Below the committing Taos Box the Rio Grande opens out through Pilar — the Racecourse and Orilla Verde water — and this is the friendly face of the big river. The road runs beside it, the rafts go through in summer, and you can actually get to the bank without an expedition. It still fishes like the Rio Grande, though: browns and rainbows that pull hard, the odd native cutthroat down from the cold tributaries, and the famous spring stonefly and caddis emergence that brings the whole river to life. Big attractors and rubber-legs in the pocket water, heavy nymphs through the deeper runs, streamers when the light goes flat. Spring before runoff peaks and autumn are the windows; high summer turns it warm, off-colour and busy with boats. Read the flow first — this is a river where the level tells you more than the calendar.

• Volcanic

• Aquatic life: Impaired