Carson National Forest is a trout fisherman’s delight. For the hunter, Rocky Mountain mule deer, elk, and antelope are found in all parts of the Forest. Small game is plentiful, and rabbits provide many hours of hunting pleasure. Beaver, muskrat, mink, weasel, marten, and skunk are the principal fur bearers, and turkey, grouse, ducks, geese, quail, and doves make up the game bird population. Predators include the mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, and fox.
More than 40 developed camp and picnic grounds, most of which are accessible year round, welcome the visitor. Among them, Echo Amphitheater picnic ground on U.S. Highway 84, south of Canjilon, is a striking natural echo chamber formed by centuries of wind and water erosion in the rugged sandstone rock. “If you stand near the chamber, you only have to whisper, and your words come back in a spooky echo.”
About five miles south on U.S. Highway 84 is the Ghost Ranch Museum, with live native Southwestern animals and conservation exhibits, including a living and growing display showing on-the-ground Forest Service Multiple Use Management of the mythical Beaver National Forest, the “smallest National Forest in the world.”
Ranger stations at Canjilon, El Rito, Gobernador, Penasco, Questa, Taos, and Tres Piedras provide local information and recreation maps.
Echo Amphitheater surrounds part of the trail to campground
Santa Fe National Forest
The Santa Fe National Forest, with headquarters in Santa Fe, lies directly south of the Carson National Forest on both sides of the Rio Grande and is the center of a region rich in natural resources as well as historic and geologic interests. The two divisions of the Forest contain the high mountains to the east and west in the central section of the state. The Pecos Division to the east of the Rio Grande is the location of the major part of the Pecos Wilderness Area, one of the earliest of such areas to be established.
The Pecos Division is so named because the Pecos River, which later joins the Rio Grande in Texas, heads among its towering mountains in a beautiful alpine basin sometimes called the Pecos Horseshoe. The Pecos River is one of the state’s largest streams and supplies some of its most important irrigation projects. This division of the Forest includes the southern part of the Sangre de Cristo range and was first known as the Pecos River Forest Reserve, established in 1892—the oldest National Forest in the Southwest. The division abounds in clear, cold mountain lakes and streams. Truchas Lakes, Pecos Baldy, Stewart Lake, Spirit Lake, and Lost Lake, as well as many mountain streams, lure not only the fisherman but the hiker and camper to their wilderness beauty.
Twenty-three developed campgrounds and picnic areas located in cool glades are ready for the visitor along roads leading into the Forest from Santa Fe, Pecos, Glorieta, Las Vegas, and other communities. Skiing and winter sports are available at the Santa Fe Ski Basin northeast of Santa Fe; the chair lift operates year around for those who wish merely to view the spectacular scenery. The Pecos Division watersheds of the Santa Fe National Forest, like the eastern section of the Carson, contribute generously to the water flow of the Rio Grande.