Another Roadside Attraction: Eagle Nest, New Mexico

Drove US 64 from Taos over the mountains to Raton, New Mexico. High plains within the mountains are a landscape that has always spoken to me. The Yah-ha-Tinda in Alberta was the first time I experienced that sort of country in the West. I've always loved the landscape of the Eastern Sierra--esp. around Bridgeport, CA--and the country around Eagle Nest, New Mexico, where I grabbed these photos this morning, was that kind of unexpected wide open. Taos was shrouded under freezing fog when I left but up over the first range east it was clear. The town of Eagle Nest, N.M.  is at over  8000'. We're spending the year in The Netherlands, and I admire the careful way the Dutch guard their landscape--and especially the civil way they live in their towns and cities--but part of me was craving the careless, wide open West, and here it is.
    Speaking of altitude, I'm reading Wade Davis' Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest. A ripping yarn.