With its many great restaurants, bars, stores and accommodations, Red River makes a perfect homebase for daytrippers who want to enjoy the wide variety of interesting sights and historic sites that Northern New Mexico has to offer.

Translation? Stay here and go visit there. Here are a few suggestions for enjoyable sightseeing trips.

Wild Rivers

Located 40 short minutes from Red River is the Wild Rivers Recreation Area. It offers biking, hiking and camping opportunities on the rim of the Rio Grande Gorge. (Yes, THE Rio Grande made so famous in song and Western folk lore.) The Gorge is 800 feet deep and offers a breathtaking glimpse of the great natural upheaval that created this area eons ago. Go to the end of the road and see where the Red River joins the Rio Grande. It's an awesome sight!

Keep your eyes open for wildlife. Deer, elk, bear, cougars, a variety of birds and some interesting snakes make the area their home. Stop at the visitors' center for fascinating information about the wildlife, geography and geology of the region.

To find Wild Rivers, take Highway 38 west to Questa, turn right at the stop light onto Highway 522 and drive 2 miles north. Turn left on 378 and follow the signs through the community of Cerro until you reach the Gorge. The road is paved and usually in good shape.

Red River Fish Hatchery

If you were to turn left at the stop light on 522, you would be headed for the Red River Fish Hatchery, the largest producer of trout in the state of New Mexico. Two miles north of Questa (look for the turnoff) the hatchery rears trout and is open daily. The visitors' center features a display on the fish-rearing process, with a free self-guiding tour.

Built in 1942, the Hatchery enjoys more visitors year-round than any other hatchery in the state, about 12,000 annually. There, they handfeed "trout chow" to big lunkers at the show pond, fish from a special trout impoundment, enjoy picnics and even overnight camping at the area.

The Red River hatchery produces 370,000 "put-and-take" fish (nine-inchers stocked for immediate catch) that are stocked into waters in the Questa, Red River, Taos, Raton, Springer, and Las Vegas areas.

D.H. Lawrence Ranch

Kiowa Ranch, once owned by irrepressible Mabel Dodge Luhan, was the home of novelist D. H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, in 1924 and 1925. It was given to them by Mrs. Luhan. It is now owned by the University of New Mexico.

Aldous Huxley was one of the many literary and other artistic visitors to the ranch. Frieda continued to live at the ranch after the author's death and in 1934, built a shrine for Lawrence's ashes. The shrine on San Cristobal Road is open daily.