Christmas trees in Santa Fe (Pecos, Mountainair: Home Depot, living, price)

[nicky1097]

Does anyone know where to go to get a nice, reasonably priced, fresh x-mas trees here in Santa Fe?

[Towanda]

Nicky:

Here's an option:

We got a permit ($10) from the U.S Forestry Service (their office is on Rodeo Rd.) which allows us to cut a tree in certain designated areas of the Santa Fe National Forest in the Pecos Wilderness and Jemez Mountains.

We have never done this before but feel like it is an adventure for our first year in Santa Fe.

I guess we will go in the coming week sometime and see what kind of a tree we can find.

[lisdol]

Where are you going? We thought about going up near Terrero but our 4WD does not fit all of us and kind of wanted to make it a family event. Terrero is the closest spot in the cutting area for us.

[Towanda]

I'm leaving that up to my husband. We got maps and the permit from the Forest Service and that's as far as we have gotten so far.

My husband is going to call his cousin in ABQ who worked for the Forest Service for years before he retired, and ask him where would be the best place to go. As soon as I find out, I'll let you know what he says.

[lisdol]

Oh, can I ask you, does your permit allow you to dig up a tree? In Mountainair ranger district, you are allowed to dig up or cut.

[Towanda]

I believe the permit is just for cutting a tree.

[Towanda]

Originally Posted by lisdol

Where are you going? We thought about going up near Terrero but our 4WD does not fit all of us and kind of wanted to make it a family event. Terrero is the closest spot in the cutting area for us.

Lisdol:

We went up to Terrero today. It is GORGEOUS country.

There are miles and miles of forested land where you can cut trees up there.

Finding a good tree turned out to be nearly impossible. We finally were getting so tired of looking at bad trees that we cut one, and if it looks terrible in our living room, at least we have a story to tell about our first Christmas in New Mexico. I don't know if I would go back next year. It is certainly not like going into a Christmas tree lot or Lowes or Home Depot where all the trees are reasonably well shaped. But at $10 you can't beat the price.

The road up to Terrero is paved all the way ... there was a little bit of ice in a few spots because it's dark in some of those roads where the sun doesn't get to and so the snow from a week ago is still up there.

Our truck has 4 wheel drive so we did get off the paved road a few times and had no problems.

It was bitter cold up in the mountains. Luckily my husband thought to bring along a thermos of hot chocolate.

Not many people up there. We saw a few trucks -- maybe everyone else knew that the trees aren't so great.

We did get a lot of good branches off the bottom of the tree and we should be able to make several wreaths out of them. Come to think of it, the wreaths may look better than the tree does!