New Mexico

Most of you probably know that the destination for this trip is the Sasha Festival held this month in Fort Worth, TX. As we had never spent time in New Mexico we tried to hit some of the high spots which I’ve tried to share with you. Today was the last of our New Mexico sightseeing days. Tomorrow we’re off to Abilene, TX and we may not do any photo stops. If not. The next you’ll hear from us will be a report from the festival.

We drove Rt 525 from Silver City out to I-25. Just outside of Silver City we stopped at the Santa Rita Mine.

Later on we stopped at a Forest Service campground with a stream running through it. This could be taken almost anywhere and New Mexico would assuredly not be my first guess as to the state where it was taken.

We crossed Evan’s Pass. This is the view from the pass East across the valley. You can see the road descending along the side of the mountains.

We took I-25 South to Santa Cruz and then US 70 toward Texas. This takes us past White Sands National Monument. An amazing landscape.

Tom & Carol

Albuquerque to Silver City

We drove through the Very Large Array Radio Telescope. This consists of 27 parabolic antennas in a Y array. Each antenna is 32’ across and weighs 230 tons.

In Dalit we saw this old church.

In the afternoon we drove in to the old mining town of Mogollon. In spite of being 9 miles in on a forest service road which is one lane for 5 of those 9 miles it seems to be coming back. Many ghost towns start to recover when people discover that there is very inexpensive housing to be had for little more than the cost of renovation. As a ghost town it was a bit disappointing but there were a few legitimately ghost town elements.

As we approached Silver City storm clouds gathered over the Mogollon Mountains.

Tom & Carol

Albuquerque

On March 10, 1705 don Francisco Cuervo y Valdez who had been Governor of Nuevo León and Coahuila was chosen as acting Governor to New Mexico. It was this great man that would found the city of Alburquerque. He had brought together the 4 things required by the king of Spain and his patron, Duke Alburquerque. He had people (35 families) and cattle. Water in the form of River del Norte (Rio Grande) and a church.

The church was named San Felipe de Neri by the Duke of Alburquerque to honor King Philip of Spain. Though founded in 1706 the existing building was constructed in 1793 making it one of the oldest buildings in Albuquerque.

We took a trolley tour of the city. These next photos are grab shots out the window combined with some of the descriptive information.

1% of the budget of all new public buildings is devoted to public art. An example is this mural which runs the whole exterior of the renovated convention center.

This old theatre building, still in operation exemplifies the architectural style known as Pueblo Deco; sort of a Southwest take on art deco.

Albuquerque tries really hard to renovate older structures rather than raze and replace them. This former fire house now houses an upscale restaurant.

Tom & Carol

Turquoise Trail

You can drive from Santa Fe to Albuquerque on I-25 in slightly over an hour. We chose to drive rt 14, the Turquoise Trail scenic byway. We made a few stops, took a few photos and were able to make that drive in around 7 hours.

The first stop was amazing. The map for Turquoise Trail shows a sculpture garden. Such an understatement. Kevin Box is a world renowned sculptor. He has developed a process by which he can recreate very large scale origami in metal, frequently stainless steel which he then powder coats to get a long lasting finish.

Notice the detail in the wings of these birds

Kevin designed this as a traveling exhibit which will be shown in several US cities and even internationally. It will be packed up and relocated this autumn.

At Los Cerrillos they were having an art show at the visitor center but we had just experience some truly exceptional art. We had lunch at Madrid and took this cloudscape just a few miles North of there.

We had planned to possibly take the tram up Sandia but coming from this direction there is a road to the crest so we drove up.

Finally we stopped at Tinkertown Museum. It was started as a hobby but the builder has opened it as an attraction. It consists of several very detailed miniature dioramas.

Tom & Carol

Canyon Road

The Santa Fe Gallery Association lists 36 member galleries along Canyon Road. All are not members as there are more than 36. I’d guess we went to 30 and we did not see them all.

Many of these buildings were converted from private homes so are broken up into several rooms. This makes for interesting presentation of the art.

Much of the work is 3 dimensional.

Many styles represented

In a few of the galleries we got to see the artists at work

We had a great morning. I was especially impressed at how many of the galleries allowed or even encouraged picture taking.

Tom

On to Santa Fe

Several weeks ago one of my photo magazines declared Santa Fe  the top photographic destination in the country. The editorial board enthused over the quality of the high desert light. Well it’s cloudy so scratch the fabulous light.

The road from Taos to Santa Fe parallels the Rio Grande river for several miles. We got to watch a river rafting group set out on the river.

One of the places on the “to visit” list is the Cathedral. When we parked our car that building was visible at the end of the street. We’ll visit a bit later.

Like Taos, and most other cities founded by the Spaniards the original city revolved around a central plaza. Today the Santa Fe plaza is an interesting mix of classy shops and galleries interspersed with open air native craft sales.

Santa Fe is best known as an art destination. Along with New York and San Francisco it’s in the top echelon. The heart of the art scene is Canyon Road; only galleries on both sides of the street. Hopefully we’ll start there tomorrow. This gallery is in a downtown plaza.

Tom & Carol

Taos

We started the day by taking a local bus tour that went out to the Taos Pueblo and San Francisco de Asis church.

The Taos Pueblo is believed to have been constructed on it’s current site between 1000 and 1500. It is the oldest continuously occupied city site in the country. The central area is the permanent home of 50 to 100 tribal members. Those living in the pueblo  practice the old ways and these buildings are without electricity or running water.

The North building

Some of the residents run businesses out of their homes. We found baked goods, various art and craft times and wonderful jewelry on offer for 15 cents on the dollar when compared to upscale shops in Santa Fe or Phoenix.

Truth in advertising

Our next stop was the church of San Francisco de Asis in Rancho Taos. This old church was made famous in the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe and is still a magnet for working and aspiring artists as well as photographers.

This is the rear view of the church; the one famously rendered by O’Keefe

When we were finished with the tour we visited the old town plaza where we ate and visited some of the shops and galleries.

Taos Plaza

Tom & Carol

Into New Mexico

Yesterday morning Carol turned on her iPad and it was black. As in totally and completely unresponsive. When she plugged it into her charger in didn’t make the normal “connect” sound so we feared the worst. While there is an Apple store in Durango we left before it opened and returned after it closed. This morning we were there at opening. Turns out she merely let the battery go completely flat. Embarrassing but the best of all the other possibilities.

Today we drove down into New Mexico and then East to Taos. Tomorrow is forecasted to be cloudy with chance of thunderstorms so I’m not sure how much we’ll get to see. Today’s drive also suffered a bit from overcast skies.

There’s a storm across the valley.

In Carson National Forest and still at at 9800’ we passed this lovely lake and campground.

Hopewell Lake

Approaching Taos our route took us over the Rio Grande Gorge bridge. This is one of the Taos area attractions and was already on our list of possible things to do while in Taos so we stopped, walked out onto us and took a few photos. I love this sort of gorge where the surrounding land is absolutely flat and suddenly you’re looking 500’ down at a river. Pretty impressive.

Rio Grande Canyon.

Tom & Carol

Riding the rails

People of a certain degree of maturity (old) remember the chug of a steam locomotive and the wail of the whistle. There are a few places in this country where you can still experience steam rail. One of the very best is the Durango – Silverton railroad.

As the name implies this line runs from Durango to Silverton. Trains leave in the morning, run to Silverton where you have time for lunch and maybe some shopping then back to Durango. The line follows the Animus River which is a whole lot of river.

Denver brags about being “Mile High”. Silverton is at 9300’ so nearly twice as high. Like the railroad which serves it Silverton is a bit like stepping back in time. The biggest change in the past 50 years is the wares sold in the shops.

Tom & Carol

Day–2 Price to Durango

As we left Price a low hanging cloud deck was trying to obscure the nearby mountains

As we drove past Moab we started passing cliffs of red sandstone. So typical of central and southern Utah.

We wanted to stop at Mesa Verde National Park. Our GPS tried to take us on a short cut which would have bypassed the park but fortunately we try to keep tabs on how the GPS is routing us so we adjusted and got to the park as planned.

Mesa Verde contains several old Anasazi cliff dwellings.

Tom & Carol

Day –2 Price, UT

mWe’ve been on the road 2 days. Yesterday we drove from home to Mountain Home, ID. That is a comfortable drive and there is a motel in Mountain Home where we usually stop so it’s all comfortable for us.

Tonight we’re in Price, UT. Price is about 3 miles off Rt 6 which takes off to the Southeast just south of Provo, UT and picks up I-70 near River, UT. It is a great cutoff from Southbound I-15 to Eastbound I-70 so is marvelous road with moderate traffic even on a holiday. Gorgeous country as it goes through the rockies.

For those of us accustomed to the hustle and bustle of suburbia being in a small town where they roll up the sidewalks on holidays is something of a culture shock.

Price is not all that large and is relatively new so not much in the way of historic buildings but there were some with character.

Tom & Carol from Price, UT.