New Mexico Road Trip 2021: Part 3

Our New Mexico vacation was primarily an outdoor adventure trip, but we did take one day to pop over to Taos (about an hour from our home base in Angel Fire). 

Day 5:  

On day 5, we decided to drive the Enchanted Circle loop and Taos was our first stop. We didn't do that much in Taos, other than explore the town center. There's more to do, so we'll have to go back one day!

 

We love to purchase art on our trips, and this one is by a local New Mexico artist and it looks a lot like the area of Angel Fire where we stayed. 

After leaving Taos, we drove to the Rio Grade Gorge Bridge, which is the fifth highest bridge in the U.S. You can walk out onto the bridge, but no one in our family was up for that since the majority of us are afraid of heights.

As we continued on the driving loop, we drove to the Red River Fish Hatchery. We didn't realize that it was closed until we arrived, but fortunately, there was a short hiking trail and it was really beautiful.

We stopped for lunch at Red River Brewing Company. We love to visit local breweries when we're on vacation. 

Beer flights are the best!

We had purchased Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir at Fabled Bookshop back on day 1. Will read it in two days and then Henry picked it up and finished it just before our lunch plates arrived. Henry literally shoved it into my hands as soon as he finished, and I also read it while we were in New Mexico!

Back at home, we spent a lot of time sitting on our back porch. The wildlife in the meadow was so much fun to watch. Here are some of the critters we saw:

This broad-tailed hummingbird was one of the highlights of the trip. We literally saw him every day and named him Jerry. Often, we would hear him before we'd see him because his wings make a very distint trilling sound. Jerry would fly up high into the sky and then dive straight towards the ground. It was very entertaining to watch and we felt lucky to have front-row seats to his daily shows!

Day 5:

We found our favorite hike of the whole trip on day 5! We ventured over to Cimarron Canyon and found Clear Creek Trail, a 5-mile out-and-back trail with a 900 foot elevation gain. This trail was so much fun, and because we were there early, we had it mostly to ourselves. 

We have been using the All Trails app a lot to help us find trails. The reviews are also really helpful too. This trail has a false trailhead that confused a lot of hikers, but the reviews helped us navigate the trail more accruately. 

Gene and I have had hiking poles for awhile, but we purchased some for the boys in Angel Fire. They were so helpful to have on this trail!

Clear Creek Trail follows the creek up the mountain, and there are lots of bridges and water crossings that make the trail really fun.

The trail goes up over the rocks, so scrambling on the rockface is part of the hike! The boys loved this part.

Such big smiles!

There were also four waterfalls on the trail.

We hiked across a narrow path along a cliff and then found a creek crossing without a bridge.

Beautiful views!

The trail got very steep at the end, 

so Will and I hung back while Gene and Henry hiked to the top, where the views were spectacular.

This is the only family pic we got on the whole trip!

After our 3-hour hike, we were famished, so we headed back to Cimarron (where we had found the coffee shop on our way to Angel Fire) and ate lunch at the Blu Dragonfly Brewing Co. 

They specialize in gourmet hot dogs, and they were amazing!

Gene and Will had a sour cream/bacon potato salad that was apparently out of this world (and that we have tried to copy back at home).  

We stopped back at the coffee shop, located next door, to get Henry a lavender lemonade before heading back to Angel Fire. Cimarron Canyon is really beautiful, with some striking sheer cliffs, so we stopped to take a few photos.  

We were all exhausted when we got home, but we did pull together a pretty fantastic dinner -- mushroom-smothered pork chops with steamed green beans and roasted potatoes.

But the day's adventure wasn't over yet! We were eating dinner on the back porch when we realized that we had locked ourselves out of the house! There was no way in, but we did realize that the 2nd story balcony door was open. Luckily for us, there was new construction across the street, so I walked over to see if we could borrow a ladder. The construction workers carried it over for us, and I climbed up (because I was the only one wearing shoes) and tumbled over onto the balcony and got back into the house! This picture doesn't quite convey the whole story because it's at a funny angle, but it's something I'm unlikely to ever forget!

What a crazy way to end a day!