This first volume of the Natural Treasure Guide series focuses on the jewels of New Mexico's unique landscape that are hidden in plain sight: its stunning mountain ranges and peaks.
With over a one hundred named mountain ranges (more than Colorado), the mountains of New Mexico are much more than hiking trails and grand vistas. For example, New Mexico has more volcanoes than anywhere else in the US. Its mountains are full of geological wonders, historical dramas, colorful characters, endangered plants, rare animals and some of the oldest rocks on earth. Nowhere else but in New Mexico will you find a mountain that was once an ocean, ancient footprints of Tyrannosaurs Rex, plant species found nowhere else in the world, the second fastest mammal on earth, sightings of Big Foot, and the oldest apple trees in the US.
Here’s how the book works. First, there are a series of short, informative pieces to help readers understand mountains in general and give them a vocabulary for what’s to come.
What is a Mountain?
When is a Mountain a Peak?
How are Mountains Made?
How do Mountains get their Names?
Life Zones in the Western Mountains
Twenty mountains are featured. These mountains were chosen because they have good stories to tell and are fairly well distributed throughout the state. In this book, we refer to the mountains by three names when possible: Indigenous, Spanish, and English.
For each one we include the following name and location information as it applies and if it is available:
Indigenous name(s) of peak and mountain range
Spanish name(s) of peak and mountain range
English name (s) of peak and mountain range
Elevation of peak
Mountain Range
Pueblo or Reservation
National Forest
County or Counties
The story of each mountain is different, but generally the description of each mountain includes the following:
The name of the mountain peak and the mountain range
The geology of the mountain range
How the peak or mountain got its name
History and stories of the mountain
Flora and fauna of the mountain
Visually attractive with full color throughout, including dozens of large, vivid photographs, the book is intuitively designed to allow many different points of access, and appeal to a broad range of readers, from age 12 and up.
