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ADVENTURES AWAIT IN NEW MEXICO’S LANDSCAPES heart to experience. Learn about the best spots for outdoor recreation and more in Christina M. Selby’s guidebook, New Mexico Family Outdoor Adventure: An All-Ages Guide to Hiking, Camping, and Getting Outside. Selby provides helpful tidbits, including the nearest town, best season to visit, hours of operation, and driving directions. Hiking trail maps also are provided. The guidebook gives a practical approach on how to enjoy New Mexico’s natural landscapes.
NEW MEXICO FAMILY OUTDOOR ADVENTURE: AN ALL-AGES GUIDE TO HIKING, CAMPING, AND GETTING OUTSIDE By Christina M. Selby University of New Mexico Press 200 Pages $21.95
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utdoor excursions run the gamut in O the Land of Enchantment. There is plenty for the young and the young at
ATM: Why did you decide to do a
guidebook such as this?
CHRISTINA M. SELBY: I did one other
guidebook before this, it was about wildflower hiking and I really enjoyed the process and I’m always looking for ways to bring my family life and professional life together and this just seemed like a really good fit.
ATM: How did you go about gathering this information including the maps of the trails and photos included in the book? CMS: About 95% of it, I had done with
my family over the years and so just kind of needed to sit down and organize all that material. The trails, I often use this app called AllTrails and it keeps a record of your GPS track of where you’re going so that was really easy to then transfer into these beautiful maps that the UNM (Press) graphic designers made. And we really wanted to give it a broad geographic diversity and so I was looking for opportunities in all sectors of the state.
ATM: I like how you give a variety of suggestions on activities and places families can enjoy. CMS: I really tried to focus on families
who maybe are on the one hand newer to outdoor activities and give them information on how to get them started or where to look to get started. But, I think it also serves families who have more experience
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just in terms of ideas of where to go and what to do and I really tried to give a balance of sort of naturalist activities so there is information about birding and watching wildlife and just sort of learning about nature. There’s lots of nature centers around the state that are listed in there. And then, I also give activities for families who want a little more active experiences (such as) climbing, mountain biking, hiking and paddling. ATM: When people would ask you about trails and hiking and outdoor adventures, what are some of your favorites that you and your family enjoy visiting more frequently? CMS: There’s a few that come to mind
when people ask me about that. One that really comes to the forefront is the Bisti Badlands in northwest New Mexico. My family and I spent, I think two nights there, and it is pretty rustic…. It’s such an incredible place to explore.
ATM: Is there another area in a different part of the state that you like to visit?
down to the Organ Mountains in the spring. That’s like the first place that really greens up and the weather’s nice… There’s several things in the Organ Mountains like there’s climbing and lots of biking. So that is a really fun and active place to go. One more area we really enjoy going to is up in the Cuesta/Red River area. They’ve done a lot to kind of cater to adventure type experiences for families. There are several campgrounds along the road between Cuesta and Red River. We just base camp at one of those campgrounds and from there we can go up to the reservoir and go fishing. There’s several smaller fishing ponds for young kids in that area and in Red River and you can catch trout and fun things like that… If you need a little more stimulus, their ski area in the summer has really fun high ropes courses and tubing down the ski slopes and just kind of fun extra things to do right in the town there… Last time we went up there, we just had a really good time. —RM
CMS: We really look forward to going
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