SOUTHWESTERN STATES

Wheeler Peak Wilderness, Carson National Forest, Taos, New Mexico

Rising to over 13,000 feet in the heights of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Carson National Forest includes New Mexico's highest point -- 13,160-foot Wheeler Peak -- and its most substantial expanse of alpine tundra. The Sangre de Cristos are topographically a southern extension of the Rocky Mountains, and their high country shares an affinity with more northerly alpine areas, including traces of the effects of glaciation during the most recent ice age. Low willows and sedges create a dense tundra mat above the timberline here, studded with grasses and such cosmopolitan alpine wildflowers as Alpine Avens and Moss Campion. Hikers in the Wheeler Peak and Latir Peak Wilderness Areas often hear the sharp whistles of Yellow-bellied Marmots. White-tailed Ptarmigans, American Pikas, and Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep are other often-seen tundra residents.

The other units of the 1.4-million-acre forest are more lightly visited. West of Taos is a large expanse of rolling plateau where valley grasslands are interspersed with woods of Quaking Aspens, Subalpine Firs, and Blue and Engelmann Spruces. The Cruces Basin Wilderness, almost on the Colorado border, and the scenic Chama River Canyon -- where the Carson meets the Santa Fe National Forest -- are two of the more popular backcountry destinations here. As with most national forests in the Southwest, higher elevations are typically closed by snow in winter.

Location: Northern New Mexico, both east and west of Rio Grande valley. Contact: Carson National Forest, 208 Cruz Alta Road, Taos, NM 87571; 505-758-6200. Visitor Centers: At forest headquarters (see address above) in Taos; also at Ghost Ranch Living Museum, 14 miles northwest of Abiquiu on Hwy. 84.

PHOTO: Gary C. Williams