Public Lands

October may be the best month of the year at the Wild Rivers Recreation Area, north of Questa. Summer heat has left the gorge, the light is low and clear, and the trails that drop 800 feet from the rim to the Rio Grande are far more forgiving than they are in July. The recreation area, managed by the Bureau of Land Management within the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, protects the place where the Red River joins the Rio Grande in a deep canyon cut through dark volcanic rock.

If a fall trip into the Carson National Forest brings a whiff of smoke on an otherwise clear day, it may be planned fire at work. Forest Service fire managers have laid out an early fall prescribed fire season across the forest, with potential locations stretching from Valle Vidal to Ojo Sarco on the east side and from Tres Piedras to Canjilon on the west side.

Mid-October is the sweet spot for the South Boundary Trail, and also the warning bell. The aspens along this high-country route between Angel Fire and Taos are at their brightest right now, and the window before snow closes the upper trail is getting short. For hikers, riders and mountain bikers who have been putting it off all summer, this is the week to go.

October is prime fuelwood time in northern New Mexico. Nights are turning cold, hunting seasons keep the forest busy, and there is still time to put up a winter woodpile before snow makes back roads muddy or impassable. On the Carson National Forest, that work starts with a permit — and with knowing exactly what a dead and down fuelwood permit does and does not allow.

Two northern New Mexico mountain towns that have long been linked by a winding highway will soon be linked by trail as well. The Carson National Forest has approved the Questa to Red River Trail, an approximately 11.9-mile unpaved, multi-use pathway between the Village of Questa and the Town of Red River.

Bear hunters planning a fall trip into Carson country need to check the map before they go. In its October 9, 2026 harvest update, the New Mexico Department of Wildlife lists Bear Management Zone 3 as closed for the season, after the harvest limit was met. Zone 3 covers Game Management Units 49, 50 and 53, the units that include much of the high country around Taos, Questa and Red River in the Carson National Forest.

In the Carson National Forest, the roads are half the adventure — and knowing which ones are open, which are rough, and which close for wildlife can save a trip. Forest Service roads are the capillaries of the forest, and the Valle Vidal's network is the best example of how they work.

Few places in the American West carry a name as fitting as the Valle Vidal — Spanish for "Valley of Life." This 101,794-acre sweep of high mountain country on the Questa Ranger District of the Carson National Forest is exactly that: a vast, rolling basin where elk herds numbering up to 2,000 head drift through meadows at 9,500 feet, where mule deer, black bear, mountain lion, Merriam's turkey, and the rare Rio Grande cutthroat trout all make their homes.