom of the Rio Grande Gorge just north of Pilar. Up at the top, it’s sagebrush, piñon, juniper, and cactus.
The weird thing is that you can go hiking far above—amidst the sagebrush, piñon, juniper, and cactus—and never be aware of this narrow strip of an utterly different ecological zone along the river where ducks and geese fly by, eagles soar, and mountain lions roam. It’s like a different channel, and all you have to do to tune it in is fall off a cliff!
John Hamilton Farr lives at 7,000 feet in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, U.S.A. As New York Times best-selling author James C. Moore tells it, John is “a man attuned to the world who sees it differently than you and I and writes about it with a language and a vision of life that is impossible to ignore.” This JHFARR.COM site is the master writing archive. To email John, please see CONTACT INFO on .png)