Angel Fire's Aliens
In the off-season this New Mexico ski resort welcomes some of the oddest visitors.

There's a road sign along U.S. Highway 434 that looks so ordinary, so official, that you're tempted to ignore it. By the time you realize what you've seen - an image of a cow being sucked into a spacecraft - it's disappeared in your rearview mirror.

There are the extraterrestrial-looking rock formations. Canyons that could pass for a backdrop in any science fiction movie. Darkness hides these surreal geological formations at night, but as the road curves up the mountain the moon emerges from behind a cloud and illuminates their chiseled, otherworldly surface.

And there's the name itself: Angel Fire. Every alien invasion site should be this clearly marked.

If you think this remote New Mexico mountain resort is a favorite landing spot for UFOs, you're half right. The whole region is a hotbed of sightings, cattle mutilations and close encounters. But even if you don't see a single light in the sky, you still can't help but be impressed by the strangeness of this place. Strange in a good way, mostly.

Angel Fire is a winter getaway. The "normal" visitors frequent this place during high season to go downhill skiing, snowboarding or to cross-country across the flat plateaus. In many respects, it resembles any other ski resort in North America. There's the mountain; there's the village. Ski during the day, head to Jasper's Lounge after the lifts close. The snow quality is above average and with about 300 days of sunshine a year, the slopeside conditions are often better than what you'd find north of the state line in Colorado.

Then the snow melts and the other visitors arrive.

For example, the religious cult that held a recent meeting at the resort. One morning several members of the group reportedly showed up for breakfast at the Angel Fire Resort Hotel half-dressed. Their leader arrived in the nude. Just before two embarrassed hotel staffers threw a tablecloth over him, he declared it was "the day of free expression." Hotel management insisted he express himself elsewhere.

Another time, a group of environmentalists were holding a meeting at the mountain. They had been warned to leave all the doors and windows to their conference room closed because bears were attracted to the food in the room. But they vetoed the idea because they wanted to be "closer to nature." Closer is exactly what they got. After lunch they found a bear foraging the room, forcing them to adjourn the meeting in a hurry.

What do these offbeat visitors do in Angel Fire? Well, that's just it. Even though the snow is gone, there's plenty going on here.

Every July, for instance, the Texas Tech University theater department brings its summer season to town for performances at the Angel Fire Mountain Theatre. The college students also offer free children's workshops. On this year's schedule are the musicals "Godspell," "Baby" and the play "Bus Stop." In late August and early September, Music from Angel Fire offers a classical music festival to rival any mountain resort's on this side of the Rockies. This year's concerts include selections from Bartok, Beethoven and Brahms.

But the summer's show-stopper is arguably "Wings Over Angel Fire" an air show sponsored by the town's chamber of commerce that sends dozens of hot air balloons soaring into the blue desert sky. Who needs UFOs when you have these colorful objects dotting the heavens?

Maybe the strange visitors are on to something. Because the town is at 8,600 feet, the weather is significantly cooler than almost anywhere else in New Mexico during the summer. Daytime high temperatures average in the mid-70s and lows are in the 40s, which is a world away from the oppressive heat that the rest of the Southwest is normally baking in.

Angel Fire also has something else going for it: geography. It's only 30 miles to Santa Fe and about a three hour drive from Albuquerque. But it's the resort's physical location in the Moreno Valley, a vast flat and undeveloped area that's bracketed by the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, which makes it a compelling getaway. You come up here and you're immediately overwhelmed by the scale of everything - the size of the peaks, the endlessness of the valley and the infinite sky above.

It's not too difficult to understand why strange visitors from this planet - or any other - would want to come to Angel Fire.

Christopher Elliott and Kari Haugeto are writers based in Key Largo, Fla. This article was written in April 2002. Last update July 2003.

Top photo: Clouds illuminated by sun over Angel Fire. [Photo credit: Mary Dannels/Access Media, Inc. ]

Second photo: A sample of the unique colors winessed in the sky, believed to inspire the name Angel Fire. [Photo credit: Janet Sailor/Access Media, Inc. ]

Third photo: Angel Fire attracts people hoping to expose themselves to nature. [Photo credit: Jeff Caven Photography. ]

Bottom photo: Taken while riding in a hot air balloon at Wings Over Angel Fire, an annual hot air balloon festival and air show, sponsored by the Angel Fire Chamber of Commerce. [Photo credit: Janet Sailor/Access Media, Inc. ]

Publication-quality high-resolution digital images are available upon request.

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