This is a beautiful area with mountains all around. We took a hike today in Cathedral Hills County Park which has miles of hiking trails. We took one of the easier ones (Skycrest Loop) which was a pretty good slog up to where we could see the sky. The second picture below shows how far down it was to Grants Pass. I love the blue of the sky in NM and this definitely rivals that!
The Pacific madrone tree is native to this area. It apparently grows best in rocky soil in a Douglas fir forest so it was right at home here. The Spanish moss was a surprise.