Carson National Forest

National Forest, Roughly 1.5 Million Acres Across Northern New Mexico; Contains Wheeler Peak At 13,161 Feet, The Highest Point In The State, And The Wheeler Peak, Latir Peak, Pecos And Cruces Basin Wildernesses · Taos, New Mexico

Carson National Forest covers about 1.5 million acres of northern New Mexico in several separate blocks, from the Sangre de Cristo above Taos west across the Tusas and Jemez country to the Chama valley. It holds Wheeler Peak at 13,161 feet, the highest point in the state, along with four designated wildernesses, the ski areas at Taos and Red River, and most of the Enchanted Circle. The range in it is the point: spruce and fir above 10,000 feet, aspen belts that turn the whole Enchanted Circle gold for two weeks in late September, pinyon and juniper on the mesas, and trout streams in between. It is also working land with grazing permits, timber sales and long-standing land grant communities whose relationship with the forest is a live political question rather than a historical one. Access is free and largely unregulated, which means the planning is on you: there is no entrance station, no permit and no quota anywhere in it, and also no one counting who went in.

208 Cruz Alta Road, Taos, Taos, New Mexico, 87571, United States

Open all year, day and night, with no gate and no entrance station. Ranger district offices in Taos, Questa, El Rito, Canjilon, Camino Real and Tres Piedras keep weekday daytime hours and are where current road, fire and trail information comes from. Developed campgrounds are seasonal, typically May to October, with water turned off outside that. High forest roads and passes are snow-closed from roughly November to May and fire closures are routine from March to June.

Carson National Forest on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos