Friday night we stayed in a campground just north of Santa Fe. Saturday, we drove into Santa Fe and did errands - haircuts, groceries, drug store and Office Depot. We drove into downtown Santa Fe to explore, but it was just too hot to walk around. It has changed considerably since we were here last - lots of adobe buildings still and the central plaza looks the same, but the side streets were crammed with shops and tourists. Would love to return for a long weekend, staying at the La Fonda and exploring the shops.
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| Downtown Santa Fe |
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| Church on Santa Fe's Plaza |
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| Love the adobe |
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| Lots of shops |
We left Santa Fe and headed north to Taos via the scenic route known as the "High Road to Taos." As before with roads that ascend in altitude, we went through multiple life zones. Started in the dry scrub with mostly sage, then climbing to more and greener shrubbery and finally into forests of pine and spruce.
The High Road also passes through old towns originally settled by Mexicans in the 1700's. Some of the homes are pretty decrepit and it seems no one ever removes their non-working cars. Just park them around and leave them! We stopped to see a beautiful adobe church from the 1700's that is an active congregation.
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| Most houses had these stick fences |
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| Church from the mid 1700's |
Stopped at the visitor in Taos and found that a huge annual festival was taking place this weekend - hopefully, we can go there tomorrow before it gets too hot. We got a campsite right in town.
Sunday, we woke to unseasonably warm temps here - it was forecast to go into the 50's, but didn't go lower than the mid 60's. It seems the heat has found us again! Jack was able to watch the British Open and then we headed to the Fiesta. Unfortunately, we could not find parking anywhere near the plaza area, so decided to head into the mountains on the Enchanted Circle route. We were surprised to find that temps in the mountains were only a few degrees cooler. This route goes through some of the important winter ski areas.
We made a stop to visit a Vietnam Veterans Museum and Chapel. It was started by the father of a fallen Vietnam Vet. The museum was surprisingly good and honored various branches of service. They showed an HBO documentary about letters from Vietnam. They provide boxes of tissues that were necessary as the film was extremely graphic and moving. The monument was given to New Mexico and now it is a state park.
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| This chart shows where different military units served |
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| Some of the spectacular prints from an artist that served in Vietnam |
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| Although they honored all the services, I had to include the one for Marines.... |
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| Amphitheater at the back of the monument |
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| Front the Chapel/monument |
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| The Chapel sits atop a high hill |
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| The chapel |
We stopped for the night in Red River ski area - still in the high 80's, so we had to pass on a nice campground next to a lake because they did not have any electricity. Being in the mountains means we actually have trees big enough to provide shade and it should cool down tonight. Back to Taos tomorrow.
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