Enchanting!

Currently In: Questa, NM
Leaving for Santa Fe tomorrow

The drive through these 5 Northern New Mexico towns is enchanting!  The scenic byway loop is goes through mountains, valleys, mesas and national forest.
We started in Questa headed toward the resort town of Red River.  This portion goes through the Carson National Forest.  In parts of it you feel like you are driving through a canyon.  This was my favorite part of the drive.

Then out of Red River into Eagle's Nest we started to see the valley.

We had a picnic lunch at Eagle Nest Lake.

On our way to Angel Fire, we got a good view of Wheeler Peak, the mountain at the center of the Enchanted Circle.

There is a beautiful Vietnam Vet Memorial in Angel Fire.  We stopped to honor those Vets.

There was a lovely garden as well as a chapel.  It was quite moving.

From Angel Fire to Taos is a pretty, but short drive.  I got one shot of the trees here.

We did the drive from Taos to Questa several times during our stay through Arroyo Honda and Arroyo Seco.  The landscape changes quite a bit!

Just north of Questa, where we are staying, is the National Monument.  We took a look around the day after the Circle drive.

There were beautiful views of the Rio Grande River and the canyon it created.

We decided to do a hike to the river because hit was marked "easy" on our trail map.  Under 1/2 mile.  When we got to the trail head, the marker said "moderate difficulty".  Oh well, how hard can it be?

It was short, but steep...

And rocky!

Oh great- a place to rest for a minute on a built in bench.

It was worth it when we got to the bottom.

Now we have to go back up! Yikes!

We made it! One last look.

On our drive to the next stop in the Monument we finally saw some wildlife - big sheep! Really cool because we haven't seen too many of these the whole summer.

La Junta Point is the focus of the Monument for many people because it's so unusual to have 2 rivers meet.    On the left side is the Red River which starts in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. On the right is the Rio Grande which starts in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado.  It's the same Rio Grande that we canoed in Big Bend, Texas!  It was a good ending to our day in the Monument.

We had one hike left in us before we left Northern NM.  We heard that the Columbine Canyon trail was really pretty, so we headed over to Carson National Forest.  The whole trail is 13 miles - one way.  Not in the cards for us, so we decided to hike through the first 4 bridges and then turn around before you have to walk through the creek- about 4 miles total.
This gang met us at the trailhead.  On their way back from a guided trek.

Oops! I think this one got lost!!!

The trail lived up to expectations.

We hit the first bridge.

It crosses the Columbine Creek.

The second bridge looked just the first!

We have seen carvings in Aspens for the last month or so.  I finally got a photo. When the tree heals it creates a raised carving.

The third bridge had some boards replaced along the sides.

We found a stone crossing before the end of our hike.

There were a lot of natural dams built in the creek.

Finally - the 4th bridge!

Now we just need to get back to the car.....