Hiking to Middle Fork Lake

Jan 15

Written By Jim Nix

A little gem of an alpine lake in Northern New Mexico

I just love the mountains. They are so beautiful, peaceful, and photo-friendly of course. However, I live in central Texas (Austin), so I'm not exactly able to see them very often. In fact, it's pretty infrequent that I get to, which is a cryin' shame....because I am definitely a mountain man, as opposed to a beach guy. Well, not a mountain man in the sense of not ever bathing or shaving - just a man that loves the mountains. That sound better?

Anyways, my family has a habit of going West when we can, which is not a cryin' shame, because I just love the West, and hey guess what? There are mountains out that way! :-)

I just loved this view of the lake with that big log laying there

Same as the last photo, but converted to a painting in Topaz Impression

In particular, we seem to be in New Mexico at least once a year. There are some very beautiful parts of the state, and I'm glad that I get the opportunity to visit. There's a little town way up in sort of the northern central part of the state known as Red River. It's base elevation is about 9,000 feet up, so it's rather high. And it's rather quaint, as small mountain towns tend to be.

But, it's nestled high up there and that puts me in a great spot to shoot some great stuff, which I'm rather obviously a fan of! Last summer, we spent nearly 2 weeks up there, and I shot to my hearts' content. Well, maybe not, but I did take a lot of photos LOL.

One day we decided to hike up to Middle Fork Lake, which we have done before, and I hope we can do again some day. It's basically a two hour hike up some mountain trails, ending at the beautiful lake that you see in the pics today. Along the way, you pass by a few waterfalls, and you stop for a lot of water breaks, because hiking at that altitude is EXHAUSTING. But as you can see, when you get there it's well worth it...especially when you are the only folks there.

We always pack a lunch, hang out for a bit, walk around the lake some, and then head back down. It pretty much takes the whole day, but what a way to spend one!