They seem like places where there wouldn’t be old houses, abandoned farms, and ranches. You don’t usually see towns or houses inside National Parks of Yellowstone, Yosemite, or Rocky Mountain National Park. Well, National Grasslands tend to be different. It’s the same here at Rita Blanca as it is at Pawnee National Grasslands in Colorado. The prairies were opened up to farming and ranching in the 1860s. The land was parceled out. In the 1930s and 40s, the federal government started buying back failed farms and ranches and restoring it. The result is a patchwork of public and private land. As we explore it now, we are free to ramble all the public land while respecting the occasional private property barriers of the remaining inhabitants.
Now, we’re at Oasis State Park in New Mexico.
The Great February Birding Trip Map
Tomorrow we’ll be out of the Panhandle and back into West Texas.