What do you do on a windy day?

When we host guests, we always hope for perfect weather so they will enjoy their precious vacation time. But while our friends, Connie and Steven were here in Angel Fire, we had some unusually windy weather. All of our camping neighbors assured us that this is totally unusual, and we heard that the same crazy winds were plaguing other parts of the country. We're used to windy afternoons, that calm into beautiful evenings. But these winds blew so hard all day AND all night that we had a hard time sleeping. So what do a group of sleep-deprived people do on such a windy day?  You head to a canyon for wind break!

We are in Cimarron Canyon, about 15 miles from our campground, on the Clear Creek Trail. True to its name, that creek is very clear, and we will have to cross over it many times in the course of our hike. Notice we are wearing jackets, because it is cool here in the mornings in New Mexico in the summer.

We started on the ground floor of that canyon, but we're heading up on the side of the rocks beside Clear Creek.

We had just started our hike when Steven realized his old hiking boots were falling apart. It's a good thing that Mark carries duct tape in his backpack so we could tape them up and continue the trail.

It's a physics thing, that if you continue to hike uphill along a creek, you will eventually come to a little waterfall,

and a bigger waterfall,

and then another waterfall,

until you get to the biggest waterfall.

We spent some time enjoying that last waterfall. That will include Mark dashing across the canyon wall to get different perspectives. He's there in the center of the picture below.

Mark can get to the opposite side of the waterfall by making some pretty sketchy water crossings,

while Denisa's style is to sit in one spot and let Mark move around. We're a good team!

While Mark is taking pictures of the big grand views, Denisa is taking photos of the tiny flowers that are lining Clear Creek in the canyon.

Besides having a blow out on his hiking boots, our guests are still getting used to the lack of oxygen at this higher elevation. Steven decided to take a little rest on that nice comfortable rock.

After the last waterfall, the trail headed steeply up. Now instead of being down in a canyon, we are getting views of the cliffs that have been looming high above us.

When we got to this scree field, our guests decided to head back towards the car. But Mark and Denisa aren't that smart.

We headed straight up that steep trail until we could get a bird's eye view of the mountains around us. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the awful wind doesn't seem to be a factor even at the top of the canyon walls.

We obviously have a hard time stopping until we get to the end of a trail. After these views at the top, we could finally point our hiking boots downwards to catch up with our friends. We felt that our plan to hide from the wind in a canyon was successful.

We headed back to the motor home as quickly as possible, because we had another special guest meeting us there. Our nephew, Stephen, was on a road trip through New Mexico and was coming to eat dinner with us. We forgot to take a picture, but it was a monumental evening. It was the first time we had a sit-down meal with five people around our little table while still having the sofa made out into a bed. It would have been a good picture of a cozy meal. It was a little confusing to have a Steven and a Stephen in the dinner conversation, but it is really nice to have special friends and family with us--even on a windy day!

We have guests--and they brought an ATV!

When we first booked our month-long stay in Angel Fire, we knew it would be a great time to entertain guests. With full hook-ups, it is easy to host good friends in our little home. You know they are really good friends when we can share such a small space! Connie and Steven have visited us several times in the last five years--in Minnesota, and North Carolina, Kansas City, and of course in Oklahoma where they live.

We've hiked and kayaked together many times, but this trip they brought a new toy. They've brought a four-seat ATV that we will use to explore the New Mexico mountains.

We spent the first day testing the limits of that Polaris RZR. We started down Forest Road 76 a few miles from Angel Fire on a beautiful blue sky day.

We expected Steven and Mark to drive us on these rough roads, but they made the girls take their (limited) turns as well.

When the girls were driving, our long-legged husbands barely fit into the tiny back seat. But they were still trying to figure out our next turn as we snaked our way through these tiny dirt roads with no road signs.

One of the great parts about having a vehicle that can handle those rough roads, is it can take us to trail heads that we could never see on our own. Instead of hiking up all that elevation gain, we rode all the way to Osha Pass for a high altitude hike.

It was fun to get to the snow in the middle of summer with so little effort!

Even though the guys tried, this snow was too hard and icy for a snow angel.

But that snow could still make a good ball. We add this picture to our collection of a one-sided summer snow ball fights that we have taken over the years.

When taking a hike off the beaten track, you are more likely to discover things like a deer skeleton . . .

and Denisa gets to take pictures of little wonders--like a perfect tiny bouquet of Aspen daisies struggling to bloom through the rocks up here at high elevation.

We made it all the way to the top plateau with mountain-top views all around us.

Then we followed Mark through a steep descent as we bushwhacked through the forest . . .

and thankfully found the ATV where we left it. It was great to have a GPS on a phone with a pin dropped where we left the RZR. We're not sure we would have ever found it without that electronic help. Mark and Steven studied the satellite map to determine our next adventure of the day.

That would include finding a full-size pickup that had slid off the narrow road into the ravine. Steven is checking to be sure the driver isn't still in the vehicle. We're not sure how they will get it back on the road from its perilous position.

We stopped to eat our picnic lunch beside a clear mountain stream. We shared a log hanging over the water . . .

because the piece of wood that had grown wedged between two trees wasn't big enough for the four of us.

We saw an elk during one stop, but the wildlife highlight of the day was the big bear that we surprised. He was coming out of the forest and onto the road just as we approached. We have seen bears meandering slowly on many occasions, but this guy took off at full speed down the road. It was quite a sight to see! Mark managed to snap a picture just as this big guy took the last leap into the woods on the other side of the road.

We were out all day, driving 40 miles through adjoining forest roads. By the end of the day, we were all covered with 40 miles of road dust.

For a first day with four rookie ATVers, we had a great time! We were surprised at how smoothly we went over rocky roads, and how this little vehicle could climb steep grades and ford streams. It took us places that would have taken us days to hike to as we discovered more of God's wonders in the mountains of New Mexico.

How did we make the decision to spend a month in Angel Fire, New Mexico?

We are usually moving to a new campground every 3 to 7 days as we wander across the United States. But nothing is usual about life in 2020, so our camping strategy is a bit unusual for us this month. We started looking for a place to stay in the mountains of New Mexico, and found this state had some strict restrictions on welcoming out-of-state visitors at the time. For some reason, visitors staying a month or more don't count in the 25% campground limits, so we started looking for the best option for a month-long stay. That's how we found Monte Verde RV Park in Angel Fire, New Mexico.

Monte Verde is Spanish for "green mountain," and we are surrounded by mountains covered in green trees.

The sites are closer together than we prefer, and we don't have much shade or privacy in the park. But we have a nice "common area" between the RVs, and we've found some uncommonly friendly campers that congregate here most evenings.

When you add that we have a good AT&T phone signal here, all the major television channels with our over-the-air antenna, 50-amp full-hook-ups, clean restrooms, and some of the best campground wifi we've found in our travels, we are very comfortable as we settle in for a month-long stay. The deletion of any one of those would not be deal-breaker for a short stay, but we are enjoying the luxury of having all of those things this month.

Angel Fire is situated along a scenic byway known as "The Enchanted Circle." This 84-mile drive takes tourist through some of the most scenic mountains and villages in New Mexico. We would have preferred to split our month into stays at those four villages--staying a week in Red River, a week in Angel Fire, a week in Taos, and a week in Questa. But we are finding that RV parks in these areas are charging $42-96 per day. By staying in this park for a month, we can bring our daily charge down to less than $23. So for that kind of savings, we can afford to do some driving to all of those other mountain ski towns for hiking and activities. From our chosen campground, we can see Angel Fire's ski runs.

The town of Angel Fire has a little grocery store, a hardware store, a lumber yard, a dollar store, and several restaurants and convenience stores. We think we'll have everything we need this month--even if it is at some inflated prices. We also have some sight-seeing to do in our little village while Denisa's Mother is staying with us. Our first stop was the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Just a couple miles outside of Angel Fire, this uniquely-shaped building with its curved white walls stands at the top of a hill that overlooks the valley. It's a great place to sit and reflect.

This beautiful area was the loving memorial built by an Angel Fire doctor and his wife, who lost their youngest son in a battle in Vietnam. The parents are buried here at the top of this scenic hill.

Thirteen members of their son's battalion died as a result of an ambush on May 22, 1968, close to the demilitarized zone. Thirteen pictures of the lost soldiers hang in the chapel, where a 13-foot cross stands at the front.

Because of Covid-19 restrictions, the museum is closed for now. But the grounds and the chapel are always open. A helicopter used in Vietnam is on display near the garden.

These grounds are lovingly planted and cared for by the garden club of Angel Fire, and we enjoyed the iris blooms this day.

At the bottom of the hill, the finishing touches are just being completed on the newest New Mexico Veteran's cemetery. The guys patrolling the area told us that the bushes and trees would be planted this week.

Even at this solemn place of memorial, the mountain blue birds are here to brighten our day. Standing at guard on the top of the sweeping white wall on the upper right corner of the picture below, this blue bird seems to be showing his respects to our Vietnam soldiers that gave their all.

Another stop in Angel Fire was Monte Verde Lake. Even though it shares the same name as our RV park, it's actually several miles away and connected to the country club neighborhood. We stopped in to find out that the public is welcome to put inflatable kayaks on this nice little lake. We made a note to do that before we leave this area.

Driving some lesser-known roads seems to be one of the best activities for now, since Denisa's Mother isn't up for the hiking that we usually do. We found this road a few miles south of Angel Fire, but we won't be using it as a short cut for the motor home any time soon. The pavement changed to a dirt road and we were warned of the restriction ahead.

As we drive around Angel Fire, we are finding that the elk cows are moving down to meadows for calving season. We have seen elk almost every day.

These cows are losing their winter coats as they are enjoying the nice summer weather with us.

We are also finding that there are an uncommon number of prairie dogs around Angel Fire. They are the main rodents we see on the highway, and we have our own prairie dog town beside our campground.

But Denisa's favorite campground animals are the mountain blue birds. We almost never walk our campground loop without seeing one. We have a good selection of the less-showy female birds . . .

and the darker blue males. So Denisa has a habit of taking the camera with her on these walks, just to catch these blue beauties in their different landing spots.

We can verify that our park has less bugs because of these pretty birds. Denisa has caught them with big bugs in their mouths more than once.

We are keeping busy with our sight-seeing, but we are also spending time at our campground, enjoying the cool temperatures and the fresh mountain air. We're playing a record number of games with Betty, and she is determined that we will get all the pecans shelled that we have been carrying around since last fall.

After six days of living the RV lifestyle, Denisa's sister came to drive Betty home. We hope it was a good break for her from being isolated at home alone. As for us, we like our new home here in the mountains of Angel Fire, New Mexico. We made the decision to spend this month here under unusual circumstances, and so far we really like our decision.