Durango/Mesa Verde (5/10/2012)

View from Mesa Verde

We visited Mesa Verde last year when one of the main drives was still closed and hoped that it would be open this year.  Wrong, the drive is closed until the end of May but we still enjoyed revisiting some of the places that we saw last year and discovered a couple that we had missed.  This is an amazing place.


Hallway inside Sun Temple AD 1250

Far View House & Pipe Shrine House

Cliff Palace

Durango (5/7 & 8/2012)

We enjoyed blue skies and temperatures in the 70's during our week in Santa Fe.  This changed to clouds and rain for the drive to Durango but it didn't matter as the road through the Colorado Plateau was incredibly beautiful. For Rick  right up there with fishing and single malt scotch are trains so on Tuesday morning we visited the Durango and Silverton train museum in downtown Durango.  Quite a place, they have the usual items plus the owners parlor car and a couple of engines that are still functional.  The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad's trips to Silverton depart from the train depot.

Durango & Silverton train depot

Rick enjoying the train yard

Ute Cultural Center and Museum

Next we drove out to the Ute Cultural Center and Museum that is one of the best Indian museums that we have visited.  A beautiful building and very attractive and well done displays in the museum.

Santa Fe/Taos (5/6/2012)

View from the high road to Taos

Rick on the high road to Taos

We have been on a quest since we arrived in Santa Fe to find the most perfect and afforable piece of Indian pottery that there is in the area.  Today this took us to Taos and then to the San Carlos Pueblo that is just outside of Espanola.  We did not find what we were looking for in Taos but had a great time walking the town and checking out the galleries.  Where we had driven the high scenic road to Taos we took the low, but just as scenic, road to Espanola.  .  We found what we were looking for at the San Carlos Pueblo and now we can leave for Durango,CO in the morning.

Plaza in Taos

Rio Grande River along the low road

Santa Fe (Cinco de Mayo)

Loretto Chapel/134 yrs old

San Miguel Chapel built in 1610

Oldest House in the country built in 1610

We decided to have breakfast downtown on this warm and sunny morning.  OK breakfast but a really nice walk around the downtown area.  The shops were just opening, the streets were not crowded and the temperature was perfect.  As I think I mentioned, in an earlier blog, Santa Fe was founded in the early 1600's and they have done a great job of preserving many of the structures.  The sale of art is third in the country only to NYC and LA.  Civic pride is very evident.  We have had a good visit here spending  time in the city and  time in the outlying attractions.  Tomorrow we do the scenic loop drive to Taos and then on to Durango, CO.

Santa Fe River

Rick & the burros

Ardie & the burros

Santa Fe/Taos & Bandelier (5/3-4/2012)

Macaw petroglyph @ Bandelier

There are 19 Pueblos in New Mexico and  we visited Taos Pueblo, which is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the country.  It is a World Heritage Site for Culture and a National Heritage site.  They do not allow photographs and  being a feast day most of the shops were closed.  There is no set time for the activities, none were happening while we were there, so we just enjoyed being able to walk around the pueblo.

Loop Trail @ Bandelier

Great House

Long House

On the 4th we drove to Bandelier National Monument that consists of 32,000 acres and includes 3 major sites.  We visited the Frijoles Canyon that includes the great house and cliff dwellings.  There were a couple of school groups that were touring and I thought how lucky they are that the school outings bring them here, where they can absorb history at such a young age.   My school outing was to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Taking a break on the trail

Stairs to room in cliff dwelling

L

Santa Fe (5/2/2012)

Plaza

We were in Santa Fe a year ago and Rick discovered very quickly that he did not enjoy driving our pickup on the narrow Santa Fe streets so we took the bus.  $1.00 for a one day pass - bus stop right outside of the RV park - great way to go.  Santa Fe was founded 403 years ago and downtown Santa Fe is almost a museum by itself, very old churches, buildings and museums with galleries, shops and then more galleries and shops.  I was very disappointed that the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum was closed but there was no lack of fascinating places to visit.

Rick W/his new friend in Santa Fe

Courtyard of Museum of Fine Art

Gallup to Santa Fe (4/30-5/1/2012)

USA Park @ Gallup (no trees or space)

Our drive from Gallup, NM to Santa Fe was an easy 200 mile drive and we arrived at our new home in Sante Fe in the early afternoon.  Pretty exciting afternoon as I spent it getting caught up on laundry.   Tuesday morning we explored Pecos National Historical Park where the visitor center was built in 1989 with $1,500,000. that was donated by Greer Garson.  Beautiful carvings throughout the building which, we failed to take pictures of.

Catholic church of early 1700

Rick @ Church ruins

We managed to avoid

The first Puebloans built rock and mud villages in the valley around 1100 but in the early 1300's they built Pecos pueblo that by 1450 had a population of 2,000 and was a 5 story fortress.  In 1541 the Spaniards arrived and it was downhill from there.  The Spanish dominated until the Pueblo revolt of 1680 but then the Spaniards returned 12 years later.  The last puebloans left in 1838.  In 1862 the Battle of Glorieta Pass took place.  This was between the Union and Confederate armies, the furthest west of any battle of the Civil War.

Historical Marker

We met Gary and Sarah, my brother and sister-in-law, for dinner at an excellent southwest restaurant, The Shed, in downtown Sante Fe and then showed them the bronze sculpture that is at the entrance to the museum on the hill.   Much good food, drink and laughs.

Sarah, Ardie & Gary in Sante Fe

Gary, Ardie & Rick

Rick, Sarah and Gary