A Walk Around the Horizon: Discovering New Mexico''s Mountains of the Four Directions

North of Santa Fe, the New Mexico landscape is framed by four high mountains. Although they are sacred to the Tewa Pueblo Indians, the four peaks are in different bureaucratic and cultural zones, which means that each peak attracts visitors but few non-Indian travellers visit more than one of the mountains.

Tom Harmers chronicle of climbing all four of these mountains in one summerSandia to the south, Chicoma to the west, Canjilon to the north, and Truchas to the eastoffers a unique view of a montane forest unlike any in the world, where mountain, plain, and desert biota converge. Outdoor enthusiasts and armchair travellers alike will relish Harmers precise account of his backpacking adventure, in which this sixty-two-year-old Anglo discovers the realities of complicated cultural legacies ecological challenges, and human foibles counterpoised against his own strengths and frailties. See more