I will always remember our first trip to scout land in the New Mexico/Colorado area. We combined leisurely skiing and sightseeing with an intensive search for the location of our final home. It was March, 2006. I had spent the previous 12-18 months gathering information on communities, cultural characteristics, weather, and land values from south-central New Mexico to southern Colorado and Utah. We narrowed our search to this area because it met our criteria of a) being sparsely populated, b) reasonable access to important community services (shopping, medical, entertainment, and culture), and c) available wide open vistas. Thanks to my parents, Sassy and I were able to get a free week at a resort in Durango, Colorado. Durango is a picturesque Western Town with tons of skiing, shopping, and site seeing. It was perfect as abase for our operation. From Durango we could drive to all our points of interest and be home (Durango) for the evening. We skied at Wolf Creek, visited Chaco Canyon, and Mesa Verde.
We started combing the ground between Pagosa Springs to Cortez. Then we started working our way south: Cuba, Jemez Springs, Taos, Santa Fe, Pecos, Lamy, Galisteo, Stanley, Madrid, Los Cerillos, Edgewood, Juan Thomas, Mountainair, Socorro, and Magdalena. Views, weather, access to Albuquerque and/or Santa Fe, and cost led us to concentrating on an area in south Santa Fe County. In the end, we selected a piece of property large enough for our privacy and blessed with sweeping views of mountain tops, vast open plains, and distant mesas.
