We left the serenity of the Taos Ski Valley wondering what we’d find at our next stop, Red Rever, NM. As a crow flies, our destination was only about 18 miles away. However, there is a gigantic mountain between the two which requires an extra 30 miles of driving.

Red River is an Old West town in northern New Mexico. For those of you familiar with Ocean Ciy, MD or Gatlinburg, TN, these are the closest comparisons I can think of. After the secluded destinations we visited so far on our journey, we weren’t quite prepared for his type of environment.

The kids LOVED it there!

Go carts, ice cream shops, corn dogs, a town pond for fishing, roller rink and mini golf. They were set!

The Red River Ski Area was really cool… The bottom of the ski runs go directly into the town. So imagine walking down the street in town and all of a sudden you run into a chairlift. I imagine it would be a pretty fun place to ski.

We made it to the gun fight Saturday afternoon, which according to the host, was a “Once in a lifetime opportunity…. That happens twice a week right here in Red River, New Mexico!”

Our two nights there provided a great break back to civilization for the boys, but we quickly decided that this quaint little tourist town wasn’t a place we would choose to call home.

So back into the Subaru we went, continuing through the Enchanted Circle to Angel Fire, NM. We stayed at a condo in Angel Fire for the next three nights.

The weather turned cooler and rainy again, and the fish continued to elude us, but we enjoyed ourselves regardless.

All too soon it was our last day in New Mexico… How was this even possible? We spent our last day downhill mountain biking at Angel Fire Resort. The sun came out, and although it was chilly on top of the mountain, it was a beautiful day!

This was our first experience with downhill mountain biking and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! Angel Fire Resort is known for their biking, and even hosted the X Games several years ago.

If you’re not familiar with downhill mountain biking, here’s the scoop… Once you are all geared up (helmets required!), you walk your bike through the ski lift line where you then load your bike onto a chair rigged with a bike rack. Then you get onto the next chair and ride up the mountain.

Once at the top, you check your map and choose your trail down. We chose a “green” trail, the easiest route down, for our first run. It took 1 1/2 hours to get to the base of the mountain!

Deke had a rough second run with three falls, the last one left me wondering if he broke something. We decided at that point to take a little break and find some dessert. Brian and Colin left us behind to bomb down the mountain without having to stop and wait for me or scrape Deke up off the trail.

We (read Deke) finished up dessert just as the other half of the family came rolling down to the base. We finished the day off with one last run to end on a good note.

Hard to believe it was time to wrap up our almost cross country adventure.

We packed up the car with a new appreciation for one another, this amazing country we live in, our ancestors who blazed the trail, and so many other things! As they say, time flies when you’re having fun.

I learned the true meaning of ‘the journey is the destination’. Knowing this, I looked forward to our journey back East.

Until next time…

xo- Beth