Rio Grande del Norte NM

We were very impressed on our first visit to this national monument two years ago and knew we would be back.  Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico was established in 2013.  The 242,455 acre monument includes two BLM recreation areas, and sections of the Rio Grande and the Red River, each of which are designated as a Wild and Scenic River.  

There are several campgrounds along the rim of the mesa between the two rivers, each with just a few really nice sites.  One day we hiked from our campground to the point of the mesa which overlooks the confluence of the two rivers.

Although it's hard to see even with a zoomed view, the Red River comes in on the lower left to join the Rio Grande on the right.

There are four different trails down to the river including one at this point which drops 800 feet.  Ron and I don't like hikes that end with a big uphill climb, especially at 7500 feet, so we didn't go down very far.

However, after staying a couple of days, we talked ourselves into hiking down to the Rio Grande.  Don’t be too impressed, though.  We went to a part of the mesa that isn’t as high above the river.

Here’s the sign at the trailhead.  As you can see, although steep, it’s a pretty short hike.  I was more worried about those snakes.

My pictures are terrible because it was cloudy, but I’ll post a few anyway.

 

Getting close.

At the bottom, the trail was not even passable, in my opinion.  After all, they did mention snakes on the sign.  Ron continued on without me and said he only saw one.

No pictures can do justice to this beautiful national monument.  We recommend it highly.

Columbine CG

For our next move, we only went about 9 miles to a forest service campground.  After camping free for most of the summer, it was a real shock to pay $9 a night ($18, if we weren’t old.)  It is a really nice campground, though, with large spaces having huge ‘yards’.  We even found one with enough sun for the solar.  At least it would have been enough if it hadn’t rained every afternoon.

But the mornings were lovely and we hiked up the trail that leaves right out of the campground.  We followed the trail up Columbine Canyon and turned up a side canyon after about 1 ½ miles.

It is certainly a well-constructed trail with impressive bridges.

We wondered what had dug out this tree trunk.  Bear, maybe?

We enjoyed the beautiful woods . . .

And the trail sections along the creek.

Hey, I know the name of this one – monarda or bee balm.

And the weirdly-named cow parsnip.

On our way back down the canyon, we ran into a huge group of pack llamas.  I thought this was the most ridiculous thing.  They weren’t even going as far as we did, for goodness sake.  Why do they need a trail guide and pack animals?  Ron patiently explained that it was just for the experience.  Huh.

The llamas were very well behaved and most just crossed the stream independently.  But the guide did lead a couple of the newbies.

Continuing on our way, we had new obstacles to avoid.

The only butterfly I can identify is the zebra longwing and this isn’t it.

A Little Boondocking

With our New Mexico State Parks Pass, we have been staying almost exclusively in their campgrounds, but our next few stops were different.  Because we were trying to stay cool, we found a boondocking spot in the Allstays app which was just 1 ½ miles north of Red River at almost 9000 feet.

We parked in town and walked partway up the road to see how bad it was.  In the motorhome vs. trailer discussion, that’s a plus in the motorhome column because we could have just driven the towed car up.  But we decided the lane-and-a-half dirt road was good enough and up we went.  The last part got considerably worse, but we persevered.

It was a Thursday, so we had our choice of spots and grabbed the only fairly level one.

We took a couple of nice hikes up the continuation of the deteriorating road, but, at that height, the longest was less than three miles round trip. 

Saw lots of these pretty black and white butterflies.

And what looked like Spanish moss.  I thought that only grew in the southeast.

But this area is mostly used by people with ATVs.  On Friday they started pouring in.  We couldn’t believe it when we saw TWO of these 38 foot toy haulers come around the corner.  Wow!  Although that’s a plus in the trailer column (if you’re keeping track), because a 38’ motorhome would have twisted and popped out a windshield.

By the end of the day, it was no longer a peaceful spot.

We probably will never go back there despite the entertainment of watching the neighbors.  The road was too bad and there was no phone or internet even with the proximity of the town.

Flying with the Angels

Okay, not really.  But Angel Fire is a ski resort which cleverly converts into a family playground in the summer.  We had a lot of morning clouds and afternoon rain during our stay, and kept checking the weather forecast for the perfect day to ride the chair lift.  Our last day at Eagle Nest looked like it would be perfect.

The day didn’t begin well.  Ron snapped this picture of the early fog.  You can barely see the outline of the hills across the lake.

But the fog lifted and we were off to Angel Fire Resort.  The ski lift was longer than I expected.

We hiked around on top of the mountain, sometimes gasping for air at over 10000 feet.

If you ever wondered how to identify the various conifers, this sign is pretty interesting.

We had been told there was a mountain lake, but obviously the teller hadn’t been there in a while.

We saw what we believe to be bobcat tracks.  So cool.

And the flattest chapel ever.

I know a lot of places open their ski lift in the summer, but Angel Fire takes it several steps farther.  I was impressed with the disk golf course they created on top of the mountain.

But the really big attraction consisted of numerous mountain bike trails down the mountain.  Like ski runs, they are rated as to difficulty.  I thought this was genius!  Here’s a family all suited up and ready to begin their trip down.

And in case you were wondering how the bikes get up there, they have their own chairs on the lift!

Here we are coming in for a landing back at the bottom.

While we were in the area, I kept saying I wanted to get a picture of the purple flowers that were blooming everywhere.  I was told they were penstemon.  Finally on the last day, I did.

Back to Eagle Nest

We can now understand why our RVing friends rave about Eagle Nest State Park.  At 8200 feet, it’s definitely the place to be during the hot days of summer.  The scenery is lovely and, although tiny, the town of Eagle Nest has a few eateries, a laundromat, a thrift store, and a yummy ice cream parlor.  If that isn’t enough, about 10 miles away is the slightly larger town of Angel Fire – winter ski town and summer playground.

We happened to arrive just in time for the 36^th Annual Angel Fire Artsfest.  I don’t have any pictures, but this juried event was out of this world and had a wide variety of art.  We enjoyed the paintings, photographs, sculpture, pottery, and, of course, jewelry.  We spoke to several of the artists who were all so friendly and shared their stories with us.

Another day, I participated in a garden tour sponsored by the Angel Fire Garden Club.  It was not the grand gardens that I was expecting, but more hardscape, with beautiful stonework and multi-level patios.  All six of the homes were located in the surrounding wooded hills with the challenge of prevented deer from consuming everything.  I only have one very poor picture.

Another day Ron and I took a hike in Angle Fire which began at pretty Monte Verde Lake,

Where this mommy mallard (?) had her babies out for a swim.  (The babies were too fast to photograph.)

Then we climbed up a bit into the hills to take the Lady Slipper Trail.  On the way Ron spotted this deer lying in the woods.  We wondered if she was birthing a fawn since she never moved as we went by on the trail.  (Don’t worry, this was a zoomed shot.)

We went over the river,

And through the woods.

And found some nice viewpoints, but no Grandmother’s house.

Another terrible picture, but we were excited to see what I guess is a Western Tanager.  Anybody know for sure?

Back at the park, we had a few laughs.  I kept thinking the neighbor’s gate was a wildlife sighting.

At one point, the site next to us was occupied by two trucks, two boats, one RV, and two tents.  There doesn’t seem to be a limit here.

And we got a kick out of another neighbor who had quite a system for getting his fishing equipment down to the lake.