TAOS AND SANTA FE

September 14, 2015

I woke up just after 6:00 and got up, thinking I would make some coffee and wash my dishes from the night before.  As I was hiking to the restroom, it started to rain.  Thinking about the wash I would have to cross to get out of the canyon, I abandoned all previous plans, packed up my tent, and got out of there by 7:30.  I made tracks down the nasty dirt road and got over the wash while it was still dry.  I hadn’t had time to look at a map or plan my route, so I turned south on 550, planning to stop at the nearest diner to eat breakfast and regroup.  Ha!  I drove for 65 miles to the town of Cuba, NM, before I found anywhere to eat.  By then I had already passed the road to Taos.  Actually, the shortest route would have been to go NORTH on 550, but it was much too late for that.  I got coffee and breakfast at McDonalds and then turned back and retraced my steps to Highway 96.  The drive was pleasant enough and, although the road looked mountainous on the map, it wasn’t particularly curvy.  I eventually made my way across to the Rio Grande Valley and headed north into Taos.  I was very tired and just wanted to go to my hostel and take a nap.

The Abominable Snowmansion

I had a reservation at the Abominable Snowmansion Hostel which is located in Arroyo Seco, seven or eight miles up Highway 150 towards Taos Ski Valley.  When I got up there just after 1:00, I discovered that the hostel did not open until 4:00.  I wasn’t in the mood for exploring Taos, so I decided to get something to eat and look at my guidebooks.  I had some very tasty chiles rellenos at the Taos Diner and drank about three diet cokes, which returned me to some semblance of consciousness.  I decided to spend the afternoon driving the Enchanted Circle, a loop through the mountains above Taos.  The scenery was pretty, but I failed to be enchanted.  Maybe I was just tired or maybe I was jaded by a lifetime of mountain scenery.  I did get rained on in Red River, which washed off most of the dust I had picked up on the drive in and out of Chaco Canyon.

Enchanted Circle Scenery

It was 5:00 by the time I returned to the Abominable Snowmansion and checked in.  I was assigned a private cabin, although I had to use a communal restroom.  This saved me about $70 a night over hotels in Taos, so was fine with me.  While I was too far from the main building to get the hostel’s internet, I got a good signal from a nearby restaurant.  Being a hostel, there was a communal kitchen, so I was finally able to wash my dishes from the night before.  I had some business to attend to and a blog post to write, so I spent the entire evening in my cabin and just had a cheese sandwich and a banana for dinner.

My Cabin at the Abominable Snowmansion

September 15, 2015

Despite having been the last person in the hostel to turn out my light the night before, I was the first one up.  I awakened to the sound of rain on my roof, which was much more welcome without the prospect of crossing a flash flood prone wash.  I got up and took a shower before anyone else was stirring.  Since the refrigerator in my room had frozen all my food solid, I drove into Taos and got breakfast and coffee at the McDonalds there.  I knew I needed inspiration if I was going to get into the spirit of Taos, so I decided to take the historic trolley tour.

The tour left from the visitor center south of town and proceeded to the plaza where we picked up some more passengers and listened to the guide give us a short history of Taos.  Then we made a quick circuit of central Taos and headed out to Taos Pueblo.  Taos Pueblo has been continuously inhabited for 1,000 years and is the oldest continuously inhabited community in the country, if not all of North America.  Today, the people of the pueblo also have modern homes, but they inhabit their pueblo homes when the weather gets too hot or cold because the adobe is a very good insulator.  No electricity or running water is allowed within the pueblo, but some propane appliances are allowed because they require no modifications to the structure.  All water comes from the creek that runs through the pueblo.  The tribe owns the watershed and can make sure that the water remains pure.  They test the water quality weekly.

Bell Tower

                  

When the Spanish first arrived in Taos in the late 16^th century, they got along well with the natives.    Unfortunately, by 1680 they had begun to try to tell the natives what to do, so the natives ran them out and chased them all the way to El Paso.  The Spanish government would not be dissuaded from colonizing the area, however, and by the early 18^th century, they were back.  Things went better this time and another period of peaceful coexistence followed, during which the majority of the natives accepted Christianity.  The church of San Geronimo was erected at the pueblo.  Things got out of hand, however, when the United States took over the New Mexico territory and sent a new governor who, once again, tried to tell the people what to do.  The natives dragged him out of his house and killed him.  Then the U.S. government sent the cavalry, who turned their cannons on the church of San Geronimo, not knowing (or perhaps not caring) that 150 people were hiding within.  The church was destroyed and the people inside were killed.  Today, all that remains of the original church is the bell tower.  The site of the church is now a graveyard where the victims were buried.  A new church was constructed nearby.

Graveyard

New Church of San Geronimo

Taos Pueblo consists of two great houses, North House and South House, and some smaller surrounding buildings, all of adobe.  Because adobe is constantly eroded by sun, wind, and rain, they must all be re-mudded every year.  Men were busy working on North House during my visit.  Many of the homes have been turned into shops and restaurants, which were surprisingly spacious and pleasant inside.  Skylights have replaced some of the original doors, which were always in the ceiling until the 19^th century when the tribe felt secure enough to add ground level doors.  If you want to take pictures at Taos Pueblo, you must buy a camera permit for $6.

Taos Pueblo North House

Fresh Mud on North House

From Taos Pueblo, we drove out to the Mar-tinez Ha-cienda, which was a major center of trade during the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  The priest who converted the natives was the eldest son of the hacienda’s founder.  Today, it houses a museum, which we did not get a chance to visit.  Unfortunately, we didn’t even get to look at it much because it began to rain heavily just as we got out of the trolley.

St. Francis of Asisi Church

Our last stop was the St. Francis of Asisi Church in the suburb of Ranchos.  This is the famous church frequently photographed and painted.  The congregation re-muds the church every June, but this year has been especially rainy, so they will be re-mudding it a second time in November.  It is very carefully maintained and looks lovely.

Rear of St. Francis of Asisi

Not wanting to eat a big lunch, I grabbed a couple of tacos and visited the ATM (There is no Bank of America within 50 miles of Taos.)  Then I made a brief survey of the shops surrounding the plaza and ducked into the Harwood Museum of Art just as it began to rain.  The museum is on Ledoux Street, which also houses many galleries and some of the homes of the original members of the Taos Society of Artists.  Taos became an art community when, in 1898, painters Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein passed through Taos on their way from Denver to Mexico on a painting trip.  They were intrigued with the culture and the light and Phillips stayed permanently,  Soon, they attracted other artists.  By 1915, a number of these early artists founded the Taos Society of Artists.  To be a member, an artist had to have been working in Taos for three years and be accepted by the existing membership.  The Harwood Museum was originally the home of Burt and Elizabeth Harwood.  When Burt died in 1922, his wife and other artists of the society established the Harwood Foundation in his honor.  Today, the museum belongs to the University of New Mexico and displays work from the original artists as well as more contemporary Taos works.

Bridge Over the Rio Grande

It was late afternoon when I left the museum and still threatening to rain, so I decided that it was a good time to do a little wine tasting.  I dropped into the Black Mesa Tasting Room and spent a pleasant couple of hours tasting New Mexican wines and chatting with the winemaker and a couple I had met earlier on the tour.  When the live music started up, it got too noisy for me, so I left to drive out the bridge over the Rio Grande, which I wanted to photograph at sunset.  I parked at the rest stop on the far side of the bridge (which was locked up tight) and walked down towards the perimeter fence to take pictures of the bridge.  While I was fiddling with my camera, something walked into my viewfinder and I was astonished to see a large bighorn ram.  He wasn’t the least bit disturbed by me and I got several pictures of him and, eventually, a second ram appeared behind him.  The bridge was forgotten and I never did got my sunset shot.

On my way back to the hostel from the bridge, I stopped at the Taos Brewing Company because everyone had told me the food and beer were good.  I had a tasty pulled pork sandwich and a pint of their Fall Down Brown, which was actually the least alcoholic beer they served at just 4.6% alcohol.  By the time I left it was pitch dark and I could barely find my way out of the parking lot.  It seemed I hadn’t seen a moon since I left Benicia.  I drove back to Arroyo Seco with my high beams on most of the way.  It was 9:00 when I returned to the hostel and, unlike the night before when a large group had been partying around the firepit, the place was still as a tomb.  I headed straight for my cabin and settled in to chronicle the day.

September 16, 2015

I didn’t have far to drive, so I took my time and cooked breakfast in the hostel kitchen before driving back into Taos to get a cup of coffee and go on a fruitless search for a block of ice.  Eventually, I learned that the Taos ice company had stopped making blocks of ice, so there were none to be had.  I filled my car with gas and drove through a car wash to remove the dirt road dust that had become mud in the rain.  Then I headed south through town until I picked up the high road to Santa Fe, which is marked as the high road to Taos, even in the opposite direction.

High Road to Santa Fe Scene

The high road to Taos passed through pretty scenery.  By noon, I was in Santa Fe.  It was too early to check into my hotel, so I went straight downtown to visit the Georgia O’Keefe museum.  Unfortunately, the museum was closed for the next week.  That was disappointing.  I settled for visiting the New Mexico Museum of Art.  The building, which was built in the second decade of the twentieth century, was a fabulous example of pueblo revival architecture.  The collection was also impressive and I was happy to see that there was an exhibition of Georgia O’Keefe pieces.  I was impressed by some incredibly detailed chalk pastel pieces and some Daughtery pieces that looked like Van Gogh had visited New Mexico.  The collection was large and it was 3:00 by the time I finished touring the museum.

New Mexico Museum of Art

My Favorite Painting

Did Van Gogh Visit New Mexico?

After the museum, I walked across the street to the plaza and ate a green chile cheeseburger at the Thunderbird Bar & Grill with a deck overlooking the plaza.  The plaza seemed very Mexican, although overrun by gringos.  Interestingly, the gringos were hanging out in the plaza just like Mexicans do.  Santa Fe requires that all buildings be in the pueblo style.  On one side of the plaza is the Palace of the Governors, the oldest public building in the United States, which dates back to 1610 when it was the home of the first Spanish Governor of New Mexico.  At the far end, was the St. Francis Cathedral.  This Romanesque cathedral was built with money donated by a local Jewish merchant who had befriended Bishop Lamy on their way

St. Francis Cathedral

Palace of the Governors

across the country.  He made a fortune providing saddles and uniforms to the Union Army and helped his friend the bishop finish the cathedral when he ran out of money.  Later, he forgave the debt.

 Since I felt like I was in Mexico, I did what I would do in Mexico and bought an ice cream while I window shopped around the plaza.  I was very tempted to buy a pair of fancy cowboy boots, but knew I would never be able to walk in them since I have lousy feet.  When things began to close for the evening, I repaired to the Santa Fe Suites where I had reserved a room.  The Santa Fe Suites was a great value.  For the price of my tiny cabin with a communal bathroom in Taos, I got a hotel room with a kitchenette.  It was nice to relax and spend an evening watching TV.