Once the snow melts, Angel Fire heats up with an abundance of outdoor opportunities and seasonal events.
Revered as a cozy mountain ski town, Angel Fire brightens to green in the warmer months, creating a summer playground with activities, events, restaurants, and shops ideal for a weekend getaway or vacation stay. The village’s high-elevation climate marries crisp mountain air with mid-70s temperatures and sunshine to create a picturesque setting that beckons travelers to the southern Rocky Mountains.
Strike out on horseback to traverse the trails and experience the outdoors with Nancy Burch’s Roadrunner Tours, which provides both beginner and advanced riding lessons as well as tours of the Carson National Forest and gold-panning expeditions. An abundance of hiking trails, marked green (easy), blue (intermediate), and black (expert/advanced), thread in and around Angel Fire, including the Greenbelt Trail System, which leads hikers through groves of aspen and conifer.
In the village of Angel Fire, Monte Verde Lake offers a scenic spot to fish, rent a paddleboard or canoe, or enjoy a summer-afternoon picnic. After a rewarding day outdoors, bring the kids to Pluto’s Planet Arcade for arcade and board games, as well as ice cream and other treats.
While Angel Fire’s small-town vibe keeps families coming back, the summer celebrations are far from quaint. Every Sunday from June 11 to September 3, local farmers, craftspeople, artists, and musicians meet at Frontier Park to sell fresh produce, crafts, and more at the Farmers' and Artisan Market. Bring a comfy chair or your dancing shoes to the free Cool Summer Nights concert as local pop, rock, and country musicians take to the Frontier Park stage on Friday nights from June through September.
The town gets fire-crackin’ with an Independence Day Weekend that kicks off with fireworks celebration at Eagle Nest Lake on July 4 and continues with a special drone show in Angel Fire on July 5. In addition, the Mobile Skate Festival, on July 3 and 4, ramps up for future X-Gamers with free skate classes, a skateboard park with mobile ramps, pro demonstrations, and competitions.
Families from across the Southwest flock to Angel Fire’s largest festival, Balloons Over Angel Fire, for Father’s Day weekend June 14–16. “Whether you’re a spectator or a balloonist, it’s just a special place—it’s very, very scenic,” says Bill Lee, the balloon meister in charge of the event. “It's an opportunity to see that beautiful green mountain valley with splashes of color from the balloons—it’s pretty hard to beat.”
After 26 years piloting hot-air balloons, Lee understands balloon festivals inside and out. While Lee calls Gallup home, he has organized and grown Angel Fire’s rally over the last decade, beginning with 15 balloons and expanding to an expected 40 pilots from New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma this year. “We really have the cream-of-the-crop pilots,” Lee says. The setting brings pilots and volunteers back year after year. “Ballooning isn't something you do by yourself,” Lee says. Volunteer chase crews follow along the balloon’s route, usually communicating with the pilot via radio, and they meet the pilot where they land to pack up the balloon and head back.
If spectating isn’t enough, show up at the launch field early—before 6:30 a.m.—to interact with the pilots, who are usually searching for chase-crew volunteers to assist them,” Lee suggests. “Those who decide to volunteer aid to the pilots are often rewarded with a free balloon ride through the valley.”
On the second day of Balloons Over Angel Fire, the town hosts Mimosas on Main Street, a smorgasbord of arts, crafts, and food following the early morning mass ascension. The event serves as a perfect introduction to Angel Fire’s wonderful mix of restaurants and food trucks. Local favorites include J and A’s Fun Bakery & Cafe, for apple-cinnamon rolls or a revolving dinner menu featuring offerings like fish tacos; Enchanted Circle Brewing Company, for local brews, brisket, and chicken wings; Jeanette’s food truck, for enchiladas or a pork sandwich; 1810 Grill, for a burger or chicken sandwich; and Smoke Rings BBQ, for ribs or a smoked hot dog.
The ski slopes of Angel Fire Resort, which turn into a giant bike park in the summer, are also home to a number of eateries, like The Lift Café, for baked goods and breakfast burritos, or El Jefe, where guests can drink margaritas and enjoy high-end New Mexico fare. In the summer, the resort’s golf course and its Par & Grill are both in full swing.
For Lee and so many others, a trip to Angel Fire is something to look forward to every year as whittling away summer days—in town or in the mountains—become memories that stick around long after you leave.
