New Mexico skies

New Mexico is known for it's beautiful sunsets. 
That's why many painters have gone there.

And, while we've travelled this stretch of Northeastern NM between Clayton and Raton many times, we again stopped and took in the views.
They must have had a wet summer, 'cause the grass was a lot greener than usual for this time of year.

But, while we've have experienced bad weather several times on this stretch,
the skies, looked just too colorful to us.

And above those bright colors, there was developing a very thick mantle of gray skies.

As we got closer to this farm, the gray skies lowered towards the ground.

Within a few minutes the skies turned totally gray and it began to hail...
larger than golf balls, but smaller than Valencia oranges.

As the hail pounded on us, we pulled off the road and waited for the storm to pass.

Once in Raton, we stopped and looked back at what we had gone through:

Interestingly, the people who had driven past us, at over 60 mph, had also stopped and came over to talk. 

They had decided to drive fast and be in the storm as short a time as possible. 
Maybe that was smart, in case a tornado touched down.
But all we know is that their windshield had broken.

We were sure glad we didn't add any force to those ice balls by driving into them fast!