Rio Mora NWR, Watrous NM May 19 - June 1, 2013

Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge just became a refuge in December, 2012. It used to be the Wind River Ranch, an educational research ranch, privately-owned and run by a small staff of five. It is a beautiful place, tucked in a river valley, about 20 miles north of Las Vegas, in northern NM. We stayed here for two weeks, and scanned documents for two other refuges: Las Vegas and Maxwell, doing some commuting as neither of these refuges has on-site housing. It was an interesting stay as this is a place in significant transition. The owner of the ranch donated it to the Fish and Wildlife Service, and there is a third party in the Denver Zoo, still involved in research and other projects. These three entities are working on a new and very complicated relationship and we had a front row seat during our stay. 

This is the side porch to the building that is both the office and the bunkhouse. It was a nice and very quiet place in the evenings. We enjoyed cool night temps and warm sunny days. 

This is the educational outreach barn. Although the refuge is not yet actually open to the public, they do host groups for retreats and outings. 

Rio Mora hosts a small herd of bison that roam the valleys. We saw them on several occasions and it was a thrill. They are controlled through a series of fenced-in areas, so they can't end up in the neighbor's farms/ranches.

Notice the snow-capped Sangre de Christo Mountain Range in the background. They provide a gorgeous compass.

Here are some images inside the bunkhouse. We each had our own room and worked/lived on the table in the main living area. It was nice to be able to walk out the door anytime and have such a beautiful place as our backyard.

Here you can see the moon rising above the bluff. The night skies here were beautiful.

There was a rooster on the grounds who was not shy about reminding everyone when he was hungry. Oliver had a ball feeding him and the two become fond of one another. There are probably too many photos of the feeding sessions, but they were funny. That rooster would find Oliver in the mornings, sometimes by tapping on the glass of the windows

We spent a lot of time around the water on the refuge skipping and throwing rocks.