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    New Mexico's High Peaks: A Photographic Celebration
    New Mexico's High Peaks: A Photographic Celebration
    New Mexico's High Peaks: A Photographic Celebration
    Ebook236 pages1 hour

    New Mexico's High Peaks: A Photographic Celebration

    By Mike Butterfield and Robert Julyan

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    About this ebook

    This book should be required reading for all who believe New Mexico is nothing but plains, mesas, and cacti. It proves in spectacular fashion that the Land of Enchantment is very much a mountain state, with at least sixty summits 12,000 feet or higher. Photographer-author Mike Butterfield has spent forty years hiking these high mountains, and his magnificent images are paired here with the chronicle of his adventures.

    To help readers become acquainted with his beloved mountains, Butterfield divides the high peaks of northern New Mexico into their geographical regions, each with its unique geology, history, and plants and animals. Butterfield’s primary focus, however, remains on the peaks, which have attracted generations of hikers, backpackers, climbers, hunters, and horsemen.

    To assist those visitors, Butterfield covers not only named summits but also the many individual points exceeding 12,000 feet. He includes valuable information about important trails and trailheads, access points, and, for car-bound visitors, places from which the mountains can be most favorably viewed.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of New Mexico Press
    Release dateMay 1, 2014
    ISBN9780826354419
    New Mexico's High Peaks: A Photographic Celebration
    Author

    Mike Butterfield

    Mike Butterfield is a professional photographer and the coauthor of Mike Butterfield’s Guide to the Mountains of New Mexico. He lives in Albuquerque.

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      Book preview

      New Mexico's High Peaks - Mike Butterfield

      NEW MEXICO’S HIGH PEAKS

      NEW MEXICO’S HIGH PEAKS

      A Photographic Celebration

      Mike Butterfield

      foreword by ROBERT JULYAN

      The author would like to thank the following people and organizations for their contributions and support of this book:

      Bert Almy and Associates

      Bruce and Kathleen Butterfield

      Butterfield Enterprises

      Butterfield Jewelers

      Perry Butterfield

      Rose Haferkamp

      Joe Kast Company

      Robert and Andreea Keller

      Teri Maclennan

      Elliott Pohlman and Associates

      Charlene Rockwell

      Schneider Design Studio

      Jon and Cindy Schreiner

      Dr. John S. Woolley

      Kurt and Amy Woolley

      The east face of Pecos Baldy bathed in morning alpenglow. This view is from the high saddle between Pecos Baldy Lake and the Rito Perro to the west. The great Picuris Fault, separating the hard white quartzite of Pecos Baldy and the younger sedimentary rocks of the Pecos Basin, is plainly evident. In the background, South Truchas, the sharp knob of Little South Truchas, and Cerro Chimayosos round out one of the finest views in the entire Pecos Wilderness.

      CONTENTS

      Foreword

      Preface

      INTRODUCTION

      High New Mexico

      La Gente

      Mountain Denizens

      The Big Outside

      1 CHAPTER ONE: THE NORTHERN RANGES

      Culebra Range

      Cimarron Range

      Latir Group

      Columbine-Hondo

      Wheeler Group

      2 CHAPTER TWO: THE SANTA FE RANCES

      Santa Barbara–Mora

      Santa Barbara–West

      Truchas Range

      Santa Fe Range

      3 CHAPTER THREE: SIERRA BLANCA

      Sierra Blanca Peak

      4 CHAPTER FOUR: WHAT IS A PEAK?

      Welcome to the Club

      A Peak by Any Other Name

      New Mexcio Mountains Listed by Region

      New Mexcio Mountains Ranked by Elevation

      New Mexcio Mountains Listed by Name

      Acknowledgments

      Notes on Photography

      Works Cited

      Index

      FOREWORD

      Robert Julyan

      This book should be dedicated to all who believe New Mexico is nothing but plains, mesas, and cacti, for here photographer-author Mike Butterfield proves, in spectacular fashion, that this is very much a mountain state. By focusing exclusively on New Mexico’s highest summits, those 12,000 feet or higher, Butterfield demolishes stereotypes and reveals a majestic, relatively unknown mountain world whose highest point exceeds that of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona.

      But Mike does more than adduce numbers and elevations; this book is also the chronicle of a forty-year love affair with the state’s highest mountains. During that time Mike has strode over their alpine tundra, been beguiled by big-horn sheep, experienced moments of doubt ascending precipitous ridges, been caught in mountain thunderstorms, and even hiked in his underwear while his pants dried out. And with the fondness of a parent showing off photos of his children, Mike is eager to share his mountain photos and experiences with his readers.

      To help readers become acquainted with his beloved mountains, Mike breaks the high peaks of northern New Mexico into their geographical regions, each with its unique geology, history, and plants and animals. He talks about the Native peoples who have lived in, hunted in, and explored the mountains; about subsequent Hispanic peoples; and finally about the English speakers who created many of the trails and administrative configurations we know today.

      His primary focus, however, remains on the peaks. The tallest peaks. Those 12,000 feet or higher. (Wisely, he includes Sierra Blanca in the Sacramento Mountains, which dominates southern New Mexico, although recent remeasurements shaved a few feet off its 12,000-foot height.) He includes not only the named summits but also the unnamed peaks and points exceeding 12,000 feet. All these are listed in Chapter 4. If you ever wanted to plant your boots on the full panoply of New Mexico’s highest summits, this book will tell you which ones to aim for.

      While not intended as a comprehensive hiking guide, New Mexico’s High Peaks nonetheless includes valuable information about important trails and trailheads, access points, and, for car-bound visitors, places from which the mountains can most favorably be viewed.

      This book could have been created only by someone like Mike Butterfield, with a photographer’s eye for natural beauty coupled with a photographer’s appreciation for technical detail. It’s no accident that in another part of his life Mike is a jeweler, for the mountains Mike has presented for our delight and wonder are indeed New Mexico’s finest jewels.

      PREFACE

      As I write this I am bivouacking just below the summit of Fairchild Mountain in the Wheeler Peak Wilderness at approximately 12,340 feet. It is September 25, the second day of autumn. Despite the fact that there is virtually no level ground up here, I am quite comfortable. There is hardly a cloud in the sky, and no rain or fronts are predicted for the next twenty-four hours. Except for a light band of yellow to the west, the sky is an inky blue and the stars are already out.

      My family often thinks I’m crazy for doing this, but once in a while one needs to watch the sun set over high peaks and experience it from those very peaks. I would not call this a Zen thing; there is way too much work involved, but it is very meditative. I’m also hoping that I will be able to photograph the peaks in fine light, not the usual midday light when most people summit. Prudence dictates that one be off the high ridges by noon or risk the wrath of the Thunder Gods, but when the weather is settled, you can break all the rules. I wouldn’t recommend this to the neophyte though. I have been at this (backpacking and hiking up high peaks) for some forty years, so I feel I have earned my stripe. At fifty-seven years of age, I don’t know how many more summits are left in me. I do take solace, though, in meeting a fellow on the summit of Kit Carson Peak in Colorado. He said, You know, I am sixty-seven years old and have had a stroke, but this is the forty-sixth 14er I have climbed, and my hero is a chap in Colorado Springs who is eighty-one years old and has climbed Pikes Peak 431 times! It gives me hope. Hope that I have not succumbed to middle-age sloth, hope that places like the one I am presently occupying will stay wild: unforgiving to the ignorant and uninitiated but embracing of those who have come to know these places. That last line sounds very elitist and exclusionary, but that is not my intent. In writing a book such as this, one can only hope that the very people who are indeed ignorant of this bounty will stop and read such a book, which will trigger in their brains that an itch needs to be scratched, and they become among the informed. One at a time—that’s about all you can ask for. I only hope there is enough time for the unaware to come around.

      From left: Pueblo Peak (12,305 feet), Un-12,170, Vallecito Mountain (12,643 feet), and the high south shoulder of Lake Fork Peak, seen from the 12,340-foot saddle between Lake Fork Peak and Un-12,819 (Fairchild) at sunrise. The lake in the foreground is at an elevation of 12,024 feet. It is on Taos Pueblo land and is closed to the public.

      From my perch, only a halo of light from Taos and a small pocket of light off to the west are links to the ordinary, day-to-day life. Otherwise it is utterly dark now, with only starlight to keep me company. With no sunlight, the heavens literally explode into billions of points of light. Being up high brings the heavens that much closer. It is a truly wondrous sight. I don’t get out enough to see this on a regular basis. I really need to correct that condition.

      The stars are out in force now. It feels like the entire Milky Way galaxy is above me. When there are no lights, the spectacle is truly amazing! I see old friends: Orion is coming to stay for the winter, and Sirius (the Dog Star) is so very prominent. I will be periodically checking in to see how the stars are tracking. It’s not that hard to do, as sleep comes in fits in the wilderness, leaving plenty of time to contemplate and witness the night. A wilderness sleep for me is, at best, a series of catnaps interspersed with an equal number of awakenings. It is only in the last hours before daybreak that the long sleep settles in. That’s OK though. When you have the opportunity to sleep in the open, the grand symphony that is your canopy keeps you company and the wonder of it all fills the awake time.

      A slight periodic breeze is now up, and although I am quite comfortable now, I know it’s going to get a lot colder, so I will sign off now to burrow deep into my bag to await sunrise and a new day of adventure and discovery. I have

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