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Outside in Otero Mesa
Raw and lonely Otero Mesa is a magnet for hunters, hikers and backcountry explorers of all stripes. Here's a sampling of its offerings:
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Take a Trek through the Desert:
This arid landscape rewards those who look closely -- a darting lizard, a blooming prickly pear, a dozen pronghorn racing across the horizon. The wide-open prairies offer views stretching 60 miles or so and nightfall brings clear, star-filled skies. "It's the biggest blank spot on the southern New Mexico map," says the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance's Stephen Capra of the lack of development in Otero Mesa.
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Climb the Cornudas Mountains:
A nineteenth-century stagecoach stop on the Butterfield Trail mail route, this little-known complex of mountains offers challenging rock climbing -- without the crowds that flock to the popular Hueco Tanks area just south of the Texas-New Mexico state line. When you've had your fill of wall-crawling, ramble around in search of petroglyphs -- they are abundant.
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Go Birding in Otero Mesa:
Cassin's sparrows, lark sparrows, green-tailed towhees and canyon towhees are just a few of the shrub and grassland birds that live in the Chihuahuan desert year-round. Winter brings Baird's sparrows, clay-colored sparrows, meadowlarks (both eastern and western) and too many others to mention. Raptor enthusiasts won't be disappointed, either. Burrowing owls, golden eagles, Swainson's hawks, prairie falcons and American kestrels can be found here, and the endangered Aplomado falcon has been spotted on occasion in recent years thanks to reintroduction efforts in Texas.
For details on these and other adventures in New Mexico's wild Otero, visit the websites in the Local Information section at right. But make your travel plans soon -- if the energy industry and its friends in the Bush administration have their way, the Otero's wild heart will be replaced with a massive natural gas field.
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The Harvey E. Yates Company (HEYCO) is pressing to explore and develop Otero Mesa for natural gas, which would transform the quiet Chihuahuan desert into an industrial complex of roads, pipelines, storage tanks and drill pads. The final land use plan developed for Otero Mesa by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) opens almost 2 million acres to exploration and drilling, and the agency is considering allowing HEYCO to begin drilling there -- notwithstanding the opposition of New Mexico's governor and conservationists throughout the region and the country.
To learn more about how oil and gas development would change this special area forever, visit the websites in the Local Information section, below.
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Photos © New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
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