Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Progressive spring adventures in New Mexico

March 13, 2016
LAS CRUCES  - By the time you read this, you could suspect that spring is over and it might, for all intents and purposes, be summer. Or there could be frost, or even snow, on the horizon.
Spring in New Mexico is always an adventure, especially if you’re traveling to another part of the state. Even natives, I’ve found, tend to forget just how big our state is. We’re number five in land area, after Alaska, Texas, California and Montana. And since we rank 36th in population, that wilderness can seem even vaster when you get outside our four most populated cities, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe.
Throw in our interesting and varied topography, and within an easy day trip’s drive, you could be experiencing your favorite season several times.
My first years here, when I lived in northern New Mexico, I particularly enjoyed autumn aspen encores. I started out in Santa Fe and discovered I could experience second waves of golden aspens a few weeks later in Taos.
It almost made up for the snow. My first trips to Santa Fe were in late summer and early autumn, and I must admit, I didn’t do much research before I moved one torrid July. Mother nature eased me into my new home with an unusually mild winter that year, and flabbergasted me the next when it snowed from October to May.
Decades before climate change became a generally accepted reality, I realized that life in the Wild West in general, and the Land of Enchantment in particular, meant that there would be some interesting weather opportunities, from monsoon seasons in the desert to weather forecasts we just never heard in the Midwest, like “mostly dusty.”
I’ve come to appreciate the whimsical serendipity of it all, especially this time of year, when my northern New Mexico aspen encore tours have been replaced by Southern New Mexico déjà vu spring flings.
Without consciously planning it, I find that I’m lured to the border, somewhere around Columbus, to see the first fields of orange poppies and wildflowers. If I can manage another getaway, I can usually find those pretty little poppies hitting their prime a few weeks later around Silver City . After spring has sprung in the west, I can head north and east and enjoy another spring a little later, in easy day trips to Ruidoso, Mayfair and Cloudcroft.
I also look forward to cactus bloom tours, waiting for bevies of red, yellow and purple cactus blooms that seem to start in Mesilla (I suspect all those heat-absorbing, thick adobe walls give them a jump start) and stretch on up to the East Mesa. Then we progress into the now familiar, but still spectacular and amazing ocotillo standing ovations, when all those unpromising, dead-looking gray stalks suddenly sprout bright red flags.
Probably, there are sages in groups like the Native Plant Society of New Mexico who know exactly when to expect each manifestation of spring. Some years, even experienced botanists have told me that climate change and rainfall fluctuations can make it tough to pinpoint just what will come up where and when.
For me, a lot of the joy of spring is that uncertainly—finding a bold bloom out of time and space, weeks or even months early or late.
I think of it more as a symphony than a science. Or maybe it a theory of spring relativity. When my favorite willows develop tender green shoots, I know that spring has started and soon my  neighborhood streets will be lined with trees billowing with pink, lavender and white blossoms and it will be prime time for wildflower tours from Palomas to Santa Fe.
It always works. A few years ago, on a very warm May day, I was wistful for spring gardens in the City Different. I headed out with Las Cruces temperatures nearing 80, only to run into snowflakes around Socorro. There were snowdrifts by the time I pulled into a familiar Santa Fe parking lot. I walked over to a sheltered spot by an adobe staircase and there they were: old friends, pansies, poppies, daffodils, columbines and a few very early cosmos, bulbs and seeds who’d kept the faith and generated brilliant blooms, crowing (correct) through the snow with justifiable pride.
“Good show, guys. I heard you all the way from Las Cruces,” I told them.
If you have a favorite spring bloom show, chances are it’s appearing now or soon within a day trip or two. Don’t miss it.

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at  575-5450, dmoore@lcsun-news.com or @derricksonmoore on Twitter.

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