New Mexico & Colorado 2/11-17/17
Current Location: New Terrain Brewing - Golden, CO
Big post with a whole slew of pictures (ahh, solid wifi...)
Another round of stories to be told over a beer. At the moment I am enjoying a beer at one of our favorite breweries in Golden (I’ll get to why we are here for the length of time that we are in a moment). I hope that you can also crack open a bottle, can or pour of your favorite beverage while you read along.
The password was 'baaaahhhh'
We awoke to a sunrise dozens of miles away on the horizon by unzipping the front window of the roof while laying in bed. We watched as the big red, orange and finally gold orb popped its head up for the day. We slowly packed things up, stretched, walked the dog and threw the solar panel out for a couple hours before heading north through Carlsbad and turning west to cross some of the southern New Mexico mountains. On the way we were intrigued, as everyone probably is, by the restrooms/petting zoo/farm market on highway 82 to Cloudcroft. To get to the restroom you entered the petting zoo and scooted by the goats. Just on the other side of the fence was the camel and water buffalo. Separately was the zebra section and numerous other obscure animals you wouldn’t expect to find on a random NM highway. The locally grown and made salsas and fruits were top notch.
A bit further on, Rooney awoke from a dead sleep, sniffing the air, seemingly smelling the fact that we were high enough to have some left over snow on the sides of the roads. He hadn’t been in snow in over a month so we stopped and let him romp around like a little kid. We dropped quickly back down to what most people would assume is New Mexico and headed straight to White Sands National Monument.
It was an impressive view onto the hundreds of square miles of gypsum white sand dunes. We have been to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado a number of times so the height of these dunes were not as impressive but what it lacked in that department it made up for in the wow factor. It was miles of clean white sand, much with sculpted ripples and naturally placed photogenic grasses. We did a bit of a wander to let Rooney again forget that he couldn’t eat the sand and then partook in the Sunset Stroll ranger led walk learning about the ecology and formation of the dunes while watching the sunset over the mountains to the west. The park closes right at sunset during mid February so we were ushered out after the ranger walk and we drove a few miles down the road to BLM land around a lake at the edge of the White Sands Missile Range (don’t worry, no testing being done this day).
This is Rooney doing his 'I'm just going to wander away' move
The next day we headed back to the park as the gates opened and drove the white sand road to the far end and wandered into the vastness of the dunes. Without any real plan we hiked up and ran down certain dunes, watched the clouds build in advance of a healthy winter storm affecting much of NM. There were a few drops of rain but the layers of clouds were a nice contrast to the white sand. Because of said storm, we decided to head further into central New Mexico so we had a good spot to spend an extra day with ran and snow flakes playing pitter patter on the roof. Along the way we made a stop at High Desert Brewing in Las Cruces, NM and then onward to Elephant Butte State Park just outside Truth or Consequences, NM. (Yes, it’s named that. In the 1950’s the famous game show made a deal with any town willing to change their name to the game show they’d broadcast from there. And it’s stuck).
We spent the evening and next day lounging in the van, writing updates in our journal and making some videos of our trip. The first night we stayed at one of the organized campgrounds in the park to charge up our electronics and the battery that runs the fridge. The next night we decided the weather had mostly cleared during the day and the wind had died significantly that we would camp out on the beaches of the park. We drove across the sand/dirt beaches of the reservoir and out on the isthmus to Rattlesnake Island.
Little Hobbes all alone below
The morning we wandered to the top of the island and then packed up, pointing north towards Santa Fe and a hotel. We decided to book a hotel with points that accepted Rooney so we could explore Santa Fe for an evening…and to shower. That evening we got a ride into town and went to dinner (Valentines day apparently) and stopped at a couple of different breweries in the area. We had always heard good things about Santa Fe and it is indeed a nice city/town. It still has a very small town feel, history and great food. It is definitely somewhere I could spend much more time.
But alas, the next day we continued north, into colder territory. On the way we experienced the quiet roads of central New Mexico and eventually the Colorado border. We couldn’t decide if we should stay near Copper Mountain to ski there the following day or get some exercise during the beautiful winter day. We concluded that even though we had been there many times we’d make a quick stop to take a hike up High Dune in Great Sand Dunes National Park. During a stop in the visitor center we also learned the Sandhill Cranes were starting their migration through the San Luis Valley in which the Sand Dunes sit. We had talked about trying to see this for years and it was nice to happen upon the right time of year to see a few on our slightly indirect drive out of the park.
We continued to feel the air cool as we went north into central Colorado and made an evening in Leadville to grab some food and beer at Periodic Brewing. We knew we’d have some easy places to stay at trailheads in the area so we parked at the Leadville Fish Hatchery to a cold evening dropping into the single digits.
The next day we finished the rest of our drive to Copper Mountain and a day full of sun, softening snow and empty chairlifts. We even met some Friends of Berthoud Pass friends in the parking lot while we sat in the sun and drank a beer. It was good to be back on snow and feeling like you have the entire mountain to yourself helps.
The afternoon and evening was spent sampling a new brewery in Summit County and meeting up with a friend for dinner as he headed west to Moab. We however, continued to point east towards Denver, stopping just shy and spending the night at Berthoud Pass, the true stomping grounds. We quickly went to bed and set an early alarm to climb up Colorado Mines Peak for sunrise. The 5:15 am alarm hurt pretty bad and the clouds overhead in the night sky were not too encouraging. However, we are well versed in the art/science of sunrises and sunsets so we knew a certain level of cloudiness will actually produce the best sunrises. That or you get skunked and hope the morning brings some other fun.
This morning did not disappoint in the slightest. It honestly may have been one of the best sunrises we’ve ever seen in Colorado. Our cold and groggy selves did not make it up to the top of Mines Peak but we were well above treeline to watch the mix of clouds go from a dark purple, to reds/oranges, eventually to a neon green and yellow all the matter of minutes.
It was one of those times in nature that your immune to cold temperatures or (in our case “and”) healthy breezes chilling your core. You point and exclaim, you ahhh and point, you stand silently. It was very short lived as the sun rose into said clouds rather than the momentary period when it was just below lighting them from below. We clicked into our skis and had a casual few hundred feet slide back to the van. Onto Golden we go.
E