Canyon again off limits at Chile Challenge

Off-road vehicle aficionados are gearing up for an annual rock crawl event that will take place this week on public lands near Las Cruces. Drivers from several states - along with their vehicles, usually heavily modified to navigate rough terrain - will show up to the 21st Annual Chile Challenge. Most of the trails are in the Robledo Mountains, northwest of Las Cruces. But one of the main attractions of past years has again been eliminated on its most popular day, in an attempt to curtail the number of spectators. As was the case last year, the agency has disallowed use of vehicle trails in Branson Canyon, but only on Saturday, said U.S. Bureau of Land Management official Tom Phillips. One of the most rugged Chile Challenge routes runs through that canyon. And it once attracted hundreds of people on the event's last day, because it was relatively easy to access and people were off work for the weekend. At risk, Phillips said, was public safety, the reason the agency decided to keep the restriction in place when setting the terms of this year's event...more