Friday
We drove from Fort Worth to Canyon after work. At the same time, Amber, Nan, Sam and Betsy drove from Evadale to Fort Worth to spend the night.
Here are our happy kids on day 1 of vacation.
Saturday
We drove from Canyon to Red River on Saturday and got settled into the cabin. When we first arrived, Hannah was quite disturbed and kept saying “This is not the mountains!” She was expecting Nana and Pappy’s condo and this was NOT that place.
Meanwhile, Amber, Nan, Sam and Betsy drove from Fort Worth to Red River. They stopped in Amarillo and picked up Pop at the airport. Pop flew from Houston to Amarillo to shave off 12+ hours of driving on his back.
Once we got settled, I went down to the grocery store to get some more food. The annual motorcycle rally was in town so it made things kind of interesting. We’ve been to Red River several times, but I barely even recognized the town with all the bikers everywhere. I had to stop and ask where the grocery store was because there were so many people and temporary tents selling biker gear that you couldn’t see anything. Luckily almost all of the bikers were gone by Monday morning so we had the town to ourselves the rest of the week.
That evening, we ended up just hanging around the cabin to avoid the bikers and waiting on Nan and Pop to arrive. After they got there, we cooked hot dogs on the grill and ate outside. That evening, I took a hike up Goose Lake Road with Amber, Sam, and Hannah in the pack. The trailhead was only about 200 yards from the cabin so it was the most hiked trail that week. We walked up on a deer, which was the first of many we saw that week. Can you see it?
Sunday
We went into town intending to ride the Red River chairlift but it was too chilly and windy that morning. So we played at the playground for a bit and then decided to drive over to Angel Fire to borrow some fishing gear from Nana and Pappy and get away from the biker rally. While we were there, we ate lunch at the Sunset Grille and took a ride up the Angel Fire chairlift. It was pretty chilly at the top.
On the way up with Sam
Nan, Amber, Sam and Betsy at the top. It was really cold with the wind.
With Betsy on the way down. It was quite a rush because we were facing the wind on the way back going down a steep slope. The wind was gusting to 50 mph and it kept blowing the chairs back. I think they shut the lift down pretty soon after we got down because it was too windy.
Jennifer stayed down at the bottom with Hannah, Nathan and Pop. They had a bounce house set up that Hannah jumped in. At one point, they walked down to get some coffee and when they got back, the bounce house had been deflated. That threw Hannah for a loop. She kept telling everyone “look, they just took the bounce house down.” She would take their hand and pull them over to it to make sure they saw. Kind of a big deal.
When we got back to Red River, we just hung around the cabin and tried our hand at trout fishing. We didn’t catch any fish that day.
That evening, we just ate at the cabin. I took a small hike up Goose Lake Road with Nathan. It was a neat trail with good views back to the Red River valley.
Monday
On Monday, we went to Taos. In the morning, Jennifer and Nan went to see Athena to get massages. Amber, Pop, the kids, and I stopped at the Red River Fish Hatchery outside of Questa. We were expecting for the kids to catch lots of trout but the visit was pretty much a dud. Good things the kids were having fun with each other, so they didn’t notice.
Here they are peeking into the room with the baby fish. They don’t let visitors inside to limit the risk of disease.
Here’s Hannah fishing. Guess what? She didn’t catch anything. It didn’t matter, we still had fun.
There was a neat little trail along the river. Here are the kids next to the water. Nathan was on my back in the pack.
After the fish hatchery, we met Jennifer and Nan at Michaels Kitchen for lunch…YUM!!! On the way back to Red River, we swung over and visited the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Pretty neat.
That evening when we got back, we rented ATVs and drove up Goose Lake Road. We ended up renting them at 5pm and got a pretty good discount. This was a lot of fun.
While we were waiting for our ATV tour, Jennifer and I took a quick hike with Nathan.
We saw a turkey which we thought was rare, but we ended up seeing 1-2 turkeys every day about 4pm in the yard across the street. I guess that’s what time they liked to eat.
Here we are getting ready for the ATVs.
We saw lots of ruins from the mining days of Red River.
I tried to convince Jennifer to let me go in this cave. No luck.
Here are the brave riders that got in my buggy. We ended up getting pretty dirty from all the dust.
We drove through some pretty aspen groves
and a pretty meadow…
and more deer….
Tuesday
On Tuesday, we took a Hubley’s only hike in the morning along a little trail in town. This ended up being the hike of the three little pigs. It started when we saw some dog waste on the trail which we decided could have been from the big bad wolf. Then pretty soon we saw some small houses which we figured must have been built by the three little pigs.
Here are the girls on the bank of the river (just out of view).
Here is Jennifer in one of the little houses. That’s as far as I could get her to go inside. Looking back at this picture now, I can better understand her trepidation.
Our little pink hiker
After the hike, we met the rest of our party at the playground for some play time.
That afternoon, Jennifer, Amber, and I had reservations for white water rafting in Taos. We rafted a portion of the Rio Grande called the Pilar Race Course. Our outfitters were Los Rios River Runners. We had a great guide named Bradley who was pretty entertaining. He told us all about staying up late to repaint the mural in the warehouse where he lived, making marbles in his spare time, and how margarita mix makes him sick. He was pretty fun. The water was a little low but we still hit some good rapids. Overall it was a good trip. We didn’t buy the pictures so you will just have to imagine how awesome it was.
Nan and Pop watched the kids in Red River. Pop took Sam fishing and Nan took the girls shopping in town. We brought Taos Pizza Outback back for dinner and then hit the sack.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, everyone but Nathan and me went horseback riding. They were short on horses so Nathan and I took a hike to Middle Fork Lake.
Horseback riding first. Our outfitters were Bobcat Pass Adventures. We opted for a 1 hour ride which turned out to be just the right amount of time.
Jennifer and Hannah road on a paint horse named Apache. The names of all the horses was pretty important to Hannah.
Nan and her horse, Commanche
There were some pretty meadows along the ride
Amber and Betsy’s horse was named Ursula. Betsy fell asleep on the ride
All our little cowpokes
While they were riding horses, Nathan and I did a 4 mile hike (round trip) to Middle Fork Lake. It took me just over 1 hour to get to the top and about 45 minutes to get back down. It was a nice hike and the lake was beautiful. We stayed at the top for about 30-45 minutes. Later in the season, this is apparently a 4-wheel drive road, but it was only open to foot traffic when I went.
Here is my hiking buddy. He slept for the last 30 minutes on the way up.
The trail was almost all in heavy timber.
Here is the lake
Nathan was in a good mood when he woke up and we were at a lake and he was out of the pack
We had a little snack at the top
We saw several waterfalls along the way. Here is one we had to cross
Here we are waiting for Jennifer to pick us back up at the trailhead
That afternoon, Pop tried the fishing again. He figured out how to catch fish in the river and caught two rainbow trout that we ate for dinner.
Here is Pop cooking the fish on the grill.
The weather was so nice that we spent lots of time on the porch. Here we are eating our feast.
And of course a feast wouldn’t be complete without some Indians
After dinner, we had a birthday cake to celebrate Sam and Nan’s birthday.
Sam was 5. Nan was 57. Pretty clever arrangement from Jennifer.
Make a wish!
Hannah wanted to “help” Sam open his birthday gifts
Thursday
On Thursday, Pop and I took a fly fishing lesson and guided trip. We each caught 1 fish with the fly rod but Pop also took his spinning rod and caught about 8 or 9 fish. We were fishing in a catch and release reach of the river so we didn’t bring anything home. I learned a lot and had a great time just being out in the river all day. I didn’t get any pictures.
The girls went over to Taos again and shopped around the square and ate lunch at Orlando’s Mexican Café. They didn’t take any pictures either.
That evening, Nana and Pappy arrived in Angel Fire and came over to eat dinner at Texas Red’s Steakhouse with all of us. Hannah and Nathan went back to Angel Fire to stay the night with Nana and Pappy.
Friday
On Friday, Nan, Pop, Amber, Sam and Betsy headed back to Texas. They dropped Pop at the airport in Amarillo and went on to Fort Worth to stay the night.
Meanwhile, Jennifer and I spent the day hiking Wheeler Peak, the highest peak in New Mexico. I’m going to leave this to another post.
That evening, we cleaned up the cabin and then stayed the night in Angel Fire with Nana and Pappy.
Saturday
On Saturday, Nan, Amber, Sam and Betsy drove from Fort Worth to Evadale.
Meanwhile, Jennifer, Hannah, Nathan and I drove back to Texas. We stopped in Amarillo to have lunch with Rebecca and Jon Michael and then kept the pedal down all the way to Fort Worth. It was a long day but it was worth it to have a full day Sunday at home before getting back to work.
Here are our not so happy kids at the end of the trip.
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