Quebradas Back Country Byway is both a State (July 31, 1998) and National (June 20, 1989)

scenic byway A scenic route, tourist road, tourist drive, scenic byway, or holiday road is a specially designated road or waterway that travels through an area of natural or cultural beauty. It often passes by Scenic viewpoint, scenic viewpoints. The designat ...

, in

Socorro County, New Mexico Socorro County () is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 16,595. The county seat is Socorro. The county was formed in 1852 as one of the original nine counties of New Mexico Te ...

, United States. It is managed by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

Route

With a length of about 24 miles, the Quebradas Back Country Byway can be picked up in the north of southwestern New Mexico, near I-25, close to Socorro at the Escondida Exit. The byway stretches over to the east and then down to U.S. 380 in the south. Outdoor enthusiasts enjoy a variety of activities along the byway including hiking, photography, ATVing, rockhounding, and biking.

Features

The byway is known for its geographical features such as the , which in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

often refers in plural to the eroded

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...

of a

plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and ...

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a ...

. Other features include

badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, ...

, fossils,

rhombohedral In geometry, a rhombohedron (also called a rhombic hexahedron or, inaccurately, a rhomboid) is a special case of a parallelepiped in which all six faces are congruent rhombus, rhombi. It can be used to define the rhombohedral lattice system, a Ho ...

calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...

crystals A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macrosc ...

malachite Malachite () is a copper Carbonate mineral, carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the chemical formula, formula Basic copper carbonate, Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often for ...

azurite Azurite or '' Azure spar'Krivovichev V. G.'' Mineralogical glossary. Scientific editor A. G. Bulakh. — St.Petersburg: St.Petersburg Univ. Publ. House. 2009. — 556 p. — ISBN 978-5-288-04863-0. ''(in Russian)'' is a soft, deep-blue copp ...

and more. Interesting attractions are along the byway including the pool and , which is an abandoned mining area including a mining shaft,

adit An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) or stulm is a horizontal or nearly horizontal passage to an underground mine. Miners can use adits for access, drainage, ventilation, and extracting minerals at the lowest convenient level. Adits are a ...

, and several exploration pits.

Route

Features

See also

References

Further reading