The Enchanted Circle is a scenic drive looping between Taos, the mountain (ski resort) towns of Angel Fire, Eagle Nest, Red River and Questa. Angela told us to go east to west, so that’s what we did. Our only mistake was leaving early. The first quarter of the loop was shrouded in fog, but Chris took beautiful shots even under those conditions.
To wait for the fog to lift, we drove along Cimarron Canyon for a while. This is Billy the Kid country, so Jenn played the Billy Joel song over and over a bunch of times, just like she did the Chuck Berry version of “Route 66” when we were driving there. You can just imagine how much fun Chris has been having behind the wheel, can’t you?
The scenery is gorgeous, and we can only imagine how idyllic (and crowded) these places are in winter with the snow on the mountains and the rooftops. We stopped in Red River for some gift shopping, before turning south for the final part of the loop.
It was here, near Questa, NM, where we saw a mountainside completely without vegetation; populated only by huge pipes and other infrastructure of a large Chevron plant. At this writing, we do not know the deal with this plant. We cannot say they are fracking, we cannot say what they are doing. But Chevron has a plant on New Mexico’s “enchanted circle.” Go figure.
After stopping off at our terrifying B&B to make a quick lunch, we headed back into Taos to buy some presents. This was a much better day there, cooler, easier. Maybe fuller bellies and enough water helped too. In the end, we had a lovely dinner at a place called Doc Martin’s, then headed to the B&B for our last night of “luxury.” That lady charges WAY too much for the number of rules and provisos she has. We will be happy to have the place in our rearview mirror when we head to Conifer, CO to descend on the Harts and visit Pike’s Peak before we finally (and a little blessedly) return home.
