Road Trip to the Frozen Tundra of… New Mexico?

Last Updated on June 23, 2022 by James Dziezynski

Here was the plan: go south to New Mexico for an early winter road trip. The logic: it would be warm enough to run the dogs on the local trails and we’d fill in the spaces in between with visits to art museums and historical sites. Unlike our native Colorado, winter driving would be easy and the temps would be warmer than home. Heck, it’s New Mexico—we could probably even fit in some great cool weather camping! But as they say about the best-laid plans of men and border collies, ours went awry before even leaving the driveway. Our government (which, at the time of writing, is currently running with the efficiency of a 1974 AMC Gremlin with a bad oil leak) decided to shut itself down, depriving us of visiting the White Sands National Monument. Unlike other government-run parks that remained semi-open, this one was actually closed up and gated. Bummer. But hey, road trips are about flexibility and discovery. We’d surely find plenty of fun to make up for missing out on White Sands. Oh, there was a mention of a little blizzard in the forecast bit c’mon, it’s New Mexico. How bad can a “blizzard” be in a state that is home to over a million cacti? Departing from our home base in Boulder, Colorado we loaded up the dogs and took to the open road. Our first stop was the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. Despite the government shut down, the dunes were still open to the public, just without any park supervision or facilities. Winter is a spectacular time to visit. Low-angle light illuminates sparkling sand crystals, outlining the graceful, curved contours that build up into mighty dunes. Deep-orange sun casts long shadows on the ground and projects soft, blazing pastels of alpenglow in the sky. Clouds and mist swirl high above on towering, snow-capped mountains. It’s downright magical. Driving over 9,413′ La Veta Pass saw the first significant snowfall on the adventure. Having been over this pass many, many times en route to mountain adventures, I wasn’t too worried about the dunes themselves being part of the storm. Sure enough, as we descended to Fort Garland and the road to the dunes, we exited the maelstrom into open blue sky. We were treated to clear views of some of our old favorite 14,000′ mountains, including good ol’ Little Bear Peak. Thankfully, all the park gates were open. There were a few dozen people and dogs roaming the dunes. We headed off to a secluded portion and enjoyed the simplicity of hiking around with no real destination. Fremont and Mystic loved charging up and down the dunes—it was good to get out and run after several hours stuck in the truck! As we departed the dunes en route to Santa Fe, our phones started blowin’ up with storm and blizzard warnings. The dark black clouds gathering to the south seemed to validate these alarms. Quickly stopping in Alamosa, CO, to refuel, we charged down to Santa Fe along Highways 160 and 285—neither of which is a major interstate and probably wouldn’t be well-maintained in the case of heavy snow. We didn’t see the first few flakes until reaching Santa Fe city limits and were safely embedded in our dog-friendly hotel by the time the storm struck in earnest. The upshot was we were able to tour the historic downtown area (a 10-minute walk from our hotel) with the dogs as the snow fell in ever-increasing density. Two things became apparent when we awoke the next morning. The first was that as the temperatures struggled to push over 5 degrees, camping and hiking were both out of the question. Our dogs are tough, but since they are older guys (12 and 9), we knew any hikes would be short-lived at best. Second was the realization New Mexico isn’t really prepared to handle this kind of snowfall. This presented a dilemma: stay in Santa Fe or charge for home? The problem more-or-less resolved itself when we couldn’t find any dog-friendly lodging in Santa Fe. We would jump on I-25 and head north and see what happens. If the roads were ok, we’d likely push into Colorado and salvage the night there. If things were bad, there were a few towns on the map that might offer a “port in any storm” should we need it. With 20 years of Colorado driving under my steel-radial belt, I’ve done my share of tough winter roads. I have to say the stretch of highway between Santa Fe and Las Vegas, NM, was the toughest snow driving I’d ever done. It was only 55 miles between the two cities but the highway wasn’t plowed, nor did they use any mag-chloride or salt (melting agents), just useless stripes of desert sand. Snow caked in our wheel-wells like frozen oatmeal, something I’d never seen before. At times the highway shoulders were a mystery and the road itself was coated with a thick carapace of lumpy ice. We counted over 15 vehicles spun out and off the road. Temps never rose above 3 degrees. We were relieved to make it to Las Vegas in one piece. But as road trips often do, this one was filled with unexpected surprises. Las Vegas, New Mexico is an incredibly charming town, whose overall appeal was greatly boosted by the holiday lights set against a foot of new-fallen powder. Even better, we scored a room in the historic Plaza Hotel—rooms were filling up fast! Not only is the place affordable and dog-friendly, it’s also immaculately clean, despite being built in the 1880s. Inside the hotel were restaurants, shops, and enough memorabilia to qualify the place as a bonafide historical museum. Several rooms were tagged with short notes of famous guests who have stayed there, from Teddy Roosevelt to Michelle Obama. What could be tacky in the wrong hands came off as authentic and mega-charming. Would visit again! The town itself was flush with history. In modern times, it serves as a popular filming location for movies and TV shows, including the current NetFlix hit Longmire. Initially, we were just happy to be out of the storm, but as we explored Las Vegas, we realized this should have been on our itinerary the whole time. That’s the beauty of road trips—sometimes you just have to get out there and see what happens. After a comfortable night (and plenty of walks in the chilly weather around the plaza square), we gathered up the troops and began the drive back to Colorado. Before leaving, we were curious about the Dwan Light Sanctuary. It’s a special room (yes, it’s “Dwan” not “Dawn”) on the campus of the World College, a private pre-college boarding school created by Arm N’ Hammer. If that sounds like the makings of a cult-based facility with a vague cult-like name, you and I are on the same page, but apparently, it is a legit, highfalutin, school where elite (i.e. wealthy) kids from around the world come to prepare for even more-elite colleges. It was a 5-mile drive from downtown Las Vegas to the World College campus. The roads were still caked with snow, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We took our time and arrived on campus, only to have a somewhat surprised security guard tell us the place was closed. Normally the light sanctuary is open to the public, but we were thwarted by the fact that the guard didn’t want to walk up there and unlock the place. Oh well. The rest of the drive home was uneventful. By the time we resumed cruising on I-25, the ice and snow were nearly all melted, and completely clear by Colorado. We would have liked to have mixed in more dog hikes, but we did the best we could given the conditions. And for the future, we discovered a great little loop for a fun 3-day weekend escape. Late autumn may be the perfect time to go, or perhaps early spring.

• Day 1 – Great Sand Dunes visit en route to Santa Fe—about 7 total hours of driving from Denver/Boulder
• Day 2– Santa Fe visit, with all the cool museums and (probably) fun hiking. Drive to Las Vegas and stay there for the night—about a two-hour drive or less in good weather.  
• Day 3 – Explore Las Vegas and visit the light sanctuary, hike a little, visit the hot springs en route to World College, and drive back to Colorado (about 6 hours).

Overall, 2018 wasn’t a great year for us, but ending on a high note—even in the face of multiple thwarted plans—was a much-needed recharge for our adventurous spirits. If nothing else, it kick-started our dormant desire to hit the open road ourselves for the undiscovered and unplanned adventures that await.