Google Earth satellite image of route

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Rating: 4/10

Jayson (Los Alamos, NM), Adrian, (~Madison, WI) and myself went to Red River, New Mexico on 6/29/03 for a little get-together and trail ride. Red River lies in a beautiful setting in the northern Sangre de Cristos of New Mexico, and sits just northeast of Taos. Not your stereotypical New Mexico image that comes to mind at all—the desert southwest, the adobe and all that stuff. As I entered the town from high above on the highway from the east, I thought, “Man, this is awesome! I can dig this!” Surrounded by ~2,500' forested hills/mountains, I was very impressed with this resort town. It somewhat reminded me of Ouray, CO, though on a smaller scale as far as the mountains go.

We headed off from the eastern end of town to Goose Lake. The trail was pretty easy, about a 3 or a 4 on Colorado's 10-scale. The trail starts out with an immediate stream crossing from the parking lot and was about 18" when we were here. A number of sections at the start have some very narrow shelves, There are three to four small, rocky sections which earn the trail a 3 or 4-rating. It was a fun drive seven miles back in and beautiful the whole way through the forest. At the end was our destination, Goose Lake, which is your typical high mountain lake/tarn—gorgeous. We ended up making a whole day out it and we also incorporated a vertical 1,000' hike up to an adjacent ridge which is apart of Gold Hill. All in all, it was a great day with some Toyota buddies.