Enchanted Trails campground. This is the campground ala 1950's Route 66. Even the laundry room had lots of vintage decorations - an old wringer clothes washer, a roller-type iron (I think my Mom called in an angle iron?) washboards, rug beaters, etc. Made laundry day a little less tiresome.
 |
| Roadrunner - Beep, Beep! |
Jack's friend suggested we stop in downtown Albuquerque's Frontier Restaurant. We found parking on the street and wandered in. What a surprise! Huge place with at least 6 folks taking orders at the counter - mostly New Mexican food and boy was it good. I had their green chili stew (so good that other restaurants offer it by name) and Jack had chicken and beef soft tacos. Freshly made and delicious! Place was constantly busy...thanks for the recommendation, Jeannie!
Headed southeast to the Salinas Missions National Monument through desert scrub and a massive train depot with dozens of tracks up into the Manzana mountains. About a half hour after the train depot, I came across a railroad crossing with three huge freight trains going in opposite directions all at the same time!
The monument consists of three different pueblo/mission complexes spread out over 40 miles. We stopped at the Abo Mission, the first one we came to in the Salinas Valley in the Manzana Mountains. The history is that the Spanish, after finally realizing that there were no cities of gold in the area, decided that the Indian's souls needed to be saved and sent Franciscan missionaries to build churches and convert the locals to Catholicism. Abo had been a trading crossroads for centuries and a large pueblo was here where the Indians lived and eked out an existence in the dry desert landscape. The Spanish friars had the Indians build a beautiful, massive church, but drought, disease and Apache warfare caused the settlement to disband in the mid 1600's. The remnants of the church and pueblos were rediscovered in the mid 1800's.
 |
| Mission Church |
 |
| The stone walls were covered in adobe |
 |
| The entrance to the path around the ruins had this caution |
 |
| This creek was the source of water for the settlement |
Stopped for the night at a campground in the mountains in a small town called Mountainair - fresh, clean air, but massive freight trains with six engines passed nearby at least once an hour all night long. At least they did not blast any whistles!
Sunday morning after a nice breakfast, we headed into town to visit the Salinas Missions Visitor Center where they had an informative movie about the missions and a small museum. We headed north to another settlement called Quarai. This was similar to Abo and we enjoyed a pleasant walk around the ruins and exploring the area.
 |
| Model of the settlement with the Pueblos where the Indians lived and the Church Mission Complex |
Drove back north just east of Albuquerque to drive up the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe. We stopped at Sandia Crest - a 10,687' mountain overlooking Albuquerque to the East and the San Pedro Mountains to the west. A 14 mile long, winding road that started off in the 80's to the top in the low 60's was well worth the views. We could see an approaching storm from atop the mountain and managed to get all our photos before it started raining. On our way back down the mountain, the rain turned to hail for about 5 minutes, but fortunately, no damage was done and temps dropped to the low 50's.
We stopped for the night at a campground a few miles from the base of the Sandia Crest and enjoyed the beautiful cool weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment