Due to covid-19, we went to the Wolf Creek ski area for the fourth time at the end of February, this time only two of us, giving up opportunity to explore other big mountains.
The original plan was 1) drive to Raton, NM on the first day, which is only 3 hours from Wolf Creek, 2) visit Zapata falls - which is frozen in winter, the second day, and get to Wolf Creek during the day, pickup pre-purchased lift ticket, rent skis, boots and poles, 3) ski for two days, leave Wolf Creek at the end of 2nd ski, drive to Raton, NM, 4) Return home on the 5th day.
On the road
Audio book
It is a very long drive, and good portion of the journey has poor reception of radio. We borrowed an audio book "The smartest guys in the room". We started playing the audio when we felt the need to pause conversations. We listened to extended time, an hour or two at a time, but we did pause the audio from time to time when we wanted to have a discussion or to make some comments. We finished listening the 20 hour audio book on the return trip.
Mountains, Lake and river
Landscape in Colorado is really beautiful - snow caped mountains and peaks under blue sky always enchant me. We saw many of them, including a few more well known ones along the road - Spanish Peaks, Blanca Peak and Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
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| Spanish Peaks |
The plan to visit Zapata falls was derailed by the real rough road from paved high way to the trail head to Zapata Fall. Instead we went to visit San Luis lake and wildlife area - a very nice picnic area and the lake is open for boating during summer. We looked at Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Blanca peak from different angle. Yellow withered grass added accent to the black/grey/white landscape
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We noticed the Rio Grande was frozen, first time we ever saw this happen during our dozen time road trip to Taos or Wolf Creek. Along this route, the river is not too close to the highway. So we purposely got off the main road to get to the river banks to take some pictures of the frozen, snow covered river.
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| Frozen Rio Grande |
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| Frozen San Luis Lake |
Cooks Cabin at Spruce Lodge
Cooks Cabin was a nice standalone log cabin, Rustic look and feel. electronic controlled gas fireplace is the heater for the cabin, tankless water heater, gas stove... we loved it. We brought some food with us: fruits, breads, instant noodles, snacks, primarily for lunch and breakfast because restaurants at the ski area were for to go only, to sit-down meals, or warm hubs.
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| cozy bedroom |
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| electronic controlled fire place acts as a heater |
Ski Wolf Creek
Prep
We picked up lift tickets and made reservation on rental skis/boots the day before we started ski, near closing time (~ 3pm). It is really a good arrangement - no line at the ticket window, no crowd at the rental shop. The days of ski, we had everything, no linens for us to wait for. When we arrived at the slops, we got our stored equipment and go to the lift right away. Stress free!!
Skiing
We left our cabin at 8am for Wolf Creek ski area on our skiing days, and got to the parking lot at 8:20am or so, great parking spots for both days, less than 50 yards from slops! We were the first group of skiers at the lift, no line, no crowd in the mountains. We frequently were the only people on the trails.
There were strong winds the first morning, and one lift temporarily stopped operation. The trail conditions, however, were excellent - powdery snow, not too many pile-ups, except at the top of lifts - there were occasionally white out conditions.
Clouds over Alberta Peak 
A near white out at the top of lift
Fortunately the sky cleared up near noon, it was gorgeous out there in the mountains, in addition to the thrill of downhill speed and the feeling of control. We attempted a short moguls black trail successfully.
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| blue sky makes the trail beautiful |
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| Texans are abundant at Wolf Creek |
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| moguls |
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| on the moguls |
The second day was mostly cloudy but the wind was calm. We enjoyed the ski and took less time take pictures :)
Memories of the previous three trips
Our first trip to Wolf Creek was at the end of 2011, after 7 consequtive trips to Taos. In addition to skiing, the most notable thing happened was that I attempted to climb Albert peak!
The second trip to Wolf Creek was with a church bible study group, including 11 families, we joined as the friend of one of the family. This was the first time we skied during spring break (2013). We saw the most beautiful snow scenes during our ski trips thus far.
We went to Wolf creek again in 2017, breaking the streaks to go to Denver area for skiing. The unique happening this time was that I skied on black trails on purpose for a few times including the intimidating Albert Face. I did not try Alberta Face this time :(
During these three trips, we took side trips to visit great sand dune national park twice, Alamosa national wild life refuge once.
Note: Facemask was required in the ski area, the restaurants for take out only, no warming huts, and the trails were sparsely occupied. Despite some inconveniences, it was great to go to skiing.
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