Off-Trail Backpacking in Northern New Mexico - Cruces Basin Wilderness - Beaver/CDT/FR 87 Loop

A three day backpacking trip in the Cruces Basin Wilderness filmed the weekend of June 20, 2020. There are no established trails in the wilderness, but enough person and horse traffic has made a few easy-to-follow social trails. As you stray from the oft-visited parts, however, the trails are primarily game-created, if any exist at all.
All music done by me. Some original, some covers, including a Survivorman tribute riff I threw in there. In the future, I plan on getting some better audio equipment both for the background music and for the recording while hiking.
Approximate route: caltopo.com/m/...
Cruces Basin Wilderness: en.wikipedia.o...
CDT: continentaldiv...

[@missajimnig]

I love Cruces Basin. It's probably one of my favorite places on earth. I can't count the number of elk & deer hunts plus boondocking trips I have had there over the years.

[@jdsrcs8061]

Cruces Basin!!!! Love it up there!!!! My dad has a cabin in TP that is a base camp for our hunts. Hiking up there is so much fun!!!!👍👍👍

[@marthaee]

Wow! Beautiful!

[@Dave7Josh2]

Looks like some really great flyfishing to be had along the trail.....nice vid

[@ManzanoManATVAdventures]

The Cruces basin is awesome! I bet it had a remote and rugged feeling to it being that a lot of the wilderness doesn't have a designated trail through it. Your camp spots were sweet! I would love to section hike the CDT up in that area someday. I've only section hiked it in the San Pedro Parks. Great job making your own music man. It sounds great! Thumbs up!

[@ronnie32567]

That is beautiful country up there, I’ve been to Cruses basin many times camping but I’ve never been to the bottom of the canyon. I always camped up on the mountain. I’m going back from Florida in September I’ll have to go down to the creek this time. Up on the mountain around the small meadows interspersed throughout the Aspen groves there are a lot of Aspen trees carved with names and dates of the Basque sheep hearders dating back to the 1920s, ya gotta go see

[@ashleyarrossa151]

Great video! I like the style and this was perfect as I was doing some research on the area.

[@TeenyTots]

Awesome sharing, new sub 31. New friend here. Stay connected #TeenyTots.

[@AVENTURASTOTALES]

Nice video!

[@cjjt66]

Great video! Excellent footage and explanation. You music is good & not overpowering in the video. Did you start at the the Cruces Basin trail head, or at the Scenic Overlook with the corral near North Largo Tank?

[@OneMansOdyssey]

Thank you! I started at Cruces Basin Trailhead. There is a link to a CalTopo map in the description that outlines my route, including a doable Day 3 route that doesn't require a road walk. I think, in retrospect, starting at the corral would probably be a better option for this route, unless one wanted to spend a lot of time exploring the cascades.

[@KnifeCrazzzzy]

Awesome trip man! Would you say a car could make it on those Forrest service roads?

[@OneMansOdyssey]

It’s been 4 years, so my memory is a little fuzzy, but I remember the main road (FR 87) being pretty good quality. The cutoff to the “trailhead” (FR 572) is definitely a high clearance road, as I recall.

[@KnifeCrazzzzy]

@@OneMansOdyssey Much appreciated! 🙏🏻

[@H3DG3xC043]

Bro why yall use the same banjo music!! Lol