New Mexico! The Land of Enchantment.

We arrived deep in the Rio Grande Gorge at my favorite camping site in Pilar, New Mexico. This area is run by The Bureau of Land Management. It’s official name is the Orilla Verde Recreation Area.

If your lucky you can snag a spot at Taos Junction which is what we did. The great thing about this site our the shelters, bathroom with flushing toilet, and community water spigot. There were fire restrictions in place and we did not have a fire.

This area is best described as rugged with a capital R. It’s not quite primitive, but it’s close. The first night we were there was cool and peaceful. Perfect sleeping weather for camping.

The next night the wind was angry. If you have ever stood in the tornado tunnel at SMO then you can imagine what it was like. I would guess the wind gusts were 60-70+ miles an hour. After two hours of relentless wind, we decided to sleep in the car. In the morning, we discovered our tent had been blown over and the poles had come apart at some of the joints.

After setting the tent back up we continued our adventures!

Our last full day we took the Taos Junction Road which is a rocky road that takes you out of the gorge toward the Rio Grande Bridge and then we took 522 through the Carson National Forest up to Eagle’s Nest Lake.

Finally, we backtracked to the town of Red River were we are at our favorite pizzeria Main Street Pizzeria.

The last night we were treated to a gentle rain and woke to the amazing smell of desert sage. We packed up our gear and said goodbye!