The Rio de los Pinos is one of those quiet little border streams that crosses and re-crosses the New Mexico–Colorado line, winding through meadow and rincon country with the Cumbres & Toltec railroad somewhere up the valley. It's small water, wild browns with cutthroat and cutbows in the colder reaches, and it asks for the same things every good small stream does: a light line, a careful approach, and the patience to fish the likely lies rather than thrash the whole pool. Access is a genuine puzzle here — the river threads through a mix of public, private and cross-border land, so it pays to work out exactly where you can legally fish before you go. Once snowmelt drops in early summer it's a lovely dry-dropper river, and the autumn fishing is quieter still. A small, honest stream for anglers who like to earn it.

• Mixed

• Aquatic life: Impaired