Canyon Madness Ranch hovers above one of New Mexico’s unsung natural treasures — the awesome Canadian River Canyon. Yeah, it’s pretty darn deep. But that’s not the only thing that makes the canyon and its river so special.

Flowing more than 900 miles in total, the Canadian starts its journey in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of southern Colorado before carving a huge canyon into the face of northeast New Mexico. From there it meanders across the Texas Panhandle and straight through Oklahoma before a confluence with the Arkansas River near Fort Smith.

Ultimately, the water carried down from the mountains by the Canadian River makes its way into the mighty Mississippi and ultimately into the Gulf of Mexico.

No one knows for sure how a waterway so far south came to be called the Canadian. It might have been named by 18th-century French traders transiting the area. It may be the corruption of a Caddo Indian word. Then again, it may derive from the Spanish word cañada, which designates a deep or narrow canyon.

No matter where the name came from, the Canadian River — and the stupendous canyon it carved over thousands of years — that makes Canyon Madness Ranch such an extraordinary place to visit and explore by horseback, mountain bike, hiking or Humvee.