‘It’s a Beautiful River in the Middle of a Hellscape’

A hiker crosses a bridge over the Pecos River, downstream from its source in the Sangre de Christo Mountains in northern New Mexico. Photos by Jerry Redfern.

It’s an early May afternoon, and Charlie Barrett has parked his pickup in a pullout along a county road a few hundred feet from the Black River in southern New Mexico, just a mile from where it empties into the Pecos River.