Santa Fe / Pecos Wilderness

**Tier A is legitimate—True Morels are firing now.** Soil temps have been reliably at threshold for a week straight with sustained moisture at 0.21 VWC, ticking all the classic spring morel boxes. Spring King Boletes and False Morels are borderline viable but trailing behind; they'll pop harder once soil climbs another 2–3°F, which should happen by early June if melt continues steady. The hard ceiling here is desiccation. You're at 1% of normal SWE with only 0.93" precip in the last fortnight—this window is *narrow*. The moisture that triggered morels will evaporate fast at altitude once daytime temps climb. Expect a 5–7 day sweet spot before conditions flip dry. Snowline positions tell the real story: melt is active and steady, but the high-elevation zones where these species fruit are still marginal. Work mid-elevation south aspects (9,000–10,500 ft) where soil warmth concentrates and morels fruit earliest. **Hot tip:** Scout at first light tomorrow and the next two days—morel buttons flush in 36–48 hours once soil hits this threshold, and you'll beat the drying trend before afternoon sun shuts down fruiting production.

Generated by Claude (Anthropic) from the structured weather, soil, and phenology data on this page. The LLM can misread edge cases — treat this as a starting hypothesis, not a guarantee. Always verify conditions on the ground before committing to a long drive.