I'm glad you pointed me to the area. I love green, too, and think I'd have a hard time living in the desert, but the mountains here look fantastic. My rough plan is to fly out Saturday, spend Sunday getting used to the elevation at least a little, and then do a one day hike Monday or Tuesday (weather dependent). The days off will give me a chance to try the local cuisine and the two beautiful things in northern New Mexico. If you'd asked me even five years ago what climbing a mountain looked like, I'd have described ropes and harnesses and hanging on by fingertips in the Alps or Himalayas. I'd have thought if one wasn't a single error away from a 1000' free fall, they were essentially hiking to the high point of Florida with no gray area in between. It turns out I was very wrong. These are mountains average people can summit.