Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Nature reserve in Socorro County, United States.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge lies in southern New Mexico, in Socorro County, where the Rio Grande floodplain meets the Chupadera and San Pascual Mountains. Its core holds about 3,800 acres of floodplain and 9,100 acres of seasonal wetlands, with 44,300 acres of arid grassland and foothills around them, some 30,000 acres of it designated wilderness. A fourteen-mile loop road, split by a cutoff into north and south loops, crosses the wetlands.

The refuge was founded in 1939 and is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Before the Apache camped in the riverside forests that gave the refuge its name, the Piro people lived around these lands until the 1600s, when European diseases and Apache attacks forced them to abandon their pueblos.

The name "Bosque del Apache" means "woodland of the Apache" in Spanish, referring to Apache tribes who once camped in the riverside forests. Before them, the Piro people lived around the refuge until the 1600s, when disease and Apache attacks forced them to abandon their pueblos. Each early December the refuge holds a Festival of the Cranes as the birds arrive.

A 14-mile loop road, split by a cutoff into north and south loops, lets drivers view the seasonal wetlands and raptors; several walking trails run 0.5 to 2 miles. A desert plant garden sits next to the Visitor Center. Winter visitors often time their stay for sunrise or sunset, when cranes and geese commute between roosts and feeding fields.

The name "Bosque del Apache" means "woodland of the Apache" in Spanish, referring to Apache tribes who camped in the forests along the Rio Grande. Before them, the Piro people lived around what is now the refuge until the 1600s, when European diseases and Apache attacks forced them to abandon their pueblos.