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I tell time by watching the seasons. I know it's spring when buds come up on the lilac bushes. Hummingbirds, as they dart across my yard, announce summer. Fall begins when the rabbit brush has gone to seed, and winter when the last leaf has fallen off the cottonwood trees. Some plants don't seem to notice the change in weather, but others, like the aspen, have a new outfit for each season. My family and I enjoy hiking the Mount Taylor Ranger District of Cibola National Forest. We usually hike one of three trails near Wingate, New Mexico: Strawberry Canyon, Milk Ranch Canyon, or the Look Out Tower trail, but in May 2001 we tried camping and hiking at a new spot that a friend recommended. We camped next to a pond called Lost Lake. The land around the lake looked like much of Cibola National Forest: ponderosa pine, gambel oak, piņon pine, and juniper circled the pond. At night we heard spadefoot toads croaking, and in the morning we saw tadpoles and goldfish in the pond. We found several trails near the pond and decided to try all three. At the beginning of one trail, only 100 yards from our tent, we found fresh bear tracks in the mud. Everyone in my family ran in different directions when we heard a rattlesnake under my dad's feet. Our third hike also provided a surprise, though a subtle one. After hiking one mile, we reached an aspen grove in a valley. I was surprised because there are few aspens in our ranger district. I had seen aspens in the cooler, higher mountains of Colorado, but aspens are scarce here. The aspen grove was long and narrow; it filled an entire valley. Ponderosa, piņon, and juniper grew on the sides of the valley, but none grew in the valley with the aspens. Not even the scrub-like gambel oak grew in the aspen grove. I wondered why aspens grew in this one spot but not in the rest of the forest. Is it cooler in the valley? Does this valley get more rainwater and melting snow? Or is the grove an island left over from a cooler, moister period in the forest's history? I hiked to the aspen grove several times in 2001 but never tried to answer my questions. But this summer (2002), I decided to act. |
August 11, 2002: Lost Lake  In the aspen grove, an occasional conifer finds space to grow. We got out of the car when we reached Lost Lake and took the trail to the aspen grove. The aspen grove was warmer and drier than I had expected. At 3:35 pm it was 83°F and sunny. There was a light breeze and the air felt dry. I think of the aspen grove as being moister than the rest of the forest, but I couldn't feel or see any difference today. I marked off a randomly chosen area about 50 yards by 50 yards. I chose four trees to mark the boundaries and tied pink parachute string around the four chosen trunks. Three trees were carved with graffiti; one was dark and chipped. The land in and around my box is filled with tall aspens. The aspens grow down here at the bottom of a canyon on flat ground. But where the land rises and the walls of the canyon begin, there are no aspens. The canyon walls grow only conifers typical to the rest of the forest: junipers, piņons, and ponderosas. Inside the box I found two kinds of mushrooms, various flowering plants, one lizard, cow pies, deer scat, and one leaf from a gambel oak. I was surprised because there are no gambel oaks growing in the valley. Now I know that an acorn could blow into the canyon and sprout, but there are no oaks growing here now. We saw a hummingbird drinking from an Indian paintbrush. Another hummingbird was attracted by my dad's bright red licorice. It was disappointed when the licorice disappeared down my dad's throat. |
        
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