At 4pm mountain time we crossed the border, gaining an additional hour of day light.
After a little while it really started to look like we were in the southwest.
We continued to Santa Fe and around 7:45 we arrived in the city proper. We pushed on and headed for a campsite we had scoped out on freecampsites.net about 15 miles outside the city, at the Aspen Basin near Ski Santa Fe. We drove into the Santa Fe National Forest and proceeded to climb the mountains, over 10,000 feet in elevation. At a little over 10,200 feet we found our camp! The air was thin and we could definitely tell we had climbed in elevation; minor tasks required considerably more exertion.
It was snowing lightly on the mountain as we arrived; we haven't seen snow since January in the western South Carolina mountains during the bitter cold snap of earlier this winter!
We awakened to a substantial coating of fresh powder Thursday morning, and the ski areas directly above us on the mountain appeared as though they could be opened for business!
It fell to 20 degrees F that night, the coldest temperature we had encountered in many months. Fortunately, our van furnace worked great and kept it plenty warm inside.
The mountain peaks exceed 13,100 feet in this area, the foothills of the Rockies.
Ski Santa Fe located behind our camping area.
Within 48 hours we would see temperatures of 90 degrees F once again, at lower elevation in the heat of the desert day.
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