Taos is organized around a central square, befitting its status as a town founded by the Spanish. Just beyond the perimeter of the square is the historic Taos Inn.
I had a nice room with a fireplace! I thought Xena would appreciate the fire, but she didn’t appear to notice. I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed it.
We had the surprise delight of early season snow! Just a dusting, but nice.Xena enjoys frolicking in the fallen snow, but would appreciate it not landing on her from above.
Doc Martin’s is Taos Inn’s famous restaurant. The pic doesn’t do justice for the only chili relleno worth eating. My recommendation: schedule a trip to Taos at once for this comida muy excelente! Crispy herby crust on the outside, a chili inside that actually tastes like a pepper. Inside that, of course, is melty yummy cheese. In a world first, there may actually be too much cheese! No problem, though, because tortilla chips are available in abundance.
Millicent Rogers was a fancy, highfalutin socialite and heir to a bunch of the Standard Oil fortune. She made the rounds at galas and parties in New York and graced the society pages. Twice married, then had an affair with Clark Gable. He broke up with her, she turned pouty and moved to Taos, New Mexico. While there, she became a huge patron of Native American artists, bought tons of their work and died.
Now her house is the Millicent Rogers Museum, where a portion of her collection is on display. Very interesting and beautiful work, some quite old.
This dainty ornament is an example of the waterfall design and is sprinkled with rainbow moonstones. They aren’t really moonstones, though.Imagine all of the work required to select these matched stones and arrange them with such meticulous care.Simple and elegant in front, fine filigree on the back.A pretty gold Greek Orthodox cross. One wonders how the Catholic imperialists allowed the artist to create such a thing.This little mirror has too much frame, not enough mirror.This black cross has gold inlays. Except…its not gold! They cleverly prepare wheat straw and corn husks, making it look like gold.Millicent was fond of old things. She used this pot, 2,000 years old, for her cosmetics.
While IVO Taos (isn’t that a great acronym? IVO means In the Vicinity Of. Military people use it a lot.), I visited the ancient town of the Taos Pueblo. It is a perspective shattering experience to be in a town continuously inhabited for more than a millennium. No one can be sure, it could be substantially more. Native dogs roamed the pueblo and old women sold goods baked in traditional wood-fired ovens of adobe. I bought some and made little sandwiches for a week with the delicious bread. The baker assured me that the bread would be good for a week, “because it ain’t got no eggs or dairy in it.”
If a visitor could expel the inconsiderate swine other visitors and sit quietly for a moment, she could almost time travel to the ancient past, when humans lived in harmony with one another and their environment.
The Taos Pueblos was a center of trade before the Spanish thieves arrived. Residents hosted a trade fair every year after the harvest, attracting visitors and goods from all of the surrounding pueblos.
These dwelling units have been continuously inhabited for over a thousand years. The street-level doors and windows are a recent addition, only a few hundred years old. Originally, the entrances to the individual dwellings were through the roof. When neighboring cities raided, these people simply pulled up their ladders and waited them out. Apparently raiding parties never thought to bring their own ladders. So there! Ha!This is the new church, constructed in 1850. When the state-sponsored terrorists arrived from Spain in the 1600s, they informed the indigenous people that their religion was wrong and forced them to convert to Catholicism. They also enslaved them and, under the lash, made them build churches to the glory of an all-merciful and ever loving god.This is the original church, also built by enslaved indigenous people. When Governor Bent (the first appointed governor of New Mexico) was killed by rival imperialist gang members in nearby Taos, the American government blamed the pueblo residents. They, mostly women and children, sought refuge in this church. God declined to intervene; the United States Army unleashed a cannonade to destroy the dangerous women and children hiding in the church. Mission accomplished. All were killed and are buried here in this abandoned cemetery.
This little tributary of the Rio Grande flows from the sacred Blue Lake straight through the pueblo. A thousand years of generations have drawn water from this stream to sustain their households. They do the same to this very day.
Everyone thinks of the Rio Grande as the ditch separating the US from Mexico, but it has another life, far upstream. Flowing down from Colorado into New Mexico, the Rio Grande has carved an immense gorge, second only to the Grand Canyon. It is beautiful and serene, quiet and isolated. Also only 20 minutes from the dubious civilization of Taos, New Mexico. Did you know Kit Carson lived and died there? He did, and they named a national forest in his honor. Perhaps, if you moved there and died there, you would get a national forest named for you, too!
The Rio Grande Gorge. Awesome and deadly. Some ambitious anglers test the trail to tempt tiny trout.Minuscule and lonely, pine trees eke out a living from these stingy, unhelpful rocks.An idyllic campsite perched on the rim of the gorge. Scenic, with views both near and far. Xena, the Warrior Princess, enjoyed exploring the rocks and charging the impertinent ground squirrels dwelling therein.
Having been driven from paradise by the Great Storm of 50kt Winds (through no fault of my own), I found refuge in a state park in Green River, UT. Nice enough, I suppose. Any port in a storm, as they say. After a night, I proceeded to Gallup, NM, home of the famous surveys and polls. Only one thing to see there, the awesome Hotel El Rancho!
This restaurant, whose name I cannot recall, is supposed to have the best breakfast in town. They don’t say, however, that it takes a half day to eat there. Rural and Proud, although they pronounce “rural” like “earl” with an “r’ in front. Can’t remember what I ate there, but am sure it maintained my girth. I love staying here! So kitschy and cool. Built in the ‘30s and home base for a couple dozen old westerns from the golden age of Hollywood. Most definitely not ADA-compliant; when enthroned on the toilet, your knees are under the sink! And you have to open and close the elevator doors with your own muscle power! Fabulous! The lobby hasn’t changed since 1935. Why would you? If it is good enough for John Wayne and James Cagney, it should be good enough for you. The lobby has an excellent mezzanine furnished with comfy leather chairs. The walls are adorned with dozens of photos of Golden Age Hollywood stars who stayed at the hotel.
[Editor’s note: Some of you reported that the email letting you know of a new post goes to spam or junk. One way to prevent this is to add dennis@calexpeditions.com to my entry in your contacts.]
Reluctantly, I departed Dixie National Forest, bound for Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument…just next door, geographically. They call it that because the mountains (faintly) resemble a staircase and to honor Fr Escalante, one of the early cultural imperialists sent by Spain to steal this land from the indigenous people. He also informed them that their religion was wrong and his was right.
We stayed here for 3 days, taking long exploratory walks. When I watch Xena explore, I try, mostly unsuccessfully, to imagine her experience of the world. Seeing everything from 6 inches off the ground seems so limiting. But the richness of the olfactory world she lives in must be incredible. She stops at some shrub or other and studies each leaf, inhaling, analyzing, cataloguing. I have informed her repeatedly that one leaf is the same as the next, but she is steadfast in her determination to study each separately.
We had delight weather until the very end of our stay. When 50mph winds and rain/snow threatened, prudence demanded departure. Although the van would have kept so comfortable and dry, I did not fancy driving out through the sea of mud the road would have become. So, we fled.
So much wide open space! So much peace and quiet! So much land to explore! Xena loved it.
This lovely tree provides both shade and sustenance to many desert animals.Dawn’s early light on the distant mountains. They look red because red wavelengths are faster than others and reach the Earth first. This is a universal constant and explains why red cars are faster than others.Off in the distance you can see the thin dirt road providing access to the profane world.Xena, the Warrior Princess, is particularly pleased with this camp site.
A couple of weeks ago, a little girl spotted me walking Xena, the Warrior Princess, along the dock. She looked across the little spit of water separating the sidewalk and dock and gasped, “O. M. G.!” She actually said the letters out loud very distinctively, not the words. “That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!”
That’s pretty much how I felt, staying in the Dixie National Forest just outside of Bryce Canyon National Park. The weather was perfect…high in the low 70s, low in the high 30s. Clear skies, just a few benign clouds. Calm winds. Just awesome. My traveling experience is evolving; I stayed in the same spot, never starting the van’s engine, for 3 days straight.
Xena and I took many long exploratory walks. Did you know cats can travel great distances without difficulty? They can. Their path is not the most direct, necessarily, and sometimes requires laying in the sunbeams, but they can travel far.
I had only one disturbance the entire time…an elderly couple walked down the my road one day. Naturally, I took umbrage at their audacity, focussed my mind on a singular thought, “Depart! Ye untutored bourgeois!” My defense successful, they fled, stooped and stumbling. I resumed imagining that no one else existed. Really! The nerve of some people!
The forests Xena and I explored and patrolled. None from the animal kingdom threatened, save the elderly interlopers mentioned above. Who were victi atque extorres. Ha!Xena peers through the foliage, ever vigilant.
The White Mountains, just east of the Sierras, is home of the oldest living organisms on Earth: the Ancient Bristlecone Pines. It is humbling to be in the presence of these trees; some of these trees have been growing on these mountaintops while the pyramids were built, during the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and all the rest of recorded history. You may have read about them in a recent NY Times article.
From the top of the White Mountains, you can see for miles and miles.This is a bristlecone pine. In a post from a few months ago, I may have misidentified an imposter ordinary pine as a bristlecone. Sorry about that; I never claimed to be a herbologist.So now you know the secrets of old age: live a life under difficult conditions. Hard work = long life. I suspect many of you should get your affairs in order.This young man flagged me down; his tire was flat, his hydraulic jack balky. Being the helpful sort, I assisted. By “assisted,” I mean I loaned him my jack and made a cup of coffee while he changed the tire. There are advantages to driving around in your house. He is originally from Idaho, making him an Idahoan (pronounced EYE da whaan). The imperialists named it Idaho after the famous potatoes found there.
I realize that the last trip just kind of faded away. That’s what happens when the temperature soars and the crowds gather. I fled both nuisances and sought refuge in the cool, clement clime of the California Pacific Coast.
Now, however, is the perfect time for a road trip. Temps are still moderate, crowds largely evaporated, and diesel prices plummeting to record lows. So I decided to take the long way back to Las Cruces, New Mexico, stopping at several of my favorite places.
I spent a night bivouacking (<= thank goodness for autocorrect, just this once) near Red Rock Canyon State Park. It’s east of California City, quiet, desolate, just fine for a 1-night stay.A rough and rugged road into Death Valley, courtesy of a huge rain storm. They got a decade of rain in a day. I would have suggested spreading it out a bit, but I’m no meteorologist.O! Sweet reward after surviving the perils of the road. Lounging in the garden spot of Death Valley.Just kidding, here is the actual garden spot. Shiftless hippies created this space over the course of a few decades. Lawn, palm trees and soaking tubs fed by natural hot springs. Added bonus, this is the entrance to a low-level training route for naval aviators. They make frequent appearances in their loud and fast planes, just a couple hundred feet above the ground.
My van developed a water leak, buried way back in its innards. So, since untamed water ruins everything, a repair was required. Winnebago dealers throughout the upper Midwest must be swamped with work; they are taking appointments 4, 5 and 6 months in the future. Fortunately (I guess), the dealership where I bought it was able to get me an appointment within a week! I only had to drive 1,000 miles to get there, hence the trip across the Great Plains.
Isn’t this a idyllic little homestead, with pond and hills for a backdrop. The stream in the foreground is the Wind River, in eastern Wyoming.We found a lakeside pavilion for wild camping and climbing. This kind of tree makes for difficult climbing, Xena needed a little assist to make it to the top.This is some nice dispersed camping! So green and quiet. Except for the birds, who commented on everything nonstop.
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Doc Martin’s is Taos Inn’s famous restaurant. The pic doesn’t do justice for the only chili relleno worth eating. My recommendation: schedule a trip to Taos at once for this comida muy excelente! Crispy herby crust on the outside, a chili inside that actually tastes like a pepper. Inside that, of course, is melty yummy cheese. In a world first, there may actually be too much cheese! No problem, though, because tortilla chips are available in abundance.
