two days in Ruidoso

November 5 and 6 around Ruidoso, NM...

Lincoln National Forest, on the drive to the Monjeau forest fire lookout tower

Climbing the steps to Monjeau Tower, which M. and I visited back in March

Looking east from Monjeau Tower

Enjoying a moment with Miss C. It was cold & windy!

A young fawn in someone's front yard at Alto.

Package Liquors, downtown Ruidoso.

Coming soon... Lake Valley ghost town and Hatch chile peppers. Stay tuned!

WSC

np: Johnny Cash - "No earthly good"

Hiking to Monjeau

On Saturday March 22, M joined me for a hike in the Lincoln National Forest. We decided to walk to the Monjeau lookout tower, a National Forest tower where forest rangers watch for fires. Normally you can drive right to it -- and we had driven there a few years ago -- but this time the road was still closed for the winter so we had to walk. The distance was about 2 1/2 miles from the point where the road was closed, a round-trip distance of 5 miles. It was a beautiful day and we got a nice workout.

hiking uphill

We found a lizard that kind of looked like a horned frog -- I didn't know they had those in New Mexico.

almost there - climbing the steps to the tower

Monjeau Lookout Tower - Lincoln National Forest, NM

M really wanted to go up into the tower...

We had to settle for this view instead.

Did I mention we were above the snow line?

Hiking back to the truck. This is one of those pictures that makes me realize M isn't a little kid anymore -- in fact, he had his 7th birthday during our trip.

Later, back at the house, M played on a tire swing I set up.

Stay tuned... I still have more New Mexico photos coming up next time...

WSC

np: KLLI-FM - "Big Dick Hunter's Wild-Ass Circus"