Voices of the past, present echo across the cliffs of Mills Canyon in northeast New Mexico

Apr. 7—The silence of Mills Canyon is broken intermittently by distant voices emanating from out-of-sight nooks somewhere above or below the rough one-lane dirt road I'm taking on foot while descending from the rim to the canyon bottom.

As I progress down the path, I read interpretive signs that describe the vision of a man from another time who imagined and created an audacious agricultural enterprise in this place of stunning natural beauty, then saw it all washed away.

This remote stretch of the majestic Canadian River Canyon in northeast New Mexico presents a rugged landscape that echoes with voices of the past and present.

Tucked away in the vast, cholla-dotted shortgrass prairies of Harding County, the Mills Canyon area is a burgeoning destination for a certain subset of outdoors enthusiasts but still relatively unknown to others.

Climbers from around the country are drawn to the least populated corner of New Mexico — just 657 people were counted in Harding County in the 2020 census — by the promise of incredible bouldering. The tiny, dusty town of Roy is the nearest outpost to the sought-after Dakota sandstone of the Mills Canyon and Mesteño Canyon area that's situated about 16 miles to the northwest.

The problems (bouldering routes) near Roy have drawn more and more climbers in the years following the 2016 release of Owen Summerscales' New Mexico Bouldering guidebook. It was the first guide to include information on some of the vast bouldering opportunities in the area. Since then, the bouldering near Roy has been hailed in articles in Outside and Climbing magazines, a 2019 Patagonia catalog feature and more.

Photos I'd seen of Mills Canyon's striking red, white and tan cliffs had me interested in what it might have to offer a non-climber. The area had been on my radar for a handful of years before I finally committed to making the trip on a warm weekend in late February.

The journey out to Mills Canyon adds to its aura. It's about 160 miles from Santa Fe, 100 of which can be covered on Interstate 25. But once you take the exit for Wagon Mound and put the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the rearview mirror, the isolation of northeast New Mexico's high plains starts to take hold.

I didn't keep count, but I definitely saw more pronghorn antelope than humans during the final 60 miles of the desolate drive. There were times where I realized several minutes had passed since I'd last seen another vehicle on the road.

The Canadian River Canyon makes a brief and dramatic appearance between Wagon Mound and Roy as N.M. 120 winds along the cliff walls hundreds of feet down into and up out of the canyon before returning to the flat plains. In Roy, a village of about 200 people, the route to Mills Canyon heads north on N.M. 39 for another 10 miles. Then you trade pavement for dirt and go west for six miles on Mills Canyon Road before arriving at Mills Rim Campground.

I snagged one of the two remaining sites at the small campground and returned to Mills Canyon Road on foot to hike down to the canyon bottom. The narrow switchback road is rough in places and a high-clearance vehicle is strongly recommended for those who want to drive the 3.3 miles down to Mills Canyon Campground.

Footpaths have been worn to popular bouldering spots around Mills and Mesteño canyons, but there are no established trails or other forms of developed recreation in this area that's managed by the Cibola National Forest's Kiowa and Rita Blanca National Grasslands, recreation program manager Chris Nichols said.

For me, Mills Canyon Road provided a satisfying hiking experience that offered fantastic views as well as information posted on interpretive signs about the canyon's geology and the history of its namesake.

In the late 1800s, influential attorney and political figure Melvin Mills established a massive orchard and ranch complex within the canyon's walls. Mills, who was born in Ontario, Canada, used water from the Canadian River to irrigate vegetable gardens and thousands of trees that produced tons of peaches, pears, apples, plums, apricots, cherries, walnuts, chestnuts and almonds that were sold throughout the region.

It was all lost in 1904 when a devastating flood ripped through the canyon and destroyed the orchard and ranch buildings. A sign states that Mills, who died in 1925 at age 79, borrowed heavily as result of the flood and eventually lost all his money and property. The ranch was abandoned in 1916.

From a shelf midway down the canyon, it's easy to look out and envision the orchard on the land next to the winding river. Ruins of buildings of the ranch and orchard also remain on the canyon bottom as marks of the past. What's left of the two-story main house can be found just beyond the Mills Canyon Campground.

While the interpretive signs focus on Melvin Mills' enterprise, the canyon had been in use long before he arrived.

The river canyon is a predominant feature and a cradle of life in the expansive high plains. The Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, Comanche, Plains Apache, Mescalero Apache and Jicarilla Apache all have historical and cultural ties to the region, according to a 2009 U.S. Forest Service report on the plants and history of the Kiowa and Rita Blanca National Grasslands. Place names also attest to the long Spanish presence in the area dating back to the 1500s, the report states.

I spent about six hours hiking along the road, checking out the ruins, scrambling around rocky outcroppings and sitting at overlooks to soak in the calm and colors of the canyon. While there were a few moments when I heard climbers in unseen crevices, most of my hike was spent in silence with the only sound being the wisp of the wind past my ears.

The visit was reminiscent of an early 2020 trip to the Sabinoso Wilderness, my only other contact with the Canadian River Canyon system. I had to rely on a friend to drive me to the trailhead with his Jeep since the only access road is incredibly rough and would have been impossible for my sedan to navigate. But once there, the solitude of the setting and the splendor of the scenery left us in awe. We never saw another person or vehicle and were likely the only human visitors to the wilderness that day.

With the uptick in visitation farther north around Mills Canyon, the climbers who have early roots in the area have stressed that new visitors should be respectful of the land and locals by practicing Leave No Trace principles, not driving the dirt roads when it's muddy, and not disturbing any cultural artifacts or historic structures they come across.

Having hiked several miles during my day of exploration, I returned to my campsite as others were coming back from their day of climbing. The wind picked up across the plains as we tried to make our meals but it eventually calmed as darkness fell. Then it was time for the stars to put on a dazzling display.

Whether a climber or not, new visitors to Mills Canyon will likely feel fulfilled from their time spent in this beautiful, interesting, peaceful place that continues to excite imaginations.