Cimarron Or Bust

8-16-2011

Today I made certain not to get lost. I accomplished this by following my new rule...travel with not particular destination in mind. It worked perfectly. When I got where I was going, I was there.

I started the day trip with a right turn from the state park entrance. Yesterday I went left and that got me lost immediately on my trip to Angle Fire. It turns out if you turn right, you wind up in Angle Fire about 30 minutes later. It's 17 miles from the state park in that direction. That means I averaged about 35 MPH. That seems about right. The speed limit seems to be 45 on most of the roads here, but there are many turns where you must slow down to 25 or less. Once again the scenery was great. Once I came out of the trees, the drive was through what I believe is called an Alpine meadow, surrounded by

mountains

Along road to Angle Fire

Angle Fire is a nice little resort town. I stopped at the Visitor Center and picked up some information. A nice lady there let me know that a new RV park is planned for next year with 300 sites. She also provided me with the password for their WiFi connection which I used to post my blog entries. I drove around town some and found that it is mostly hotels, condos, ski shops, T-shirt stores and such. Unlike Steamboat Springs, there didn't seem to be a “town” of Angle Fire, just a ski resort. But it did have WiFi and cell phone coverage so I could check in.

From Angle Fire we headed north and about 15 miles on we can to Eagle Nest. Eagle Nest's main attraction is Eagle Nest Lake. Like Angle Fire, the main focus of the town seems to be tourism.

Eagle Nest Lake

From Eagle Nest I headed toward Cimarron. From Eagle Nest to Cimarron is about 27 miles and a vertical drop from 8200 feet down to 6400 feet. It's a winding downhill run to Cimarron and a long climb back. This take you through Cimarron Canyon State Park. The Cimarron river flows from Eagle Nest Lake and, the highway runs along the river with pull-offs ever few hundred feet where you have access to the river.

Limit 1 over 16 inches! Then STOP.

 

So, it looks like a good place to fish, until you catch a keeper. Then you have to stop. Once you learn your way around this would probable be a good place to spend a few weeks.

Cimarron River along highway

 

In addition to the river the scenery in the State Park is spectacular.

Palisades Still

Driving through Cimarron Canyon State Park

 

Once I arrived at Cimarron, I found that it is little more than a wide spot in the road. By the time we got there it was 2:00 in the afternoon. So we grabbed a burger at the only place in town, then retraced our steps back to Coyote Creek.

 

Population 888

 

After this second full day of driving, I think we'll stay in camp tomorrow. Both Leos are getting pretty road weary.

We did get back in time to enjoy some nice evening sky at the campground.

Evening at Coyote Creek

8-17-2011

Today we stayed off the road. I read about two-thirds of a Louis L'Amore novel while Leo napped in his chair. We also took a walk along Coyote Creek and found a couple of beaver dams. 

Coyote Creek

 

While I was sitting on the bank a beaver came out and swam across his pool to gather some grass to carry home. I guess he was looking for lunch. Leo didn't see the beaver because he was busy trying to catch a grasshopper in a clover patch.

We had scattered rain throughout the day, so it was easy to just hang out. I've decided to scratch Valle Vidal off the list for this trip. It takes too long on these winding mountain roads to travel that far. We'd have to go Back to Cimarron again and then another 27 miles north. I think tomorrow we'll go back toward Taos and explore the National Forest some.