Red River, NM

Hoocudathunkit?

We left Taos yesterday with the idea of hitting one of the nearby USFS campgrounds. However once on the road, I figured they were so close to town, and it stays light so long, why not just keep going on the circle route? And that I did!

Leaving Taos I was driving in a (small) river valley. Much of it very green and scenic, until…

Yeah. That was about a 45 minute wait. The sign said wait for the pilot car, and I was wondering if that guy accidentally drove home and forgot about us. Eventually he would appear, and we’d proceed at about 15 mph for easily 1+ miles, plus one stop along the way. Oddly (and to be fair it was late) there were workers and construction vehicles but nothing seemed to be getting done.

Once past, I was on my way to Red River. The road passed thru green valleys and high alpine forests, some of my favorite kind of scenery. Truly a beautiful area and nothing like the drier southern part of the state. Over one higher pass, and I dropped into town.

Red River

Never been here before. Never even heard of it before. Checked, and the classic western film “Red River” was not about this town. So hoocudathunkit that this was a rather cute ski town! Not only that, there’s actually a festival happening here this weekend. And I just wandered right into it!

8750’ Festival

https://www.8750festival.com/

Seems there’s a lot of Texans here. Probably escaping the miserable TX heat & humidity for the cool mountain air and lots of country/western music. Definitely a friendly bunch. Many of them happy to say hi to my co-pilot!

When I entered on the main drag, I drove through town, then turned around when I saw a Town Marshall vehicle heading back towards the City Hall. Caught up with her, and asked about parking and “camping” in town. Was told it was no problem, so I pretty much parked right across from City Hall.

Harry & I took a walk up a few blocks on one side of the street, and back a few on the other. As usual he got plenty of attention and plenty of people curious about his breed. One couple even filled me in on some of the events. So I decided to stay for two nights here on the main drag.

Friday

We got up and took a walk looking for breakfast. Along the way I got to talking with a woman watering plants outside a photography studio. She had water out for dogs (as most places seem to here) and Harry drank up. Asked her if I could pay her to use her hose to give him a bath and she agreed.

So Harry and I went to breakfast, back to the camper for dog shampoo and a change of clothes for me, then off for his bath.

After his bath we walked most of a mile out of town to get me a shower at an RV park. Shortly after I was done the free town shuttle appeared out there so we grabbed a ride back into town.

The music & BBQ was swinging at the town park. I chose to ignore it today. I’ll go tomorrow. Instead we took a short nap, wrote this up, went to dinner, and back to the camper. We’ll get out for a walk again soon.

Overall it was a lovely day!

The guy below is playing in town tonight. In his honor…