Bandelier NM and Carson NF Backcountry

“Has anyone been backcountry camping in Bandelier National Monument or Carson National Forest, and can share pictures, tips of best areas to camp during the summer, general experiences and advice? I went on daytrips to both places while in college almost 8 years ago, now this summer I'll be spending a couple weeks at my mother-in-law's cabin in Red River, and thought I'd spend a night or two at each place - primitive away from established campgrounds, to get a feel of both the desert and the mountain-forest.”

“check out this thread: Bandelier Bound

and these albums: BANDELIER and Bandelier II ”

“reefmonkey, here's another idea, although I have no idea of snowpack. Go to Wild Rivers BLM area at the confluence of the Rio Grande and Red rivers. cool area. You can hike down an 800 ft. gorge to "shelters" by the stunning Rio Grande and camp... and fish, if ya like. Very pretty!!!”

“from red river you can do a nice approach of Wheeler Peak. Bandelier backcountry is very cool, check on water conditions.

Wheeler Peak from Red River

Bandelier , with some backcountry and Frijoles Canyon pics”

“Snow! If you want to do Wheeler, the snow pack is deep this year. It'll probably last through June on Wheeler.”

“Wild Rivers will be very wild early season this year.”

“lol, Pathman. I wonder if they do rafting on it, the Rio Grande, if water is way up?”

“Pathman, can ya join us in Bandelier in March for the trip or part of it?
Mar.12-18”

“hikurr, I keep looking at my schedule and it doesn't change.

lizs, there is some great rafting on the Rio Grande below taos and on the Rio Chama. Don't know about the wild rivers area.”

“Thanks for all the great info and pics. Are there some good maps y'all would reccomend for the areas besides the 7.5 topos, maybe something commerically printed that points out some of the best camping spots?”

“the area around 6 and 7 is pretty nice. Good base camp for doing Wheeler, doesn't get quite as much traffic as the lakes.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/carson/carson_pics/trail_91_map.gif”