Another Road Trip

On October 11th, a friend and I took a road trip through the back country between Questa and Red River, two small towns north of Arroyo Hondo.  At the lower elevations, the road was fine except for having to drive around fallen trees from the snow storm.  As we got higher, the dirt road became muddy and still had snow on it in some places.  The scenery was spectacular, however, and despite the often sheer drop offs, it was well worth the drive.  No one can explain why the color of the aspens is "off" this year, although some blame it on the severe drought from this past summer.  Regardless of the explanation, it was wonderful to be in the mountains again and to do some NM "leaf-peeping."

At about 10,000', looking back toward the Rio Grande Valley.





First Snow

Although the higher surrounding peaks have had snow for a while, the first snow here on the mesa occurred on October 7-8.  We didn't get more than a few inches here, but Taos Ski Valley (TSV) received about 2'.  The snow was so wet and heavy that it took out a lot of trees with leaves still on them and created a massive power outage.  I learned an interesting lesson regarding the need for electricity when you're on a well system and now have jugs of water stashed for future outages.  Here are some pictures from here on the mesa.  The Rio Grande Valley was absolutely spectacular and, of course, Scout was in heaven!   (BTW, snow and colder temperatures seem not to have affected the tarantula migration.)

View across the Rio Grande Valley.