Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
326
and geese, going about their daily business of feeding, gabbling, quarreling, honking, and
otherwise making an immense racket.
The refuge has a 12-mile auto tour loop, which you should drive very slowly; the south
half of the loop travels past numerous water impoundments, where the majority of the
ducks and geese hang out, and the north half has the meadows and farmland, where
you'll see the roadrunners and other land birds, and where the cranes and geese feed from
midmorning through the afternoon.
A few special experiences bear further explanation. Dawn is definitely the best time to
be here—songbirds are far more active in the first hours of the day, and the cranes and
geese take flight en masse. This last is not to be missed. Dusk, when the birds return to
the water, is also a good time. At either dawn or dusk, find your way to one of the obser-
vation decks and wait for what birders call the “fly out” (off the water to the fields) or
“fly in” (from the fields to the water).
Don't despair if you can't be at the Bosque del Apache during the prime winter
months, for it's a special place any time of year. By April, the geese and ducks have flown
north, and the refuge drains the water impoundments to allow the marsh plants to
regenerate; the resulting mud flats are an ideal feeding ground for the migrating shore-
birds that arrive in April and May.
If you'd like to stretch your legs a bit, check out the
Chupadera Peak Trail,
which
follows a 2.5-mile loop or a 10-mile loop to a high point overlooking the refuge. Ask for
directions at the visitor center.
JUST THE FACTS
The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is about a 1
1
/
2
-
hour drive from Albuquerque. Follow I-25 for 9 miles south of Socorro, and then take
the San Antonio exit. At the main intersection of San Antonio, turn south onto NM 1.
In 3 miles, you'll be on refuge lands, and another 4 miles will bring you to the excellent
visitor center, which has a small museum with interpretive displays and a large shelf of
field guides, natural histories, and other books of interest for visitors to New Mexico. The
visitor center is open from 7:30am to 4pm weekdays, and from 8am to 4:30pm week-
ends. The refuge itself is open daily year-round, from 1 hour before sunrise to 1 hour
after sunset. Admission is $3 per vehicle. For more information, contact
Bosque del
Apache National Wildlife Refuge,
P.O. Box 1246, Socorro, NM 87801 (
&
575/835-
1828;
www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/newmex/bosque).
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10
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES
58 miles N of Las Cruces; 62 miles SW of Socorro; 131 miles S of Albuquerque
Originally known as Hot Springs, after the therapeutic mineral springs bubbling up near
the river, the town took the name Truth or Consequences—usually shortened to “T or
C”—in 1950. That was the year that Ralph Edwards, producer of the popular radio and
television program
Truth or Consequences,
began his weekly broadcast with these words:
“I wish that some town in the United States liked and respected our show so much that
it would like to change its name to Truth or Consequences.” The reward to any city will-
ing to do so was to become the site of the 10th-anniversary broadcast of the program,
which would put it on the national map in a big way. The locals voted for the name
change, which has survived three protest elections over the years.
Although the TV program was canceled decades ago, Ralph Edwards continued to
return for the annual
Truth or Consequences Fiesta,
the first weekend of May. He died
