Latir Peak Wilderness

Relatively unknown and untraveled, the Latir Peak Wilderness is classic southern Rocky Mountain high country-emerald meadows, alpine grasslands and tundra, small, clear lakes, spruce-fir forest and some of New Mexico's highest peaks.

From Latir Peak's rounded summit, look north and you can see, hazy in the distance, the jagged fang of Colorado's 14,317 -foot Blanca Peak; the view to the south reveals 13,161-foot Wheeler Peak, New Mexico's highest mountain. In the company of southern Rocky Mountain giants such as these, the grassy 12,000-foot mountains of the Latir Peak Wilderness might seem easy to overlook. Indeed, many people do, for this, the fifth-smallest New Mexico wilderness, attracts few visitors. Yet four of the state's 20 highest mountains-Venado Peak (12,734 feet), Latir Peak (12,708), Latir Mesa (12,692), and Virsylvia Peak (12,594)-are here.

The relatively small size of the Latir Peak Wilderness area has less to do with natural history than human history. Although the wilderness stretches almost seam-lessly from Highway 38 in Red River Canyon north to the Colorado border, more than half this wildland is within the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant-over a million acres given in 1843 to Mexican citizens Narciso Beaubien and Stephen Louis Lee by the Mexican governor Manuel Armijo. This grant was among several northern New Mexico land grants that survived the somewhat turbulent transition from Mexican to American governance after 1848.

Of the other land grants in place at the time, most were later sold, dispersed, or eventually absorbed into the national forest system. Among the northern New Mexico Hispanic descendants of these land grant owners, feelings of betrayal and disenfran- chisement persist, and Hispanic activists continue to press for the land-grant issue to be reopened by Congress and the courts. Whether this could affect the Latir Peak Wilderness, designated in 1980, is unknown, but at this time it's unlikely that the wilderness will be expanded northward. These northern lands are currently controlled by the Rio Costilla Co-op Livestock Associates (P.O. Box 111, Costilla, NM 87524; (505) 586-0542.) The association issues permits either at its office in Costilla or the self-service station at the park entrance in Amalia. Permits are not issued to enter its lands from the south because of difficulty controlling access.

The area's Hispanic presence is further revealed by the Spanish names in the wilderness: Venado, "deer"; Cabresto, "halter"; Pinabete, "spruce"; and Jaracito, "little willow." And Latir: while this name has been reported to be a French surname, more likely it's related to the Spanish verb, latir, meaning "to howl or bark," perhaps referring to wolf or coyote calls.

Although the wilderness has .long been devoid of wolves, it remains rich wildlife habitat. As you hike above timberline, you quickly realize the trails here are trod less by humans than by elk; in the meadows below you're likely to see them grazing. Ptarmigan, marmots, and pikas live in the rocks at and above timberline. Black bears and mountain lions also live here, and boreal owls were recently discovered in the area.

Most hikers enter the wilderness from the southwest. From the village of Questa, take Highway 38 east a short distance. Then branch northeast on Highway 563, which is paved until it reaches the Carson National Forest boundary and becomes packed dirt at Forest Road 134. After 3.4 miles, Forest Road 134A branches left, climbing steeply two miles to Cabresto Lake. You'll need a high-clearance vehicle for 134A. At Cabresto Lake, the Lake Fork Trail, Number 82, traverses the lake's north side before entering the canyon to parallel the Lake Fork of Cabresto Creek. After three miles, the trail meets Bull Creek and the Bull Creek Trail, Number 85. The main trail continues another 1.6 miles to scenic Heart Lake, the destination for most hikers.

Also from the southwest, a gravel road heads east from the village of Cerro to the head of Trail 167. This climbs steeply as it enters the wilderness before it runs along the ridge over 11,948-foot Pinabete Peak. The trail reaches the junction with the Bull Creek Trail after about 4.5 miles, just east of Cabresto Peak. Just west of Cabresto Peak, Trail 167 is joined from the northwest by the 2.5-mile trail that enters the wilderness via Rito Ptimero ("first creek").

The wilderness can be entered from the east via Baldy Mountain Trail, Number 81. To reach the trailhead, continue on Forest Road 134 approximately 12 miles past the forest's western boundary. After about 5.5 miles, the Baldy Mountain Trail joins the Lake Fork Trail just below Heart Lake.

From the north, you can enter the wilderness through the Sangre de Cristo Grant, but a permit is required from the Rio Costilla Co-op Livestock Association.

The canyons in the Latir Peak Wilderness are steep, narrow, and densely forested. The streams likewise are narrow and overhung with brush and tree limbs, making them difficult to fish-one reason the native Rio Grande cutthroat trout have survived here. The lakes, too, are small; many have no fish because of winterkill. Thus, most hikers are drawn primarily to the exhilarating expanses above timberline. From a base camp at Heart Lake, located near timberline, hikers can reach several of the wilderness's 12,000-foot summits in a day. None pose any technical difficulties; although, like elsewhere in the southern Rocky Mountains, the areas above timber- line are exposed to sudden afternoon thundershowers and lightning during July and August.

Relatively few hikers explore the Latir Peak Wilderness; most head either into Colorado or to the higher, more readily accessible summits of the Wheeler Peak Wilderness to the south. But the clear consensus among hikers who have been here is that the Latir Peak region is one of New Mexico's wilderness jewels.

 

 

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