Enchanted Circle

 

  

I took a trip around the Enchanted Circle, starting and ending at Taos, New Mexico.  This circle of roads goes around some of the ski areas of northern New Mexico, thereby allowing for great scenery and a fun day trip.

I started early in the morning and drove north into the Carson National Forest.  I kept stopping at different areas to take photos.   The first town on the way was Questa, which wasn’t much of a tourist destination, but seemed like a nice little town.

Moving along, the roads were good and not at all crowded, and took me up to almost 8700’ and the ski resort town of Red River.  This area was very crowded due to a chili cookoff/music festival this weekend.  The main street  is situated between 2 mountain areas and is a very touristy place.  They make use of the ski lifts during the summer by giving rides up to the top at 10,000’.  I was feeling the effects of lower oxygen saturation, but I walked around town for a while, checking out some of the shops.

My next stop was Eagle’s Nest, a smaller town, and less touristy.  I had lunch there in a little restaurant that had all sorts of memorabilia for decorations – ice skates, vintage hub caps and chrome car names on the walls.  There were a few old license plates and a traffic stoplight in the corner. The menus were glued on old music LPs.  After lunch I went into a little shop that had a variety of rocks, minerals and crystals for sale.  Very pretty stuff, and some of them are priced anywhere from $5 up, mostly up.  I’ve seen some that are priced in the hundreds. 

The weather in this area was very pleasant – sunny, with a few clouds and about 75, with low humidity – just right for running around without AC in the truck and walking around these towns. 

On the way to the next town, Angel Fire, another ski resort, I stopped at one of the state parks and took the photos shown below. 

 

The prairie dogs are plentiful in this area.  They will stand by the side of the road or run across the road even with vehicles coming by.  I tried to get some good photos of them on the trail to the lake, but they wouldn’t come out of their burrows.  I got this photo at the last little town I stopped at today.
                        
Coming home, the roads were mostly downhill and very twisty, with lots of turns and brought me down to about 6700’, where I’ve been staying.  Along the way, I had to stop and take photos of a cute little house – a bit of a fixer-upper.  Check it out……