New cells did indeed form, but it still looked iffy whether I could get to them. The road dead-ends at the ski area, so it is impossible to get farther morth/northeast in the mountains than that. Most of the precip was still north and east of the ski area, but backbuilding cumulonimbus just to the east of the main ridge of the Santa Fe Range of the Sangre de Cristos, along with updraft base almost directly over the ski area, gave me hope that I could get into the precipitation and maybe get some thundersnow, if indeed there was any thunder and lightning. By now the movement of the storms was more to the northwest than due north, which favored me by bringing their tail end closer to my location rather than farther north. By around the Big Tesuque Campground, elevation 9,675 feet, I was in rather large graupel (snow pellets). I kept going to the scenic overlook a half mile or so before you get to the ski area, as the road actually began to be covered in places. I stopped at the scenic overlook, grabbed my phone (because that was faster than getting out the video camera), and almost immediately got a long, low rumble of thunder as the snow pellets came down. Thundersnow! I stayed there and continued to video and got many more low, somewhat muffled rumbles of thunder. Quite a few people were standing outside at the overlook, enjoying the show. I stayed in my car and videoed from the window, a little concerned about lightning. The snow pellets came down the whole time, mixed at times with ordinary snowflakes. Clearly the heaviest of the storm was over the ridge to my north, but there was plenty of graupel and snow (enough to accumulate some on the ground) and plenty of thunder where I was. When it let up a little, I decided to move up to the ski area, and stopped to get more video in the Forest Service parking lot (with a small semi-primitive camping area next to it) just below the main parking lots of the ski area. The ground was more covered with fresh snow and graupel here (around a half inch in open grassy areas), and the graupel/snow pellets continued, intermittently mixing with ordinary snowflakes. Not long after I started getting video, there was a visible flash of lightning, followed about 5 seconds later by the loudest thunder I would hear this day. So the flash was about a mile away. The thunder was still a long rumble, though louder than the others, so I am guessing the lightning was in or just below the clouds, not CG. I videoed for 9 minutes there, getting several more rumbles of thunder, but the frequency decreased, sugesting the show was about over. I stopped taking video around 3:50, so I was in thundersnow for a solid half hour. And it certainly appeared to have started at least a little before I got there.

Short video of closest lighting and loudest thunder:

Full video:

I stopped again at the scenic overlook on the way down to see what I could see of the storm from there. I was treated to a better-than-expected updraft base just to my northwest, and to its north, snow/graupel coming out of the cloud base. The precipitation had ended there by then, but the storm was still not far away and offered up one more rumble of thunde, and a chance to get this picture:

At the time I got this picture and while I was videoing the tuhndersnow, the temperature on my car thermometer was in the upper 30s. Between altitude and the effects of the storm, that was a big change form the 72 degress that I had on it when I started up from town. After getting the picture above, I headed back down in to Santa Fe to complete the errands I had earlier been going to do before swithing to thundersnow chaseing. However, when I got back down into town, it was clear that new storms had formed frther down the line, and were now tracking northwestward over the same general area, although now more on my side of the mountains.

Shortly after I took the second picture, lightning began to appear and I had comleted my main errand, so I decided to head back up again. I saw several flashes from Santa Fe, looking up into the mountains at the storm - even one CG. I was quickly into mixed precipitation by around Ten Thousand Waves, and all snow (some graupel, some ordinary snow) by a little above the state park, where I stopped to get pictures and video. I did get one rumble of thunder, but as quickly as it had started, the electrical activity stopped, so that one rumble was all I got, though the snow continued to fall.

This picture was likely taken round 5:30. It was taken at my stop a little above Hyde State Park. After this time, snow continued in the mountains for quite a while, although I am not aware of any more electrical activity. However, it did accumulate an inch or two in open areas not shaded by trees at Ski Santa Fe, as shown in this picture from their webcam later that evening:

This accumulation likely included the half inch or so that fell earlier when I was up there, but there clearly was more later in the evening by the time of this webcam picture.

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