DRIVING THE ENCHANTED CIRCLE

the Enchanted Circle is a circle around Taos, that goes up towards Questa and then come back down.  Here is a map of the Enchanted Circle:

Along the way there is plenty to see and do on this 84 miles circle.  You have the Taos Indian Reservation-one of the nation’s oldest reservation that is still being used yet today. 

You have several popular ski areas as well along this Enchanted Circle like; Angel Fire, Eagles Nest and Red River.  There is plenty to do both winter and summer-depending on what you are interested in.  During the summer months some of the ski slopes are used for hiking or maybe mountain bike riding. 

Red River Ski Resort

There are several campground both state and national parks along the Enchanted Circle.  Eagles Nest Lake State Park is along the Circle or you can get off and go just a few miles onto Hwy 64 and then you are in the Cimarron Canyon where there is 3 parks along there for some summertime camping.The Carlson National Forest will greet you along the Enchanted Circle with more camping and hiking opportunity as well.

One of the few campgrounds on the Enchanted Circle in the Carlson National Forest      

With skiing being very popular in the winter months, hiking is fantastic in the summertime.  Both the National Park and the State Park offers some really nice maintained trails to explore.

Fawn Lake in the Carlson National Forest

One of the things we have noticed along this Enchanted Circle is the local crazy drivers!  Now I mean no disrespect for the locals that live here and have to put up with us tourist driving around.  But at the same time that they have to put up with us, they need to also remember that we help bring revenue to their area.

I will go into a little more detail on the driving scenarios that we have already encountered just the few weeks we have been touring the area.

As we started the Enchanted Circle with our small motorhome, towing our little car; We got cars that would literally be on our bumper- I guess trying to push us to go faster.  anyways, there are pull-offs and whenever we could-we would pull off and let those go by-since they are in a hurry to get somewhere….

Now just driving the car alone as we head towards Questa, touring around and maybe going about 5-10 mph slower than the normal speed limit (how else does one get a chance to see the surrounding?), it seems that the locals are in a hurry once again and even though it’s a no passing zone, they speed right around us as if there was no tomorrow-on a hill and curves-crazy drivers….We just slow down more yet and let them get ahead of us.

     

Now remember, we are NOT from this area and there are a lot of hairpin turns and curves, lots of climbing up a mountain and then descending back down again, and not sure what is just around the curve or bend,  is another reason that we tend to go a little slower than normal speed.

We again had another incident that could have turned very bad.  As we are descending down the mountain with curves,  the truck that was the second one behind us decides to all of a sudden to pass the car in front of him AND us!  So the van directly behind us decides to also pass; almost clipping the back end of our car.  Well I did something that I know I shouldn’t have and I won’t mention what.  Anyways it anger the guy in the van so bad that all of a sudden he slams on his break, puts it in reverse and gets out!!  I just casually kept on going-driving on the shoulder-ignoring him.  All the while Brian is getting ready to dial 911-one problem-no cell phone reception.  The van again speeds up around us-laying on the horn…The sad part is that I actually was going the speed limit when all of this happened, and I would have gotten off at at the first pull off to allow both of these jerks to get around.

Then on this same day, we are heading towards Angel Fire and wanted to stop at the Vietnam Memorial State Park.  As we enter what we assumed to be state park property, I’m on the road while Brian is taking pictures.  I get a vehicle behind me, so I tell Brian to hurry up and get the pics.  The car then goes around, raising his hands up in the air at me-to top it off-it was a deputy in a suburban patrol vehicle!!!

As I go over the hill-I soon discovered that I’m actually on some roadway that goes yet into the parking lot to the Memorial or goes straight ahead into housing development.  So I felt bad that I blocked a roadway.  But how was I suppose to know since there are no signs telling us that the state park road is also a main roadway to homes?

 

After both those two incidents that day-we decided we have had enough of driving the Enchanted Circle and to go home.  We are not home more than 30 minutes and here comes this same deputy.  He pulls off in front of our spot, runs our plate, we can hear the dispatcher telling him there was no warrant or wants for Brian & Sharon Scofield….He never got out of the vehicle to talk to us or nothing…..I wonder how he found where we were camped at?  He must not had nothing better to do this particular day other then to intimidate tourist in his area.

So now we joke that I must drive extra careful-for this deputy probably has it out for me!!!

A few days later, we thought that our cell phone croaked.  We couldn’t pick up any tower signal, couldn’t call out-nothing-notta…well the nearest town that possibly might have a Verizon store is all the way back in Taos.  So here we go again, driving on the Enchanted Circle.

We had no mishaps, no jerks all the way back into Taos.  If I got a small line-up behind us, I would simply pull over whenever it was safe, and allowed them to pass us on by.

We soon learned that all the towers in Northern New Mexico were down-except for Taos and they didn’t know for how long they would be down.  So we got our shopping done, and headed back home.

It’s close to rush hour and once again we have a jerk on our tail-literally….I’m going the speed limit and yet he wants to push us off the roadway.  So the next pull off I planned on getting out of his way.  I had to quickly get out of his way-or he would have literally hit us!

Then as we come around a sharp curve, we see a white car going off very quickly to a drive-way.  What she had done probably had saved our lives as well as her own.  Here comes a black SUV trying to pass her in a no passing zone and in our lane!  He quickly swerves back into his own lane-missing us by inches!

So if you ever drive the Enchanted Circle-remember the locals are always in a hurry and to stay out of their way! 

Seriously though-the drive on the Enchanted Circle is pretty and a must see and do if ever in this area-just do be aware of the driver ahead of you as well as behind you and be cautious of the Deputy in Colfax county (he drives vehicle #4)!!