Dixon, New Mexico — September, 2000

Dixon, New Mexico is a tiny artists' community in the north-central part of the state between Santa Fe and Taos. We stayed at a quiet retreat called Rock Pool Gardens which served as a perfect home base for our hiking vacation. Its name derives from a beautiful indoor pool made of native rock.

Our hosts, Holly and Wil, thoughtfully provided everything we needed during our stay, including breakfast pastries, home-grown tomatoes and canteloupe, and even the use of their very friendly hiking companion, Yogi, who accompanied us during our walks in the "back yard," a huge expanse of federal land directly behind the house.

There is plenty of flowing water in this area. The Espanola Valley is at the intersection of four rivers, two of which are the Rio Embudo and this one, the Rio Grande, making its way south to become the Texas-Mexico border.

The main reason we chose to visit this area was for the excellent hiking. This is truly a hiker's paradise with acres and acres of federal lands including the Carson National Forest which has dozens of well-marked but lightly used hiking trails.

Kathy and I got up every morning, had breakfast and perhaps a short walk with Yogi in the back yard, and then took a short drive to one of the trail heads, chosen more or less at random. We typically spent six or seven hours in the forest, and on most days we didn't see another living soul for the entire hike. Luckily, there's an automatic timer on our camera!

The dry air and high altitude were welcome changes from the oppressively hot Texas summer (it reached 112-degrees in Austin the day we left). The many streams and rivers on the trails provided a ready supply or ice-cold clear water, so we didn't have to lug a lot of drinking water with us.

Some of the best vistas are to be had on the Devisadoro Peak trail which rises from about 7,000 feet at the trailhead to 8,304 feet at the peak. The views of Taos and the surrounding valley are breathtaking.

Here's Kathy after hiking over a thousand feet straight up the mountain.

Luckily, there was a nice place to rest at the peak. We sat in our rock thrones and read our books for a couple of hours before trekking back down.

The solitude and natural beauty of the forest trails defy description. It was also great exercise! Here I am showing off my incredible leg muscles by bending a full-grown Aspen. Impressive, huh?

We were surprised that September is a big wild-flower season in this part of the country. Those white daisies grew everywhere along the trails along with many other varieties.

Of course, there was also relaxation and recreation involved in addition to the hiking and sight-seeing. The La Chiripada Winery is directly across the street from Rock Pool Gardens, just a few steps from our kitchen. And the wine is surprisingly good! Unfortunately, they didn't buy it when we returned later in the week with the empty half-case and asked for our free refills :-(

All in all, this trip had exactly the desired effect, which was to give us an opportunity to purge the stress of the last few months, get some fresh air and exercise, and see a part of the country we hadn't yet visited. We will definitely return again!