Great Drives - New Mexico

Taos Ski Valley

This side-trip takes you off the Enchanted Circle, but if you have the time, the half-hour drive into the valley is worth while.

With Mt. Wheeler looming overhead, this is New Mexico's best downhill ski area. It also serves as a base for outdoor activity in the summer with hiking trails fanning out through the Carson National Forest. The vertical drop is 2,612 feet, and the longest run is a long 5.2 miles. At the base are condo accommodations, restaurants, and bars. To get there, turn right (east) onto N.M. Route 150. The ski area is 19.5 miles from downtown Taos.

The Wheeler Peak Wilderness is a superb scenic recreation area, accessed mainly through Taos Ski Valley. As you continue your drive around the Enchanted Circle, you can see the peak northwest of Eagle Nest. The peak, at 13,161 feet, is the state's highest mountain.

Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River

Just north of the little town of Questa, State Route 378 leads west, through the village of Cerro, to the Rio Grande Wild River Recreation Area -- 8 miles west of Highway 522. The recreation area includes the Rio Grande Gorge. This area has fine scenery and striking geological features, in addition to Indian rock pictographs. The recreation sites managed by the B.L.M., includes a visitor center, campground, and picnic area. You can look into the gorge from viewpoints or hike down to the river level.

There's a fine hike available, leading into the Rio Grande Canyon. The hike is a seven-mile round trip, starting from a trailhead at the Big Arsenic Springs Campground. To get there, drive from Questa on State Route 522 for about 5.5 miles, to the road which leads to the Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River (a sign is at the turnoff). Driving west on the paved road, you'll find the campground almost 12 miles from the turnoff. You may wish to stay at this scenic campground which lies 800 feet above the river.

Another great view of the river, at the bottom of the Rio Grande Gorge, is found on Highway 64, just west of the junction with Highway 522. Turn at the light located north of the Taos Pueblo turnoff.

Valle Vidal Route

Settlers, Ranchers and the Colfax County War

This loop, to the north of and longer than the Enchanted Circle, offers superb views of vast open spaces, high Rocky Mountain peaks, wildlife (including a magnificent heed of elk and wild birds), and reminders of the early frontier days of Northern New Mexico -- an era dominated by mining, lumbering, and ranching.

What is now called the Valle Vidal unit of the Carson National Forest was once the huge Maxwell Land Grant -- two million acres -- deeded by the Mexican Government in 1841 to Charles Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda. When the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846, Miranda returned to Mexico while Beaubien, loyal to the United States, stayed in New Mexico. Beaubien's daughter Luz married Illinois fur trapper Lucien Maxwell and the couple settled here, establishing a ranch. Maxwell began buying adjacent properties in 1864, following his father-in-law's death, and wound up owning the whole grant -- the size of Rhode Island.

Then, in 1870, Maxwell sold the land to an English syndicate. It was later sold to a Dutch firm. A local war then broke out, fueled by the owners' demand that the ranchers and other settlers who lived on the land leave. They had built homes with Maxwell's assent, and were not prepared to leave. The Colfax County war ensued, pitting the remaining settlers against the Dutch company which was victorious in 1887, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the company. By the turn of the century, the land was subdivided. New ranches were opened, loggers came to topple trees, and a private organization established a private retreat. 200,000 acres of the original land grant was used by members of the Vermejo Park Club, including Hollywood celebrities the likes of Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Cecil B. DeMille, and others including Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon and Harvey Firestone. The Depression saw the closing of the club and the property reverted to ranching uses.

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