Rim Spring (Forest Roads 4010L and 4010K) - Gila (Apache) National Forest

Old wooden trough at Rim Spring

Concrete block and rusty pipe at the spring

Late May and early June are a dreary time in the forests of western and southwestern New Mexico.  The parched, pale tufts of grass on the plains and between the trees seem without hope. The pines, both the standing dead and the living continue to dry out day by day until it seems that even massive ponderosas and Douglas-firs could be lit with a single cardboard match. The graying, bare downfall, which is everywhere, begs to carry flames acre after acre. If there aren't major fires happening already, dread permeates  every trip into the outdoors  because it appears as if they are all but inevitable. Winds blow continuously on overkill still trying to evaporate every molecule ( long gone, of course) of moisture left over from winter and early spring. The sound is sickening especially if there are already fires burning as we know they are fanning the flames to maximum potential. In the desert temperatures begin to hit 100 and in the mountains they climb upward as well sometimes reaching close to 90 even at 8000 feet.

Still we get out, because it is still our place. We did it last year and the years before, and we will do it in the years to come. It doesn't make sense, just like it has never made sense to me ( a public school employee) that we let kids out of school for their summer "vacation" at this most dreadful time of year, when the best course of action is to stay enveloped in climate controlled environments for as much time as possible.

We did the drive out to Rim Spring. We hiked, mostly in shade, and then picnicked. The spring was dry, of course, but it looks like it could seep a little at the end of winter or perhaps in fall after good summer rains. It's odd to look at a map of the northern Gila and see so many springs. It gives me a sense of excitement, false, I know, because many, probably most are just like this one.

 I continued to walk to the very end of road to take in views afforded by being at the very edge of the mesa, to the southeast, south and west of Bull Camp, Gallo and Gallita canyons and the mountains and mesas that surround them.