Apache Plume on the Rio Grande
|
Posted by Robert Dailey Aug 16, 2007 |
It was a warm morning in early May. My friend Dan and I were standing on the western rim of the Rio Grande Gorge.
Behind us lay snow-capped peaks of the San Juan range, marching north into Colorado.
East lay the northern New Mexico town of Taos, nestled at the feet of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Below our feet, the earth dropped away, revealing one of the west’s true beauties: the Rio Grande Gorge.
Some 600 feet below, the Rio Grande, the same river that forms the boundary between Texas and Mexico, rushes down from the Colorado Plateau. Class five rapids dot the river’s descent.
The two of us were looking down at a winding switchback path known as Miner’s Trail.
From our vantage point, the trail looked almost vertical. It snaked precipitously along the west side of the gorge for almost a mile, before ending up alongside the river swollen by snowmelt.
The downward trek was easy. Even burdened by fly rods and other angling accoutrements, hindered by dangerously loose gravel and dizzying drop-offs, we finally emerged at the foot of the trail, alongside the waterway the early Spanish conquistadors called Rio Bravo, Rio Bravo del Norte and finally the Rio Grande.
Sitting on a rock ledge about 30 feet above the river, shaded by a lacy, almost dainty bush, we ate some trail mix, drank from our canteens and savored the beauty.
The little bush shading us, I found out later, was Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa). It is called Apache Plume because the seed heads resemble ceremonial Apache headdress.
Apache Plume is a remarkable shrub, growing to six feet high, that is native to the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico.
Related articles: