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.

Our last day in Phoenix

we visited Old Town Scottsdale.

As in most old town areas there are shops galore. We went into a woman’s wear resale shop

Where many of the dresses had designer labels and all of the price tags were 3 digit numbers.

We also visited a Museum that discussed the history of Scottsdale including a couple of dioramas.

When we left old town Scottsdale we visited a museum of old warplanes. Their prize is a late B-17.

They don’t have a lot of planes but they are all in beautiful shape including this late WWI German fighter.

Today we’re on our way home. We will arrive home Saturday afternoon.

Tom

Art

Yesterday we viewed an astonishing collection of contemporary Western Art. This was assembled by Eddie Basha of the Basha foods company in Phoenix and is exhibited at their corporate headquarters. There are over 3000 pieces in the collection which includes paintings, sculpture, Indian art of many types and cowboy art. As photography is allowed I came away with some images. These few images hopefully will give a sense of the breadth of the collection.

No violence here. The indians and cowboys largely aren’t shooting at each other but going about their day to day lives.

Hopi and Navaho Kasina dolls.

Hopi and Navaho Kasina dolls

Tom