Taos

Sept 30     Cochiti Lake - Orilla Verde Recreation Area     88 miles       2 hours

We drove north to Orilla Verde Recreation Area. This is located just south of Taos. There's a few campgrounds in this area but only 2 offer water/electric. All sites are first come, first serve so we were lucky to grab a site with water/electric in Pilar Campground. It's $15 per night and looks kind of dumpy but it's actually in a good location to do some hiking along the Rio Grande Gorge.

Beautiful sunsets

The campground is very dark at night and the sky is full of stars.

Oct 2   Orilla Verde Recreation Area - Taos       15 miles     30 minutes

We did a hike this morning on the Verde Vista Trail. This is an awesome hike in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. The trail runs through a plain high above the Rio Grande River and the canyon walls tower several hundred feet above us on either side.

This is the only hike we did in this area because Joe had a gout attack that lasted a couple of days. He's finally feeling better so we could do this hike before moving on.













After the hike we packed up and moved a few miles north to Taos Valley RV Park. We'll be here for 2 nights, $50.05 per night. Nothing fancy but good location.

We took a ride to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Amazing! There's a rest stop there so we parked and walked around.

At 650 feet above the Rio Grande, it is the fifth highest bridge in the U.S.

Can walk on the bridge but I'm such a chicken, only went about 1/3 way.

Oct 3

We had a lot of plans to take the RV and spend some time driving the Enchanted Circle. A spectacular drive 85 miles to complete. It's the most popular drive in the area. This was the highlight of our trip. We were suppose to leave tomorrow but found that there's a lot of rain coming. Then after the rain passes the temperature in that area will drop to 25 degrees. This is too cold for us. So we decided to stay here for 2 more nights to wait out the rain. Then hopefully, Saturday we can drive the Enchanted Circle with the Kia and just do a day trip. Such a bummer....I guess we need to come back.

Oct 5    Enchanted Circle

We got to drive the Enchanted Circle today. The most popular drive in the area, this National Forest Byway circles Wheeler Peak, the highest in New Mexico at 13,161 feet.

One of the best drives ever. We really enjoyed this 85 mile on the Enchanted Circle. The fall foliage with the brilliant yellow of the aspens was truly spectacular.

We drove up through Questa and continued to Cerro and entered the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument on the north side. We did the south side a few days ago. The north side is just as amazing. You drive along the gorge with breath taking views.

La Junta Overlook

We made a stop at La Junta Point Overlook.

La Junta, which means "meeting or joining" in Spanish, two rivers converge. To the left is the Red River, beginning in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains at the highest point in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak, 13,161 feet. To the right is the Rio Grande, beginning in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado and running for 1885 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. La Junta marks the widest and deepest part of the Rio Grande Gorge, at three-quarters of a mile wide and a steep 800 feet deep.

We continued on to Columbine Canyon Campground and started a hike into the canyon. It was pretty chilly when we started the hike, about 50 degrees. This hike can go for about 9 miles one way. We did 2 miles and then turned around. This is one of best hikes we've been on. Great trail with lots of scenery. The fall colors were stunning! I didn't know where to look, everything was so pretty.

Crossing the stream

Colorful leaves

We loved hearing the creek for most of the hike. The trail crosses over the creek several times on beautifully designed foot bridges which were really cute. This hike is through a canyon so seeing the cliffs high above on both sides of us was pretty awesome.

Pretty leaves

Xmas trees all over

Next stop was at Red River. Cute little ski town. We had lunch at Yesterday's Diner. Was really, really good. After lunch we walked a little ways and stopped to have a chocolate malt at The Dairy Bar.  It was kind of chilly walking around but we had to...sooo good!


We continued our drive around the Enchanted Cirle and drove through Eagle Nest. The Eagle Nest Lake is the big attraction here. Looks like plenty of water activities.

We made a stop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Angel Fire. Displays on the grounds and in the Visitor Center pay tribute to the Vietnam veterans. The Blue Star Garden and Medal of Honor and Veteran bricks that line the walkways are constant reminders of the service to our country.

Then we drove through Angel Fire. Another cute ski town. At this point, we were getting tired so we just drove around then headed back to Taos.

Amazing scenery