Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway

This historic 84-mile loop encircles New Mexico's highest peak, weaving from high-desert sagebrush to the quaking aspens of alpine forests.

The Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway is an 84-mile loop through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico, tracing a path around the 13,161-foot summit of Wheeler Peak. Beginning and ending in the historic plaza of Taos, the route links high-desert sagebrush mesas with alpine forests, historical Spanish land grants, and old mining outposts. From Taos, the byway heads north along NM 522, passing Arroyo Hondo, an 1815 Spanish land grant that later hosted the counterculture New Buffalo commune in the 1960s. Further north, a turnoff leads to the D.H. Lawrence Ranch in San Cristobal, where the British author lived and wrote during the 1920s, and where his ashes rest in a small memorial chapel built by his wife, Frieda. The road continues to Questa, a historic village established in 1842, where the Red River State Fish Hatchery propagates trout for the surrounding mountain streams.

Turning east from Questa onto NM 38, the byway climbs alongside the mineral-veined waters of the Red River canyon. This road leads into the mountain town of Red River, situated at 8,671 feet, which evolved from a rough-and-tumble 19th-century gold mining camp into a family-oriented ski destination. Beyond the town, the highway ascends to its highest paved point at Bobcat Pass, reaching 9,820 feet before dropping into the wide, grassy Moreno Valley. Here, travelers pass the remnants of Elizabethtown, New Mexico's first incorporated town, which boomed in 1870 after gold was discovered on Baldy Mountain. Today, only a few stone ruins remain of the once-boisterous settlement. The valley floor is dominated by the 2,400-acre Eagle Nest Lake, a high-altitude reservoir completed in 1918 that serves as a sanctuary for bald eagles, osprey, and cold-water anglers.

At the southern end of the Moreno Valley, the byway joins US 64 and passes the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Established in 1968 by Victor and Jeanne Westphall to honor their son, David, who was killed in action, the site features a soaring, sail-shaped chapel that was the first major memorial in the United States dedicated to Vietnam veterans. From the nearby resort community of Angel Fire, the loop turns west to scale the 9,101-foot Palo Flechado Pass, a historic trade route used for centuries by Apache, Comanche, and Pueblo peoples. The final stretch of the journey winds down through the narrow canyon of the Rio Fernando de Taos, where the scent of ponderosa pine transitions back into the dry, sun-baked adobe and roasting green chiles of the Taos valley.