Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary & Pie Town NM

We had wanted to visit Pie Town NM back in January on our way to AZ, but after the frigid, snowy experience near Albuquerque over Christmas, we didn't make it until March - a much nicer time for northern NM & AZ.

There are now THREE pie bakeries in Pie Town. The original Pie-O-Neer is only open Friday thru Sunday. The 2nd bakery is open Sunday thru Wednesday. And we arrived on a Thursday. Thankfully, the latest bakery - Danc-Syn Windmills - on the north side of the highway, at the east end of "town", had just opened for business the day before. An old, 2-room log cabin is the pie & curio shop. Six to eight old windmills, some intact, some wooden, are in the front area along Hwy 60.

And the little pot-pie sized pies were FABULOUS. I got a pecan & a berry supreme (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, & strawberries), & Jeff got apple & another berry supreme. OH MY - so worth the wait!




The other NM stop on my bucket list was a visit to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, north of Pie Town a couple of hours. I know some people think wild wolves should all be exterminated (mainly big-money ranchers & hunters with political clout), but wolves (& hawks) touch my soul. Plus I distrust anyone who is so ignorant, arrogant, damaged, and/or greedy to think they have a right to kill or torture any animal, wild or domestic. It’s the worst of human nature if they can't feel compassion, respect, & kindness towards all animals.










So I had an hour & a half walking tour of the huge wolf pens, each containing a male & a female - all neutered. The sanctuary also had coyotes, singing dogs, hybrid wolf-dogs, dingos, a red fox, & a few regular dogs (up for adoption).

The best part was hearing the entire hillside of wolves HOWLING. Even the coyotes tried to howl (they can only yip.) The whole valley vibrated with the howls.




We spent the night dry camping, & left early the next morning for the 2 hr drive back to Hidden Valley RV Campground, east of Albuquerque where we experienced our week of winter weather during Christmas.

We passed right by El Morro National Monument on Hwy 53. Mighty big chunk of white rocks.

When we got to Hidden Valley, I just HAD to mention the half dozen issues we had previously, & since I had my arguments & logic all planned, the office staff was as nice as could be. He returned the money the washing machine ate that I couldn't get because we left before the office opened, & didn't charge us the $3/day extra since we left 3 days early before which we had paid for. We even got to pick the site we wanted, & chose one of the few back in sites so we didn't have traffic driving past us all around. And the weather was definitely much nicer this time. It’s the only Coast to Coast campground in all of New Mexico, so chances are good we'll return.




From Albuquerque, we returned to Oasis State Park near Clovis NM (16 miles from the TX border) to use our NM Park Pass one last time. It expired the end of March 2015. Last year when we got it March 1st, we spent all month in NM, & again all of December 2015, so it definitely paid for itself. There's nothing hard about  $4/night for electric & water hookups. And nearly every site at every park has shelters over picnic tables.


After 3 months of Mountain Time in NM & AZ, (with a week in CA on Pacific time), then 3 weeks of Pacific Time in AZ when Daylight Saving Time started (AZ changes time zones, not time), then four nights in Mountain Time back in NM, we finally returned to Central Time in TX. It’s SO nice having my cell phone keep track of the local time (& time zones), but Kira's "feed me" time doesn't adjust as easily when changing time zones tho. Hard to explain it to a dog!