The Seal Rock: January 2010

The little kids chair lift at Wolf Creek. Early in the day before all the really heavy stuff started to fall.

Out back of the new Ravens Nest eating and warming area on top of the Ravens lift.

Joe getting ready to put his skis back on after taking a break.

This is taken from the top of a ridge looking down about a quarter of a mile down to see the elk lying under the trees. They were smart enough to stay put out of the snow. There were several down in the valley, small dark spots next to trees.

Me at the top of the mountain on our snowmobile ride.

The blue circles are around some of the elk.

Laura goes "fast, fast"!

Joe heading around the corner in the meadow.

Following our hunting guide up the easiest part of the trip.

This was beautiful but when we were on the narrow trails and areas with NO trails it was breathe taking, I couldn't get the camera out for fear of falling off! You have to see it to believe how beautiful it really is.

Red River Ski area in New Mexico .

One of the pretty runs at Red River. They needed more snow!!

The "ducks" in the icy water at the base of one of chair lifts in Red River.

We walked across the street from our room to get on the chair lifts.

Out our window in Red River. Joe skied the runs on the left and I did the ones on the right.

We left Alma on Friday morning to drive to Red River, New Mexico to ski there on Saturday. All was fine, they didn't have a great amount of snow but it was nice and sunny, very warm and the town was really pretty. Found a wonderful Italian restaurant with our seats next to fire place looking out the window to the ski slope. That night they had fireworks off the top of the mountain and skiers skiing down with flares. Really pretty!
THEN...we drove over to Pagosa Springs to ski Wolf Creek. Got there Sunday afternoon, all is fine.
We ski on Monday in a light snow, really nice conditions. The snow starts to pick up! Tuesday we decide to take a snowmobile trail ride. We ended up getting a private tour with a hunting guide who was on the lookout for lions. I thought he said "lines". What the heck I don't know hunting terms. Anyway we had a blast and he gave us a $250 ride for $140. He took us to some of his hunting spots to check out the elk and lions. (mountain lions not lines like as in fences! :) He took us to a spot on top of some mountain (NO trails to follow but he knew the way) and about a quarter of a mile down we saw the elk. He said there were 80 in the herd but we saw only a few as they were hunkered down in the snow. It was snowing "HARD" and "HEAVY" all day. Did I mention we are the only ones out doing this on this day?? He saw the lion tracks while we were on a trail down the mountain but Joe and I didn't see them. We were watching the trail and trying to stay on the snowmobile! We got stuck once and turned over once. Not too bad apparently for new riders. It was great.
We skied on Wednesday and was going back up on Thursday but the blizzard was on it's way.
The snow was so deep that it would stop me dead as I was going down the mountain. It was knee deep in all places and would come up to my thighs while moving. It was a work out. It snowed around 17 inches while we were there skiing. Wind was blowing like crazy and I saw several Snow devils, like dust devils only with snow! We made it down the mountain with chains and decided to leave on Thursday. We made it home Thursday night and after hearing the reports we were glad we left when we did. They have received over 65 inches the past 72 hours and it's still snowing. Roads closed everywhere and avalanche warnings for the road up to the ski area.