We're just five hours from her home, so she remembers many trips to Red River in her life. But it has been a long time since she's visited this little mountain village. We took her first to the ski area that is empty today.
Behind her and Mark is the Hidden Treasure Aerial Park. We have found that ski resorts have added more summer activities to increase revenues during the warm months. The activities here in Red River are planning to open up this weekend.
In fact, we see that today they are training the young people that will be manning the activities here at the aerial park this summer.
Another activity that will open up soon is the summer tubing hill. At 800 feet in length, it's the longest summer tubing course in the world.
The ski resort is abloom with beautiful hanging baskets, and they can't wait to host families here once again. This resort closed down early in March like the rest of the ski mountains in the United States, and this little town has surely been hurt by the lack of tourists due to the pandemic.
The lilac bushes are blooming on Main Street, and the butterflies were enjoying their nectar.
Denisa loves it when the butterflies are enjoying their lunch so much that they don't notice they are being photographed.
Our next stop was the body of water that gave this village its name. We drove down to the Red River that flows through town.
We found a bench for Betty, then we took off on the nice path that runs on both sides of the river.
We would have gotten further on that walk if this trio of mallard ducks hadn't floated down the river and stopped right in front of us.
With their brilliant green heads catching the sunlight, Denisa couldn't help but take way too many pictures.
Sorry for so many duck pictures, but these guys were really handsome while they preened and nibbled and posed for us.
It looks like there is a bumper crop of dandelions close to the river. We spotted this bumblebee enjoying those bright yellow blooms.
Our next stop was a little place on the edge of town called Mallette Park. Looming behind it are some beautiful rock mountain walls that make a great backdrop for a mother/daughter photo.
We see that stores and restaurants are beginning to open here in New Mexico. One of the iconic places on the main drag through town is Frye's Old Town. We know that this is an old town because we remember visiting Red River when Denisa's sister worked here two summers while she was in college. She was a sales clerk and part of the cast for the old western shoot-out that takes place several times each day at Frye's Old Town. It's hard to believe that was over 40 years ago.
Denisa picked up some tasty food from Shotgun Willie's on Main Street, and took it to the nice park in the middle of Red River. We have been successful in having delicious food at home and away while still keeping Betty isolated from others.
Even though he has visited Red River several times, Mark only remembers seeing it shrouded in snow. Our main focus has always been to get to the ski slopes, and we're used to seeing this village wearing white instead of green. On those previous trips we also stayed only in town, never venturing out of town into some of the beautiful scenery.
The drive up Highway 578 stops at a dead end after six miles. But some of the views are drop dead gorgeous in the summer. We are using this drive as a recognizance trip, as we are scoping out trail heads for future hikes.
It was a nice day of wandering more of God's wanders in the beautiful country-side around Red River, New Mexico.
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