Sangre de Cristo

Ultimately those two fires merged and became what we know as the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, which, over the course of several months, burned more than 530 square miles of land in a section of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, taking with it several hundred homes and acres of trees on federal and private land.

For sale: Los Cielos, a 297-acre “luxury recreation retreat” in Angel Fire, New Mexico, near the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range.

Julie Chacon, executive director of the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area, an organization in Alamosa, Colo., grew up speaking New Mexican Spanish in the nearby village of Capulín, where it had spread across the state line to Southern Colorado in the 19th century.

The couple pressed on through the afternoon traffic as the sun shone on the snow of the distant Sangre de Cristo Mountains and winds blew across pueblo lands.

The desert light and contrasting colors of purple candlewood blossoms and yellow sagebrush among the Sangre de Cristo mountains also attracted artists from across the Mississippi.