Belated New Mexico Pictures

Balloon Festival in Raton, NM

Sean and I went to New Mexico for a Fluhman family reunion over the July 4th weekend. We flew in to Albuquerque and then drove through Santa Fe to the northeaster corner of New Mexico. Seans aunt and uncle have a "camp" near the small town of Raton, NM, just outside Sugarite Canyon State Park. It was a perfect location since the park had showers that we could use, just a few minutes from where we were staying. There was only so many beds under a roof, and we let the children sleep in the cabins since there had been plenty of bears around.... It was wonderful to meet more of Sean's family and they are all very nice...even to a foreigner like me! :-) This area is beautiful, and I can highly recommend it for vacation. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Sugarite Canyon State Park includes the ruins of an old coal mining village. This building sits on the mountainside before the village and supposedly it was a hotel of some sort. You can still see wall colors and the tiled bathroom.

Sean practices his fly fishing skills in Sugarite Canyon State Park.

Friendly chipmunk at the old mining village ruins.

I missed Kane terribly, but luckily one of Sean's uncles has a German Shepherd Ranch Dog! Meet Radar - he was our bear chaser dog for the weekend. Just days before we arrived he was practicing that job...Radar is only 3 and has been snakebit twice!

Sean's aunt and uncles own and operate a cattle ranch which has been in the family since Sean's grandparents.
It's beautiful country out here.

These boots were made for workin'.... I found this pile in a barn on the ranch.

Open country on the Fluhman Ranch.

Near the Fluhman ranch is Mills Canyon. A total surprise. Imagine the previous picture - pretty much flat country as far as you can see. A few trees here and there. Mills Canyon is a deep gorge formed by the Canadian River. It is lush and green. Luckily our rental was an AWD, and Sean is an expert navigator of rough roads.
We drove down to the bottom to take a look.

Melvin Mills built a hotel here in the late 19th century. The ruins of two buildings still stand along with remnants of Mills Canyon Enterprises - a 14,000 tree orchard with apples, peaches, plums, pears, cherry, walnut, almond and chestnut complete with irrigation, cisterns etc.

Here you can see the remnants of his fruit dehydrator. A flood in 1904 completely wiped out Mr. Mills operation and he died poor in 1925. Supposedly you can still find some fruit trees throughout the canyon.

What a place this must have been back in the days. Supposedly there was a cargo tramway that brought all the produce up 800ft to get to the railroad.

On our way back home, we drove through the mountains of southern Colorado. I've always been in love with the Rocky Mountains, since I was a small child. We stopped at this mountain stream, wow - it was c-c-c-cold!!

Hello future place where I will live someday. This is the Conejos River Valley in Colorado.
Sean and I decided we should live here. At some point.
This is my desktop image on my laptop at work. So that I know what I am working towards. :-)