Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument

We stumbled on a National Monument that we didn’t know about because it was not on our National Park/Monument/Battlefield listing. That is because it was created by Presidential proclamation by Barack Obama, so it was way too new for our list. But we learned about it and headed there to check it out.

The Monument encompasses the Rio Grande River gorge near Taos New Mexico. The gorge here is on the order of on the order of 800 feet deep within the National Monument, with sheer rock walls comprised primarily of lava rock from ancient eruptions in the area.

We weren’t completely surprised by this, but it turned out to be a bit more “terror” than we had anticipated. Approaching the Monument from Alamosa Colorado to the North there is no easy way. To swing around to the West entails several hours to get to New Mexico Highway 68 – the main entrance to the Monument is from the South off Highway 68 on New Mexico Highway 570 North. To swing around to the East means winding through the center of Taos and adding maybe an hour and a half to get to Highway 68. To enter directly from the North means taking New Mexico Highway 567 to Highway 570, both decent enough paved state highways – except for the 1 ½ miles of unpaved, one lane, severe switchbacks that crawl from the top of the Rio Grande Gorge down that 800 some odd feet to the river’s edge.

Oh, and when you get to the bottom of the “1 ½ miles of terror”, there is an 85 year old steel trestle bridge with no clearance signage. It looked like Colectiva would be able to cross, but the Woman still had to get out and watch to make sure we cleared our air conditioning units. For a bridge built in 1930, it was really in pretty good shape!

The bad news is that even though there were campgrounds, since it was a National Monument managed by the BLM, there was no way to reserve – first come, first serve only. And in the entire Monument there were only 13 RV sites with power and water – we just had to go and hope that if all 13 were occupied we could find a way to fit into one of the sites with no services. Good news was we didn’t need to worry – all but two of the RV sites were available when we arrived.

We spent nearly all our time hiking the various trails that wound up and down the gorge. I believe that on every time we ventured out we were being watched by several big horn sheep – they were all over the gorge! Sometimes we would only see a couple resting on a rock. Other times we would see a dozen or more heading down to the river for a drink. This impressive display of big horn sheep on top of the spectacular scenery easily moved this Monument to our top 10 list of favorite visits.

Of course big horn sheep weren't the only wildlife that we saw in the gorge. We spotted the beautiful fly catchers we often see in the desert southwest, as well as the very bright colored mountain blue birds. Even though we really loved the sheep, these guys might have been our favorites for this visit.

One of our evenings here saw a top notch thunderstorm. The sound of the hammering rain on the roof made it impossible for us to continue to watch the Ken Burns documentary we were in the middle of – so we didn’t mind when we actually lost power for a bit. The next morning the Rio Grande was swollen and completely filled with the mud that was washing down its tributaries from the rain run-off. The entire character of the river changed with this one rainfall.

We hiked the Rio Pueblo that day – it had been a dry riverbed the day before the rain, but it was a roaring river now after the rain. We actually hiked up the entire 800 foot climb of the gorge walls to the plateau West of Taos. It was interesting to see a late model SUV crumpled up in the rocks in the Rio Pueblo after apparently falling those 800 feet. Somebody had a rough ride! It wasn’t the only vehicle crushed in these rocks – maybe that is why they closed the road we were hiking and dedicated it to a hiking trail – but it obviously was the most recent to settle here.

After hiking the Rio Pueblo I had a strong urge to see if I could find its confluence with the Rio Grande. There was no hiking trail out to it, but based on the rock ravines I could tell where it must be located. I went cross country pushing my way through the heavy brush – then had to literally climb down about a 40 foot rock ledge – but success was mine! I managed to push and climb my way to where the oddly clear waters of the Rio Pueblo met the chocolate brown boiling waters of the Rio Grande!

There are petroglyphs along many of the rock walls in the gorge. The blackened lava rock faces must have been ideal for the artwork that the ancients left here. Our favorite collection of art was along the Vista Verde Trail, about midway up the 1 ½ miles of terror, except that this time we were in the Saturn rather than the coach.

Of course it is hard sometimes to figure out whether the art you find in these areas are really ancient art of more recent “graffiti” art. We weren’t completely sure about this one – maybe it is an ancient representation of a ghost?

We did take a day to visit Taos, but didn’t really spend any time as we had been there before and had taken in all we thought there was to see. About 10 miles out of Taos on US Highway 64 is the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Built in 1965 this nearly 1,300 foot long steel bridge rests nearly 600 feet above the Rio Grande River. The bridge has the distinction of being awarded the Most Beautiful Steel Bridge by the American Institute of Construction in its long-span category. While on the bridge we saw what we now have learned is customary in just more places than Lovelock Nevada – couples have “locked” their love to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge by securing a lock to the handrails along this impressive structure. The Woman barely made it out to the first overlook point with me before turning tail and skedaddling off this bridge that shook like a leaf every time an 18-wheeler or motorhome crossed it. I, of course, had to walk the entire length of the bridge, because it was there!

One last fun stop was just west of the Bridge on US 64. Random houses are all over in New Mexico – and groups of them that appear to be hippie communes are all over as well. Trying to tap into that movement is a company that calls themselves, and their product, Earthships. Earthships are homes that are built of recycled product and are intended to be able to live “off the grid”. The main structural component of the home is old vehicle tires, packed full of the dirt extracted while digging the homes foundation. The rest of the home is constructed of recycled aluminum, plastic and other recycled products. To help keep the home “off the grid”, nearly all but one side, which is completely glass, are at or under ground level to keep the home both cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The one glass wall lets in light as well as some heat in the winter.

The homes are pretty much essentially an RV – we would have no problems at all with the systems. The homes have solar panels all over the roof and large banks of batteries to store the electricity created by them. All lighting and any other needed electrical systems are DC, especially the main electrical need – refrigeration. An inverter is used where the need for 120 volt AC power is needed. The entire roof captures any water that comes and diverts it into holding cisterns. Water purification systems make sure the captured water is safe to drink, and all waste water is treated and used for something, either to run toilets or provide water for the green houses that produce much of the food that the occupants eat.

While there is some need to supplement water as the New Mexico desert does not provide enough for self-sufficiency, there are no connections to any incoming utilities – therefore there are zero power bills, zero sewer bills, and pretty much only the cost associated with supplementing water needs. The Earthship Company can help you build your home and supply the mostly recycled material, as well as the supporting systems that you may need to make this venture work. While it does not appear that this concept is poised to take the world by storm, it certainly has established a footprint in New Mexico.

Talk to you soon!