The desert landscape suddenly gives way to a deep gorge that was carved by the Rio Grande River. From here we also have a good view of the famous bridge built over this gorge.
While we left Betty in the shade viewing the bridge from the rest area . . .
we walked the gorge rim trail for more views of the Rio Grande River far below.
Denisa is also looking for the beautiful cactus blooms that are beginning to show their colors here in the high desert.
The red barrel cactus are especially showy right now.
We're pretty sure that these common cactus have the scientific name Opuntia Engelmanni--or more commonly called the Engelmann prickly pear. So Denisa had to take a picture of an Engelmann cactus in the foreground, with her favorite Engelman barely visible perched on the edge of the gorge on the left.
We hiked back to the rest area, to take a walk across the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Betty is afraid of heights, so this was an "Oh Mercy!" moment for her to approach that big drop off. She headed back to the car shortly after that picture was taken.
Denisa obviously didn't inherit that fear of heights, as she leaned out over the railing for the picture below.
At the middle of the bridge we are over 600 feet above the water. This is the fifth tallest bridge in the United States. This bridge is also a celebrity, as it has served as a backdrop in five different movies, it is featured in many family vacation photos, and . . .
a travel blog of a couple of wanderers seeing another of God's wonders!
It's too bad that too many people have used this as a sure-death jump site. We found two different crisis hotline boxes at the bridge edge.
As we left the gorge, we spotted our first group of big horn mountain sheep grazing beside the road.
They are still shedding their winter coats as they are enjoying the green grass next to the highway.
Our next stop is a few miles further west, at this other-worldly-looking structure.
The picture above was actually the home closest to the road, but it is just one of a much larger community known as the Earthship Biotecture. These houses in the desert are made largely from natural and recycled products, and are designed for their occupants to live "off the grid."
A piece of a wall outside the visitor center illustrates the use of old tires and empty bottles to build the outside walls of most of the structures. This technique was started in the 1970s by Michael Reynolds, and he promises that persons with no specialized construction skills can build their own sustainable home using his plans.
The homes include solar and wind power, water-catching tanks, and large glass walls to use the light for growing some of their own food indoors. For $9 each we could have looked inside the visitor center and taken a self-guided tour. But we felt we learned a lot from reading their web site and just taking pictures from the parking lot.
We headed back home through the city of Taos, where everything is made of adobe--even the churches.
It's election day in New Mexico, and we noticed some people weren't practicing social distancing as they did last-minute advertising for their favorite candidates.
We read good reviews for a local hole-in-the-wall cafe called La Cueva. We thought that we should eat authentic New Mexican food while living in New Mexico.
We took our take-out order to Kit Carson Park in downtown Taos for a nice picnic lunch.
Kit Carson is Taos's most famous citizen. We are surrounded by Kit Carson National Forest. We picnicked in Kit Carson Park. We drove down Kit Carson Drive past the Kit Carson Museum to the Kit Carson cemetery where we saw the tombstones of many of the Carsons. Actually, Kit was gone from Taos much of the time as he was a frontiersman leading settlers westward. His wife's tomb stone is on the left, and we read that she spent the most time in this city, raising their family here largely by herself.
Our last stop of the day was Taos Plaza--established in 1796.
Denisa especially loved the beautiful flower baskets that adorn every light pole in the historic district. The banners proclaim that "Taos is Art" and we saw countless galleries lining the streets of town.
Some of those galleries seem to be open now. But going into galleries doesn't fit into our socially-distancing-and-keeping-Betty-safe-while-on-vacation plan of travel right now. So we are content to spend time at the outdoor stops where we have seen few people today.
By the time we drove the 24-mile curving road through the mountains back to our motor home in Angel Fire, we were all ready for a little nap. It was a good day of wandering around Taos, New Mexico with our 90-year-old guest!
No comments:
Post a Comment