Santa Fe, New Mexico

POPULATION: 83,875

MEDIAN HOME PRICE: $310,000

MILES FROM A CHAIRLIFT: 15

SNOWFALL LOOKS DIFFERENT in New Mexico. When it snows, the ground looks redder, the junipers greener, and, somehow, the snow whiter. Snowfall stacking on adobe looks like some kind of magical realism. It makes for an altogether incredible aesthetic.

But those beautiful days were behind us, I assumed—it was late March after all. A few days earlier, I skied in denim. I had friends in town, visiting from California, and they didn’t even bring jackets. Plus, this whole mountain biking thing—that was pretty fun.

Then, in the matter of a March afternoon, the weather went