DenCo : Planning the "Autumn Leaves" Rally

[eubank]

My wife and I are working on the plan for the DenCo "Autumn Leaves" rally here in Angel Fire. Figured I'd elicit some feedback on what we're planning. The rally starts on Friday noonish and ends on Monday noonish.

For the Friday and Monday, we won't plan specific group outings per se just in case folks are late getting in or need to work harder on getting back out. It'll be more setup/knockdown activities, breakfasts, pot luck, happy hour, business meeting (Monday).

For Saturday, we were thinking about a sights tour. It'll depend on where the best sights are this year, but a good one is usually the Enchanted Circle Scenic Route: Angel Fire, Eagle Nest, Red River, Questa, Taos, back to Angel Fire. Figured that we could stop off at Elizabethtown (ghost town), one of the back roads in Red River where views of the high peaks are best, Wild Rivers Rec Area (Rio Grande and Red River gorges). Then hit Michael's Kitchen in Taos for a late lunch and head back home.

The alternate route, lower in altitude, is to head south out of Angel Fire thru Black Lake (Lonesome Dove's "Montana" scenes) down to Mora and around back to Taos and home. Could drop in the old mill near Mora, maybe also by St. Francis de Asis cathedral (famous from Ansel Adams' 1929 photograph, but well known in its own right for its place in Taos history). Still gotta hit Michael's Kitchen.

For Sunday, we're trying to arrange a trip up on the ski slopes to get the full feel of mountains in the fall. It appears that Angel Fire will be open for business at that time; they're hosting a big mountain biking event just two weeks later. If not, we'll hit either the Red River or the Taos SV lifts.

Oh, and we figure some kind of pot luck on Friday, somewhat more organized meals for Saturday and Sunday. One of those days, we'll do grilled something and get participants to bring sides. (It might take some string pulling, but maybe I could get a friend of mine to provide elk/antelope/venison for the grill. If not, then it'll probably be chicken.)

Ok, so let me know what you think! If you have any suggestions, we're all ears!


Lynnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

[Airstream25]

Lynn, When is the "Autumn Leaves" Rally?
By the way, my vote would be for the Enchanted Circle Scenic Route, not Mora.

[eubank]

Yep, the Enchanted Circle is our preference, too. Because it's about leaves, though, we figured we'd just keep options open until about a week before the event and then drive both to see where the leaves are the best, higher elevation Enchanted Circle route or lower elevation Mora route. If they're about the same, then we'll choose Enchanted Circle. With this year's goofy weather, though, there's no telling what's going to happen!

Lynn

[Forrest]

Lynn,

What you have planned sounds great so far. For those following this thread the rally is Oct. 6 to the 9th.