s you camp on Baldy Pecos, or the Truchas, or
Grass Mountain, or in Horse-Thief Canyon.

There are several other ways in which the National Forests of New
Mexico discount Eastern expectation.

First of all, they are cheap; and that is not true of the majority of
trips through the West. Ordinarily, it costs more to take a trip to the
wilds of the West than to go to Europe. What with enormous distances to
be traversed and extortionate hotel charges, it is much cheaper to go to
Paris than to San Francisco; but this is not true of the Forests of New
Mexico. Prices have not yet been jacked up to "all the traffic will
stand." The constant half-hour leak of tips at every turn is unknown. If
you gave a tip to any of the ranch people who take care of you in the
National Forests of Mexico, the chances are they would hand it back,
leaving you a good deal smaller than you feel when you run the gauntlet
of forty servitors lined up in a Continental hotel for tips. In letters
of gold, let it be written across the face of the heavens--_There is
still a no-tip land._ As prices rule to-day in New Mexico, you can
literally take a holiday cheaper in the National Forests than you can
stay at home. Once you have reached the getting off place from the
transcontinental railroad, it will cost you to go into the Forests $4 an
hour by motor, and the roads are good enough to make a long trip fast.
In fact, you can set down the cost of going in and out at not less than
$2, nor more than $4. If you hire a team to go in, it will not cost you
more than $4 a day, including driver, driver's meals and horse feed. Or
you may still buy a pony in New Mexico at from $35 to $60, and so have
your own horse for a six weeks' holiday. To rent a horse by the month
would probably not cost $20. Set your going in charges down at $2--where
will you go? All through the National Forests of New Mexico are ranch
houses, usually old Mexican establishments taken over and modernized,
where you can board at from $8 to $10 a week. Don't picture to yourself
an adobe dwelling with a wash basin at the back door and a roller towel
that has been too popular; that day has been long passed in the ranches
of New Mexico. The chances are the adobe has been whitewashed, and your
room will look out either on the little courtyard in the center, or from
the piazza outside down the valleys; and somewhere along the courtyard
or piazza facing the valley will be a modern bathroom with hot and c