A NIGHT AT THE FORT STANTON-SNOWY RIVER CAVE NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA
A few weeks ago I started looking into areas I could visit that would allow me to have dark skies and great landscapes for a quick photography trip. As we all know COVID-19 hasn’t made normal activities easy, but I quickly found out any park in Texas would be out of the question due to restrictions in place at the time. Luckily New Mexico has an abundance of public land and with a little bit of planning I was itching to go.
I have to admit, I spent a lot of time stressing out about this trip. Not only had I never dispersed camped, but I also felt unfamiliar with camping on public land and wanted to make sure I did it correctly. Throughout the planning I found several places I will definitely be checking out in the future, but I eventually ended up choosing the Capitan Mountains near Lincoln, New Mexico. The scenery would be great, the skies dark, and the weather looked like it would play in my favor.
After I finished my trip planning, I began looking at how I was going to sleep comfortably. I could sleep in a tent or I could sleep in the car. In my previous trip to Big Bend National Park in March, I found out my wife’s Subaru Forester was pretty comfortable without any modifications, but I wanted to eliminate the ridges that formed where the seats lay down. I made a quick online search the night before leaving and found pictures of a platform someone added to their Forester. Even though I had been building furniture all day, I couldn’t resist making one more item. I went with a 10 inch high plywood deck that would function as a way to sleep and allow for storage underneath. Two hours later and my deck was complete!
Subaru Forester loaded with a sleeping platform and camping equipment.
Bear spray as I promised.
The following morning I eventually got on the road and headed towards Lincoln, New Mexico. About four hours into the drive I stopped off for gas and McDonalds in Post, Texas before I began the long stretch across the southern plains towards Roswell, New Mexico. I eventually made it to Roswell and made one final stop at a Big 5 Sporting Goods store to pick up the one requirement my wife had for me to make the trip: Bear Spray. Driving through town, I took a few quick glances at the alien’s spread throughout and continued on my way to Lincoln.
An hour later I rolled through the streets that Billy the Kid walked and made a stop outside of the jail he broke out of to give my wife one last call in the event I lost cell phone service in the mountains. From there I continued on to Route C001 my turn off to the Capitan Mountains. On the way I noticed an area I wasn’t aware even existed; the Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area. I knew in my planning that there would be a chance I couldn’t make it up the Forest Road due to the vehicle I was driving, so I quickly realized the Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area would be a great back-up plan to my previously picked back-up of the Baca Springs Campground at the base of the Capitan Mountains.
I continued on a few more miles and began my short drive down Route C001 to Forest Road 56 in the same forest Smokey the Bear was found. The road became rough like most mountain roads, but I continued on. As I climbed higher I eventually came on to a relatively steep portion and continued my way up before coming across a rock protruding through the road I knew I couldn’t get over.
Aliens in Roswell, NM
The reason I need a 4×4.
I had driven eight hours at that point only to be halted by a rock in the road. I put the car in park and debated for a few minutes the different ways I could maneuver over or around it, but eventually decided I had a fantastic backup that would be just as great of a location as the top of the mountain. Hesitantly, I slowly began backing down the road to a point I could turn around and begin my way back to the Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area.
On my way to the conservation area, I was greeted with a Pronghorn buck crossing the road and I was able to pull over to get some shots as we both stared each other down. Before too long we were both on our separate ways.
Pronghorn buck on the side of the road.
Not long after I pulled onto one of the many maintained roads in the Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area and began scouting areas to snag some sunset shots. I settled on an area on the west side of the conservation area and began setting up. All while enjoying some beef jerky and PB&J. I snapped a few shots from an area with abysmal results due to the shadow off of a ridge and quickly moved over to another spot located on top of a very large mound. Standing a good 100ft above my car I soaked in the sunset while listening to the coyotes cackle as they ran through the valley to my left.
Sunset on the Capitan Mountains
After the sun set, my next focus became finding a good spot to setup for night time photography that would also be flat for parking the car for sleeping. I spent far too long looking for a spot, but along my way, I randomly came across the large fenced off area that included a stairwell into the dark depths of the Snowy River Cave system. I took a quick stop to look down into the hole and then continued on until I found a nice flat spot near the Rio Bonito with a trail leading off of it that I would use for the foreground of my photos.
By this point the little bit of sunlight left from the day had faded and I had about two hours to get prepped for shooting Milky Way Nightscapes. Setting up my iOptron Skyguider Pro for the first time wasn’t nearly as difficult as I was worried it would be, but that was largely due to a YouTube video by Peter Zelinka. I got it setup with just enough time to sit down next to my camera and enjoy a beer as the Waxing Crescent moon set and the Milky Way began to rise.
About halfway through shooting I heard some noises coming from the brush about 150 yards from me. I didn’t really know what to expect to see when I shined my flash light in that direction, but I can tell you I was not expecting eight pairs of eyes reflecting back at me. The good news for me was I’ve never heard of mountain lions or bears moving in groups like that so I kept on shooting the stars and shining a light in their direction every once in a while. Eventually the herd got close enough that I could make out all eight elk as they grazed through the field next to me and went on their way into the next line of brush.
Elk starring me down.
The Milky Way over the Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Natural Area.
I finished shooting my nightscape images around midnight and moved on to taking some more intimate close ups of the Milky Way. Until that night I had never gotten the chance to do that due to not having a star tracker. For being my first time, I was extremely excited with the results. An hour later, I packed everything back into the car and crawled in to my sleeping bag atop my homemade sleeping platform for a brief night of sleep before being awoken by an incredible pink and blue pastel sunrise.
Close up of the Milky Way.
Not long after waking up, I took a quick walk down to the Rio Bonito and I was back on my way home. On the way home I went slightly out of my way to drive through Ruidoso, NM which I hadn’t been to since I was a kid and then continued on while taking a few quick stops for some photos of the windmills in the Texas Panhandle. Shortly before reaching home I was relatively surprised with getting the opportunity to take some photos of a storm that was building near Cisco, TX. Ten hours after leaving the Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area I made it home and was ready to get started editing my photos and begin planning my next photo trip.
If you’ve made it to the end I would just like to say that I appreciate you taking your time to read this entire post. I’ve been wanting to start making post like this about the trips my wife and I take. If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment below about what you thought and if I should keep doing these posts. Also, don’t forget to like and share it on social media!