Enchanted Circle tour

5 April, Sunday - Instead of a shower and breakfast, I dressed for skiing and went out to brush the 4 inches of snow off the car. I found the visitor center open but no one on duty so I headed up to Bobcat Pass (9600 ft) to see if it was possible to ski at the Enchanted Forest Cross Country Ski Area. The main road in town was plowed but the plowing stopped at the edge and I followed a few tire tracks to the boundary of the national forest before reaching EF. That put it on private land, and the conditions didn't look that great anyway so I went back to the condo for a great C.J.-prepared breakfast of bacon and pancakes with fresh pear sauce. Later we drove down into Questa, past the big Chevron molybdenum mine, then south to SR 64 which has a well-known bridge spanning the 650 ft deep Rio Grande gorge. After some photos we browsed the vendors' wares and C.J. bought a small SW-style fetish bear pendant. Then we drove into Taos, parked and wandered around the old town for a half hour or so.


From there we headed north and, since the sun was shining, we stopped for a picnic lunch on a south-facing rocky slope. The route was scenic and the weather was sunny with dramatic cumulus in a bright blue sky; we could finally see the summit of Wheeler Peak (over 13,000 ft). We drove into Angel Fire not so much to see the resort but to access the only Bank of America we had seen for days.









Right up the road was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park and we stopped to admire the architecture and striking setting on a hill above the Moreno Valley.


Continuing north we passed Eagles Nest and wound down Cimmaron Canyon past The Palisades. When we reached Philmont Scout Ranch we found that the visitors center was closed on Sundays but I took some pictures of the vaguely-remembered headquarters. There were herds of deer nearby, and as we reached the top of Cimmaron Canyon we saw a trio of wild turkeys - they must be more common now. We climbed over Bobcat Pass (this time on dry roads) and were back at the condo in Red River by 1700.