NEWS
Enchanted Forest Cross Country Ski Area will not open this winter due to 'difficult snow years'
Owners say business, founded in 1985, is for sale as rising costs and low snow force full closure
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RED RIVER 鈥� Enchanted Forest Cross Country Ski Area鈥檚 social media page is filled with photos of happy memories going back decades to the business鈥� founding in 1985.
Guests in neon ski jackets cruise groomed paths. Snowshoers smile for group portraits in front of yurts piled with marshmallow-like snowcaps. Competitors in racing bibs from the University of New Mexico鈥檚 former NCAA cross-country ski team tuck in as they speed past spectators.
More recent images aren鈥檛 just indicative of different times, but suggest a changing environment altogether here in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, with guests pictured last December snowshoeing through slush and bare timber.
Co-owners Ellen Miller-Goins and Geoff Goins point to a confluence of factors when explaining their decision to keep the resort closed this coming winter for the first time in the business鈥� 40-year history, but one reason comes up repeatedly: The snow just doesn鈥檛 fall like it used to.
鈥淲e鈥檝e (had) marginal snow years, where you could do what鈥檚 called snow farming 鈥� moving snow around and shoveling snow,鈥� Miller-Goins said. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 not a lot you can do when it鈥檚 55 degrees outside.鈥�
Geoff Goins said the resort, 4 miles east of Red River, received around 20 inches of total snowfall in the 2025-26 winter season 鈥� the least the owners can recall in a single season since the business鈥� founding.
鈥淥ne-hundred-fifty (inches) is the minimum we need to operate,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut 200 is better.鈥�
New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Oregon all set new record-low snowfall rates last season, with California recording its second-lowest accumulation since the 1980s, according to
Even though the year before had been warm and dry, Miller-Goins and Goins bet that an early storm last November was a sign of better weather to come.
They doubled down, dipping into their retirement savings to get the ski area ready. Miller-Goins even took out a second mortgage on her house.
It didn鈥檛 pan out.
Miller-Goins called 鈥�2025-26 the worst winter in Enchanted Forest鈥檚 History.鈥�
鈥淲e kept thinking we just had to make it through one more bad year,鈥� she said. 鈥淎t some point, you have to ask whether these are still individual bad years or whether the nature of winter itself is changing. We simply don鈥檛 have the financial or emotional reserves left to gamble on another winter.鈥�
They say it was their final effort to sustain the business that Miller-Goins鈥� parents, former Red River Mayor John Miller and his wife, Judy Miller, founded in the 1980s after moving to Red River with their children in the 1960s.
The Millers were inducted into the New Mexico Ski Hall of Fame in 2008. They died within four days of each other in November 2022.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so tied up with everything with my mom and dad,鈥� Miller-Goins said.
Theirs isn鈥檛 the only ski business suffering amid record-low snowfall over the last two seasons. Even large resorts have been compelled to raise ticket prices in recent years and diversify into off-season activities.
The key difference, Miller-Goins and Goins say, is that Enchanted Forest lacks the snowmaking equipment that nearby resorts 鈥� Red River Ski & Summer Area, Angel Fire Resort, Taos Ski Valley and even Sipapu Ski & Summer Resort 鈥� now rely on to survive most winters.
Despite predictions that a potentially unprecedented El Ni帽o weather pattern could bring significant snowfall to the Southwest this upcoming season, Goins said they can鈥檛 afford to gamble again on a forecast.
鈥淲e watch the weather. We look at the long-range forecasts,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut, you know, how many times on the weather on TV have they said we're going to measure this storm in feet, and we ended up with 2 or 3 inches of snow?鈥�
Enchanted Forest has been for sale for years now with nibbles but no commitments.
Despite the challenges they鈥檝e faced keeping it going, Miller-Goins and Goins say the 640-acre property in the heart of the Carson National Forest isn鈥檛 just filled with fond memories 鈥� it has potential in the right hands.
鈥淭he trails are still here. The yurts are still here. The forest, history and community are still here,鈥� reads their announcement of the closure. 鈥淲e hope this announcement reaches the person who looks at all of that and sees a future we no longer have the resources to pursue.鈥�
John Miller is the Journal鈥檚 northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.
