Wild Rivers

Did you know that the Rio Grande Gorge near Questa began, in a sense, with the Red River? Scientists with the Bureau of Land Management explain that about 400,000 years ago a closed basin in Colorado's San Luis Valley, holding a lake with no outlet, grew wetter and overflowed to the south. That water drained into the Red River, and as its volume increased it cut down through volcanic rock to form the modern Rio Grande Gorge.

Early November is when a patient look upward starts to pay off north of Questa. The Rio Grande Gorge, protected within the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, is home to two very different eagles. Golden eagles live here all year, riding the thermals that rise off the basalt walls. Bald eagles are the winter guests: the monument's founding proclamation notes that bald eagles roost above the river in winter, then fly out over the sagebrush of the Taos Plateau. As northern waters freeze, more of them follow the river south into our stretch of the gorge.

Monday, November 2, 2026

Saturday, October 31, 2026

There is no better place to spend a crisp fall Saturday near Questa than the rim of the Rio Grande Gorge at the Wild Rivers Recreation Area, in the heart of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. This morning starts cloudy and cool in the village, in the low 40s, before skies turn partly cloudy and the afternoon high reaches the mid-50s — fine weather for a slow drive out to the overlooks, a rim walk, and some patient wildlife watching.

Friday, October 30, 2026

Thursday, October 29, 2026

The Rio Grande below Questa is a different river this week. After upstream precipitation, the river through the Wild Rivers Recreation Area is running high and fast, and a River Flood Advisory is in effect for the area until Friday at noon. This is not a week for casual wading in the main channel. It is a week for watching the gorge from the rim, fishing carefully from the bank where the water softens, and respecting how quickly this canyon river can change.

West of Questa, the land opens into the broad Taos Plateau, and then, almost without warning, it drops away. At the Wild Rivers Recreation Area, where the Red River meets the Rio Grande, you can stand at the rim and look into a gorge the Bureau of Land Management describes as up to 800 feet deep, carved through layers of volcanic basalt flows and ash interbedded with sand and gravel. The dark rock in those walls has a name every local rockhound should know: Servilleta Basalt.