New Mexico Road Trip 2021: Part 4

Our last three days in Angel Fire were filled with more hiking. The mountains of New Mexico are really lovely and this was the perfect pandemic vacation.

Day 7:  

After our big hike in Cimarron Canyon, we all woke up feeling a little tired, so we decided to take it easy with a shorter hike around Monte Verde Lake and the Lady Slipper Trail.

Tired Henry

Deer in the meadow outside our cabin

Ready for our hike on the Lady Slipper Trail

This was the view at the top of the trail.

Heading back down

Beautiful meadows

Lake Monte Verde

We saw so many tiny blue dragonflies on the trail!

Afternoon reading: Henry kept peering over my shoulder when I was reading Project Hail Mary to see where I was.  

Afternoon game time and deep discussions

Day 8:  

On day 8, Will decided to take a break from hiking, so Gene, Henry and I headed down to some of the Angel Fire Greenbelt trails. 

We took the Bobcat-Bear-Elk loop and stopped for coffee midway.

We saw so many prairie dogs on these trails!

Quick snack break

We saw deer on the trail too.

We relaxed, read, and napped in the afternoon, and then made onion-smothered steaks with roasted potatoes and asparagus for dinner.

Day 9:

Our last day in  Angel Fire was cold and rainy, so we just spent the day reading, doing laundry, and packing up for our three-day drive back home. 

We saw deer and bunnies in our meadow.

When he wasn't reading or playing games, Henry did a lot of math, just for fun.

And that's a wrap on our Angel Fire portion of our trip. We desperately needed a vacation this year, and visiting the mountains of New Mexico was the perfect pandemic trip. Even though we are all vaccinated, we mostly spent time outside. I know a lot of people with young, unvaccinated kids who didn't feel safe traveling, so I'm thankful that we were able to get away for almost two weeks. It was exactly what we needed.