Exploring

On another day, we drove in the opposite direction for a different type of exploration – visiting places we’d been before to get a different perspective.

We’ve seen this cabin several times, as it’s along a well-traveled road in the area.  However, each time we pass it, it seems to add to its story of days gone by, and abandonment.  The porch is falling apart a bit more, and the roof over the porch is sagging each time we see it.  I wonder how long until it collapses upon itself.

Just beyond the cabin, are two buildings.  The first one, an adobe structure, is truly beginning to fall into itself.  I am guessing, but I think it might have been a stable, of sorts, when the cabin was thriving and there were livestock to keep.  The second is more of a traditional wood barn, and I’m imagining that it was perhaps a storage barn of some sort, holding farm equipment and tools.

As we drove along another dirt road, we would periodically travel close to a creek or stream.  It wasn’t very big, yet it offered a lovely reflection photo of the greenery growing along its banks.  I was quite surprised by this, as the running water of a stream/creek, doesn’t often lend itself to these types of images.  The second image is of a wider area along this same creek or stream.  It seems to be somewhat of a bog here.  Perhaps that occurred because in a couple of places, Jeff could see a beaver dam.  Maybe the water found a new path around the dams after they were built.

There were some pretty purple sort of daisy type flowers all along the roadside.  I think they might be asters.  In any event, there were some lovely images to be had.  Can you see the bee in the image with the quote?

And, finally a perfect dandelion!  With the breezes that blow in New Mexico, it’s not often one comes across these!  I thought the quote captures the idea of the passage of time, which I always think of when I see a dandelion gone to seed.

Enjoy!

 

Eagle Nest Sights

After we left Red River, we spent a couple of days in the town of Eagle Nest, NM.  One of the days we were there, we thought we’d just drive around some of the backroads to see the sights around this town!

As we drove along a road in the area, we saw the aftereffects of a wildfire.  There’s too much new growth happening for this damage to have been from this year, so this must have been from a few years ago.  I always find the damage left by wildfires to be especially sad, because it was good intentions that set up the danger our forests are now in from wildfires.  Several years back, rangers were prohibited from setting what are called “controlled burns” to burn out the underbrush.  This caused all the fallen leaves, branches, etc., to just gather at the base of the trees, and become excellent kindling for when a lightning strike, or a person, started a fire.  I know around us the rangers are doing controlled burns again, but so much of the forest is still in a dangerous state, wildfires are a danger every year in the West.

Although it is sad to see the trees so damaged, there is a strange beauty in the coloration of the branches.  And, in the midst of some burned trees, sunflowers are making a comeback, sparking a note of joy and hope!

We turned off the paved road to follow this dirt road.  Little did we know that it would lead us to the Ponil Complex (see below). The Ponil Complex is part of the Philmont Scout Ranch. On June 3, 2002, lightning struck and started what was known as the Ponil Complex Wildfire.   By June 6, the fire had consumed about 60,000 acres, and when it was finally contained on June 17, 2002, it had burned over 92,000 acres.  It was the largest wildfire of that time.  The photos shown below are of the complex that appears to be a scout camp, although no one was there at the time.  One of the more interesting things in the camp was the bridge constructed over a small river.  In the photo in the upper right corner (below), you can see what almost looks like a giant bench.  That is the bridge, with only one side having any sort of railing to hold onto.

Another interesting sight we saw up on the side of a rock formation were these oddly shaped containers.  As it turns out, they are mud nests made by Mud Swallows.  Maybe another type of bird also builds these types of nests, but that’s the only bird Jeff knew of!!

We saw quite a bit of other wildlife on this road, too!  From the lower left, we have a rattlesnake (I took this from the safety of the Jeep, using my zoom lens!), black bear (who seemed more startled by us that we were coming around a corner to see him!), a hawk (who couldn’t care less that we were there) and finally, a lovely painted pony wondering why we were bothering it while it was enjoying a nice munch!

It was certainly peak bloom time for the sunflowers.  They are such happy flowers, they always make me smile, just looking at them!

Eagle Nest Lake, at almost 8200 feet in elevation, was such a pretty sight to see.  We really wanted to explore it and perhaps even let Max swim in it.  However, our Governor still had the state parks closed at the time we were there.  She did have them open for day-use, but only on the weekends, and we were there during the week.  Sigh…maybe next year!

Here you can see the remains of the old Eagle Nest Lodge and a sort of annex of rooms, Casa Loma.  The Lodge and Casa Loma were built around the 1920s or 1930s, and was open as a vacation destination until the early 1940s, when the country became immersed in World War II.  It then was only used off and on during the summers by one of the caretaker families that helped with the building and running of the Lodge.  This continued until the 1970s.  Unfortunately, no updates had been done, and a fire ravaged the Lodge and Casa Loma back in the 1980s.

Enjoy!

 

 

Hanging out at the Campground

Since we stayed at one site for two weeks, we did take time to explore around the campground.  Come for a walk with me!

                                 We had been at this campground last year, and since we booked at the last minute, we had to take what we could get.  But, we walked around the campground and found a few spots that we thought would work as a very peaceful space.  Well, here’s the view from the campground that we liked and were able to book!!  And, we were lucky enough to be able to get this same spot for next year!

There were flowers all around us.  Here are a few different ones, including one that was so tiny, it was easy to overlook!!

Max actually enjoyed splashing around in the river, and would sometimes try to chase the ducks!!  He never could catch them, though!

One morning, when I stepped outside the rig, I turned and saw the half moon!  So bright, even though the morning was bright!

The ducks did like to swim a bit upstream.  We walked along the shore in order to see them finding other places to swim with fewer people around.  The bridge they were swimming under has a bit of a story attached to it.  We had tried to cross the bridge to explore a back road beyond it.  However, the bridge was just a bit narrower that our Jeep was wide, so … ouch!!  All I can say is, I’m glad Jeff was driving at the time!!

Now, because the river flows from up the mountain, the water is icy cold.  I didn’t test it out, but when our next door neighbors put their watermelon in the river to keep it cold, they moved as quickly as they could as their feet got numb from the cold after about 30 seconds or so!!  The water was always flowing really quickly, which you can see by the photos I took!

And, finally, here are some shots of our rig at our campsite.  I was standing on the opposite bank when I took these.  Daylight or sunset, times at the campground were good!

Enjoy!

 

Red River Chair Lift

One day, we decided to take a ride on one of the chair lifts that take skiers up to the top of the mountain at Red River.  During the winter, several chair lifts operate.  But, during the summer, only one lift operates, taking folks to the top of the mountain where they can explore a bit.

The view from the chair during the summer is obviously quite different than it would be in the winter, but the summer scenery is just as lovely, even without the snow cover!

The ski runs look a bit bare, but I found it easy to imagine the fun it would be to make my way down the mountain down these trails!  Of course, I haven’t skied in years and years, so these would most likely be above my capability.  One can dream, though!!

All along the ride up, especially toward the bottom of the mountain, we’d see these beads, that reminded us of Mardi Gras!!

Another sight that gave us a chuckle was the “Snowflake Factory” where we believe they store all the snow making machines!!

At the top of the mountain, you are greeted with this map (center of photo), reflecting all the ski runs.  I was a bit surprised that there were other chair lifts that one could ride (in the winter) to get to runs further up top from where the main chair lift let you off!  I surrounded the map with photos I took of some of the ski run sights. I believe the green circles are the easy runs, with blue squares being the moderate runs.  Black diamonds are expert, I’m sure!!

While standing at the top of the mountain, I read over some interesting stats they have posted.  We were standing at about 10,350 feet above sea level where the chair lift left us off.  The base of the mountain is 8,750 feet above sea level.  The resort has a number of different chair lifts – a quad (the one we rode on), 3 triple chair lifts, 1 double chair lift and 2 of what they called “surface lifts”.  I’m guessing those are the types of lifts that gets one to the top of the bunny hill!!  And, if you look close at the image above, you can see one of the chair lifts that brings you back to the top from other runs you can ski!

When at the top, when I looked over away from the chair lift that brought us up here from Red River, I could see three peaks that are even higher than the mountain upon which we were standing.  Although I can’t recall their exact elevation, they are all in excess of 11,000 feet above sea level, a full 1,000 feet (minimum) higher than where we stood!

There are a lot of aspen trees at the top of the mountain and there’s an interesting tidbit of information about them! All the aspen trees at the top of this mountain are called Aspen Clones because they are all part of the same root system.  This enables the trees to better collect water and recover from disasters, such as wildfires.  Amazing!

Heading back down into town required the second half of the chair lift ride (which you cannot do in the winter).  We got to see some interesting sights on the way down, too.  A lovely bed of daisies smiled up at us as we rode up high over them.  And, making the trip up the mountain, was a special delivery!  Finally, we saw an old snow-cat from on high in the chair lift, although the photo was one I took when we were back on the ground!  It’s a Tucker Snow-Cat, mostly likely made in the late 1950s or early 1960s.  It’s just there as a reminder of the past, not that’s used today!

The last image from this post is the view we had riding the chair lift down!   We did meet some folks (and some mail) who were coming up as we headed down, but none were in this shot!

Enjoy!

 

 

Back Roads Around Red River

On a couple of days, we took a few rides on back roads that we’d traveled down before.  The scenery never gets old, though!

One of my favorite views is the view from up top looking across to the Taos Ski Resort.  Once upon a time, back in the day, I used to ski, but no more.  Now, I’m more the “sit in the lodge, sipping something tasty, and watching other folks brave the mountain” type!

A bit further down the road, and we could see our campground!  It’s really down in the valley, and you can see 2 different roads running past it.  The lower road is the road that we followed down to see the middle fork of the Red River, and the higher road will take you up over the mountain pass and down again at Eagle Nest, where we’ll be camping later on this trip!

The road we were on took us to the top of Greenie Peak, which is always a great view, but especially this time, with the rain clouds dumping a bit off in the distance!

We always like to see the animals that call this mountain home.  On the left, you can see, in the distance, cattle grazing in the summer meadows, and on the right, a deer that wanted to share the road with us…at least for a minute!!

Enjoy!!

 

Daisies..Plus One

One morning, as we walked around the campground, I noticed a wonderful group of daisies to photograph, along with another very sweet, very small flower.  Let me share them with you!

They remind me of very happy expectant faces just greeting you and welcoming you to have just the best day!  Daisies have always been one of my favorite flowers because just looking at them makes me smile!

And, for a bit of variation, here’s the same grouping of happy daisy faces, processed as an impressionist painting.  I love Monet’s impressionist paintings, but I can’t think if he ever painted anything quite so happy!!!

Of course, I couldn’t count on the wind not picking up as I photographed them!!  So, I just decided to go with what Nature was giving me, and ended up with some windblown daisies!

This is the “plus one”.  As we walked the campground, I noticed these beautiful blooms.  They are really small, maybe only a couple of inches in diameter, so very easy to miss!  When I processed the image, I thought an appropriate quote would really set off the flowers.  This quote seemed perfect!

Enjoy!

 

Follow the Winding Road

On another day at Red River, we started up the road along the middle fork of the Red River, but we turned off onto a dirt road closer to the beginning of the middle fork road.

We began up the road, and it quickly became a road of switchbacks as we made our way up a fairly steep mountain side.  Driving along these forested roads tend to have a somewhat calming effect on me, although I don’t know why.

As we climbed higher, our views were quite stunning.  The photo on the left was looking down on the town of Red River, and the one on the right, follows the Middle Fork Road, that we traveled down just the day before.

And, just as we reached the top of the road, and thought we’d turn off onto another road to continue over the back road area, we reached a dead end.  We could tell where the road used to go, but the fence across it, as well as the sign, told us we’d go no farther.  As it turns out Flying Horse Ranch, is a horse ranch and, perhaps the best term is a sort of dude ranch.  Typically, they would offer chuckwagon dinners and shows on the weekends, but not during these COVID times.  The ranch and facilities are accessed via the highway we were thinking we could drive to.  Darn!

Here was our final view at the top.  Some great aspen trees.  In just a few weeks, those green leaves will be a wonderful golden yellow!

Enjoy!

 

Middle Fork of Red River

One of the days that we visited Red River, New Mexico, we decided to explore a road that we hadn’t ever driven down, which meandered along the middle fork of the Red River.

As you can see, the middle fork doesn’t look much like a river – more like a stream or creek! And, It is very, very shallow.  It may be a bit hard to see, since the water is so clear, but I think perhaps my ankles may have become wet if I had waded into it!

Here are a couple of other views from along the road.  The river is certainly shallow, and yet it provides enough water to keep everything nice and green!  It looks positively lush!

When we look at the river from a fair distance, the flowing of the river looks pretty static.  However, when I looked at the rocks at the bottom of the river, you can get an idea of how quickly the water actually flows!

One of the nicest accents on the river bend are the flowers!  These remind me of Queen Anne’s Lace, but I don’t think that’s what they are.

And, finally, we wandered around and sort of jumped over this little stream.  I’m not certain if this is another fork of the Red River, but it’s certainly picturesque!!

Enjoy!!