San Antonio Hot Springs
Ahhhhhhh “The way is shut.” The stuffy lady in a park ranger’s uniform stood in the middle of the road and quoted Gandalf at us. I put the truck in park and got out to reason with her. It was the day after Christmas 2018 and the federal government was shut down. Over a foot of snow had fallen in the last couple hours on the mountains outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico and none of the roads had been plowed. This lady clearly did not want to be outside, but someone had buried their SUV in a snowbank and she had been called out to help clean it up. This was the only road going where we wanted to go; which was the middle of nowhere. Sam and I had had enough of traffic and people and our wasteful consumerist society and were headed out into the mountains to camp for a couple days. But the Park Ranger was adamant that no one was going any further. She didn’t want to “come clean up our mess,” which she had clearly been doing all day with unprepared tourists. She was worried we would g