Wildlife encounters

With all the hiking we were doing in very remote locations of the Cibola National Forest we were expecting to see some wildlife somewhere along the way. But for the most part we were only seeing two legged wildlife – birds. Not that they weren’t pretty – especially the Mountain Bluebirds – but we wanted to see more. So I began making requests.

So on our next hike, I said aloud “I would wish to see some four legged wildlife. Well, my request was granted. However, instead of a mountain lion or the like, this is what we got.

So on the next hike, I thought I needed to be more specific. So as we headed out I said aloud “I would wish to see a four legged mammal. Again, my wish was granted, but again nothing big. This is what we got.

So I tried again. On our next hike I said aloud “I would wish to see a four legged mammal that has legs longer than a foot or so.” Again, my wish was fully granted, but I had again been too cryptic – we tend to see lots of deer, even though this guy was beautiful.

So I finally said to heck with it – none of this general inference. On our next hike I said aloud “I want to see bear or cougar!” Well, wish granted. Although this guy was moving pretty fast one he heard us and between the zoom and his speed, it’s a little blurry in the photo. But now I know to be more specific!

Hopefully we never get a chance to encounter this particular kind of wildlife out on our hikes. While they claim to be big in Alaska, even there they are not this big!

Talk to you soon!

Mountainair New Mexico

We never expected to be in a tiny town nearly in the center of New Mexico, but near Mountainair we found another US National Monument that we hadn’t visited. Since its only 80 some odd miles southeast of Albuquerque where we were heading for the Balloon Fiesta and with some time on our hands and with an RV park there with good wireless internet, we were in!

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument recognizes the presence of both Spanish Conquistadores and the Franciscan Church to the early development of what is now New Mexico.

The record of the Spanish in what is now the southwestern US would not put our record to shame at all. When the Spanish entered this land, they were in search of the 7 lost cities of Cibola (hence now the naming of the forests in this area as the Cibola National Forest). When they entered, chronicled as early as 1527, the only focus was the location of these 7 ancient cities, which were rumored to be rich with gold. In their search for the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola, the Spanish did not allow the local residents to get in the way – they simply overpowered them.

When the Spanish ultimately decided that the Golden Cities didn’t exist, they saw no other reason to occupy this baron land, and decided just to leave. The Franciscan Church, however, saw thousands of potential converts, and decided they would take on this challenge. In 1622 they built a massive mission at the pueblo known as Abo, an impressive classic mission built by the labor of the resident natives. The only focus the church had at the time was conversion – they assessed the local agrarian natives to give up a significant portion of their cultivated crops to the church, allegedly in support of their education. Unfortunately, the burden on the crops in this borderline desert region ultimately resulted in the failure of the entire culture.

In 1627, the Franciscan’s then built the Quarai Mission, much larger and more elaborate than even the massive structure at Abo. It was early in the time that the Franciscans occupied the region and the taxing of its capacity had not yet been felt. In visiting the ruins of the mission in Humana, it is very clear this was a much more impressive development than even that at Abo, which was impressive nonetheless. You could clearly see the aggression of the church in spreading the “conversion” mentality.

Finally, in 1629, the mission at Gran Quivira was established, and it topped them all in both scale and eloquence. While now the missions are only the foundations of the once impressive structures, in the 1600’s they contained wide wooden balconies, massive golden altars and statues, and all the trappings of a modern cathedral. All the fantastic furnishings had been shipped by the Franciscan’s up from Mexico City on the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the historical road of commerce in the days of Spanish occupation. Of course all these beautiful and valuable pieces were removed when these missions were abandoned.

One thing that I found interesting was how the Missions and pueblos looked like whatever native material existed in the area. Where the Abo and Quarai Missions were constructed, the only material locally available to be quarried was red sandstone. So, both these Missions are huge deep red monoliths that really stick out against the mottled green of the surrounding foliage.

At Gran Quivira, however, there was no red sandstone. The only material available to quarry was white limestone. So, Gran Quivira is solely constructed of white limestone, and because of this, it blends in far more with the surrounding terrain of stone and plants. Despite the change in local materials, the construction methods didn’t vary – rectangular stone cut from the earth, stacked and mortared to create these monuments. Although not all that far from each other, the available construction materials varied significantly.

Unfortunately, despite their impressive size and construction quality, all these Missions and surrounding Pueblos are simply ruins. The primary reason is the more hostile conditions in the area. The Anasazi and other dwellers had learned how to grow low water agriculture, and kept their numbers at a level where the land could sustain their life. When the Franciscans came, they demanded that the locals give their sole allegiance to God, and required tributes in the form of food and labor be given to the church for protection of their souls (whether they needed it or not). Also, the Spanish Conquistadores demanded that the locals give their sole allegiance to the Queen, and also required tributes in the form of food and labor to the Crown for their physical protection (again, whether needed or not). There were frequent disputes between the Franciscan Priests and the Spanish military as to which allegiance was primary, each side believing its demands should take precedence. Anyway, all the demand for tribute eventually caused the land not to be able to sustain the demands for food, crops failed and drought conditions set in.

All this led to the Pueblo Revolts of 1680. The locals rose up against both the Church and the Crown. Of course the Spanish had no problems inflicting more damage due to their superior weapons and armor and horses. But in the end, since there was really no value to this area, the Spanish eventually fled to the Rio Grande Valley where there was more reliable water for ongoing agriculture. The locals also fled to the Rio Grande Valley for the exact same reasons. With no locals and no Spanish protections, the Church also left, leaving these magnificent structures to slowly waste away to what we can see today.

While it is relatively remote, the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument is well worth a visit. The understanding of the area a century or two before it became part of the US is really interesting.

In Mountainair we discovered, as usual, other unsuspected rewards. Just south of Mountainair lies the Shaffer Hotel National Historic Site. The Shaffer Hotel was built in 1923 by Clem “Pop” Shaffer when he moved from his home in Indiana to Mountainair New Mexico. Pop Shaffer was a blacksmith by trade, but fancied himself an artist, and move to NM as a way to follow his art. He reveled in creating wood and metal animal sculptures that were seen as masterpieces in their time.

Unfortunately, the hotel, while in good repair, has fallen on hard times. Mountainair is not a tourist draw, but also has little competition for a well-run hotel. The main problem seems to be the ghosts. The Shaffer Hotel is well known to be haunted. While the hotel changes hands frequently, once opened by the new owners, it does not take long for it to fail financially.

We once stayed in a B&B in Gettysburg that was alleged to be haunted. While we were probably on edge all night and really didn’t get much sleep, we were fascinated by the history of the place, and actually hoped we might encounter some soul who found it hard to get rest in the place. While I know that had a lot to do with our not sleeping much, it was still fun. Maybe the folk who visit Mountainair are not in search of that kind of fun.

When he built the Shaffer Hotel, Pop Shaffer live in Rancho Bonito, just south of town. Also a National Historic Site, Rancho Bonito is where Pop chose to display much of his artwork that he had moved to NM to expand upon. Built in 1937, the Rancho Bonito grounds still hold many of his original creations. Because of his skill as a Blacksmith, most of Pop Shaffer’s creations were mythical creatures made of natural wood, metal and stone. (Don’t worry, those symbols on the building are not Nazi Swastikas, they are actually Native American symbols denoting healing rituals)

Also near Mountainair is Manzano Mountain State Park. The Park has some really nice trails on the sides of Manzano Mountain in the Cibola National Forest. For some reason doing 8 miles in one trek of 5 hours does the Woman in. However, we ended up hiking more than 8 miles in this beautiful wilderness area as well as the Missions, and probably clocked more than 5 hours in doing it. But there were nearly no complaints from the Woman at all today – interesting!

Talk to you soon!

Grants New Mexico

We are on our way to the big Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque but had some time on our hands before our reservation there. We had driven through Grants many times as we traveled east along the I-40, but never stopped there. Several surprises awaited us that we had not expected.

Grants was settled soon after the Civil War both for mining and transportation reasons. Minerals in the area attracted the attention of miners, and the laying of the railroad lines essentially along the corridor for I-40 made Grants an obvious candidate as a rail hub. Originally the town was called Grants Camp in the 1880’s because 3 Canadian brothers, Angus, John and Lewis Grant, were awarded a contract to build a section of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. The name was changed to Grants Station, and ultimately just Grants. After the low grade minerals were no longer economical to mine in the area, focus turned to the lumber industry due to the nearby Cibola National Forest.

In the 1930’s lumbering petered out, the recently created Bluewater Reservoir brought new live to the town. It turned out the regions volcanic soils coupled with the adjacent sandstone, when adding the new irrigation possibilities provided by the reservoir made Grants the Carrot Capital of the US. The later development of Route 66 (which Grants was on) and an airway beacon for commercial flight that was located here resulted in new life each time the town was on the verge of dying.

The most memorable boom in Grants occurred in 1950 when Paddy Martinez, a local Native American, discovered Uranium ore in the area. Apparently Martinez had surveyed all the area around Grants and had a very good memory. While overhearing a conversation among geologists who had visited Grants in search of ore deposits, Paddy readily recognized the ore they were describing, and returned to Haystack Mesa where he discovered the first major claim. Other mines in the area soon emerged, and this Uranium mining boom lasted into the 1980’s, when the market price of Uranium sunk to a point where it was no longer profitable to mine here. We visited the Grants Chamber of Commerce offices which have built a replica of a typical Uranium mine from the boom days in their basement. The authentic displays of actual artifacts from the local mines, coupled with recorded narration from mine workers, is a compelling and effective presentation, well worth the time and small fee.

The other big surprise for us was El Malpais National Monument. Years ago we had visited El Morro National Monument to see the famous Inscription Rock which has signatures by visitors dating back to the Spanish Conquistadores. Even at that time El Malpais was a National Monument, but because it was not managed by the National Park Service it did not have as much visibility, and we missed it even though it was only 30 or so miles away.

El Malpais is another of the volcanic parks that have been designated as National Parks and National Monuments, but it’s in a place where you might not have expected this level of ancient volcanic activity.  The lava flows here are extensive with lava tube systems stretching over 17 miles, but the flows are only 2,000 to 3,000 years old. In geologic terms, this is really young.

The most interesting part is that because it is mostly managed by the BLM, there are not massive services available. In a volcanic National Park, there would likely be ranger led tours into the lava tubes, but here, you obtain a caving permit, and you are on your own to explore any of the lava tubes you want to.

We stopped at the ranger station for some advice, and got the worst ever! The Ranger looked out the window at the Saturn and she said "I strongly recommend you don't go out to the lava tube area in that - your tires are too thin and you don't have enough clearance. I would also be afraid that you would break your bike rack hanging on the back on the horribly rough road. Last week a guy went out there with a low clearance vehicle and his bearings broke - he had to be towed out." Well, that is just the kind of talk to inspire the Woman. Assuming our plans were out of the question she started saying things like "Maybe we can rent a jeep somewhere around here to be able to get in." And she almost had me thinking about that seriously when I snapped out of it and said "Well, maybe we will do that, but not after we get a chance to see what the road is like for ourselves." After 10 or 15 minutes of mostly ho-hum driving (I did have to watch closely for holes and ruts) we pulled into the parking lot for the Big Tubes. I took a look and the bikes were somehow still there!

The major location of the lava tubes more easily reached in the Monument is called the Big Tubes area. Unfortunately this area contains mostly Ah Ah lave – extremely sharp and jagged – as opposed to Pahoehoe lave, which is a bit smother with ridges and flows. Our friend Vern Bieraugel who lives in Kona Hawaii always said they called this kind of lava Ah Ah because that what anyone would scream who walked on it! While the Woman had no interest at all in entering the caves, I put on my jeans, my hikers, grabbed a flashlight as well as my headlamp, and I was ready to have at it. While I only explored a few of the caves, at least the ones I didn’t have to crawl through (even though I brought kneepads, I decided it was a bad idea), I still got enough to satisfy my curiosity. While Monument information indicated that bats lived in the caves, I didn’t happen upon any in by visits.

The Woman was quite excited to learn that the Continental Divide Trail not only went right through the middle of El Malpais National Monument, but it also went right through the middle of Grants New Mexico. In the middle of the monument is the Zuni-Acoma Trail, and ancient Native American route used by Zuni and Acoma to cross these massive lava flows. We hiked in from both ends of the trail – one is on NM 117 on the east edge of the Monument, and the other is on NM 53 on the western edge. The CDT follows NM 53 along the western edge of the Monument, then across the lava flows on the Zuni-Acoma Trail, and then runs north along NM 117 until it reaches the eastern edge of Grants.

Once it hits Grants, the CDT follows old Route 66 to the center of town, then heads north again along NM 457 on its way to Mount Taylor, one of the highest peaks in New Mexico. We followed the CDT north out of town along NM 457 until it left the highway and started its assent right up to Mount Taylor on US Forest Service land. We hiked up a bit, but given the heat and altitude and all the hiking we had done earlier, this particular leg of the CDT was pretty short.

The eastern edge of the Monument shows how the lava found the low land next to the higher Sandstone Bluffs area that provide spectacular views of the massive lava flows. While enjoying climbing on the immense bluffs and taking in the views, we discovered the long abandoned Garrett Homestead. Like we had seen in other remote areas, this home was built near the end of the Great Depression using recycled materials. The family gathered already cut stone from abandoned Anasazi dwellings and built themselves a rather comfortable home. Maybe this was one of the original Earthships in New Mexico!

South of the Sandstone Bluffs along NM 117, the El Malpais National Monument lava flows on the east run right up against a 500-600 foot tall sandstone wall called the Narrows Ridge that runs for miles. Smack in the middle of that wall is one of the largest stone arches in New Mexico, La Ventana. Spanish for “The Window”, this was a really impressive feature that we could nearly drive right to, so we weren’t going to pass it up for anything. While we weren’t able to get up close and personal – couldn’t touch it for example, but we were able to get close enough to feel we were there.

But, I wasn’t ready to be done with La Ventana. 4 miles to the South along NM Highway 117 was the beginning of the Narrows Ridge. There was a nice picnic area there where we had a nice lunch, and then I talked the Woman into setting out on the Narrows Ridge Trail. It seemed more of a challenge than trails we had been doing lately – 8 miles round trip and an elevation gain of around 600 feet. But when the trail ended, you would find yourself at the La Ventana overlook – a natural stone viewing platform high above the arch.

We started out on the trail with both enthusiasm and optimism. The trail ran all along the edge of the Narrows Ridge, so you always had great views of the vast lava flows in El Malpais National Monument. But it was both hot and sunny and not much for shade. So, with the elevation gain pretty continuous on the way to the overlook, the going was harder than I thought. When we finally reached a big rock with “2.0 M” painted on it, the Woman said “if we are only halfway there, I don’t think I can do this!” I told her I would like to give it a go, and she said “well, we can try a little further.” I said “if we are just going to hike another mile and turn around, I would rather just turn around now. The only reason to continue now would be to try to get to the overlook. If we have to bail, then we have to bail, but I don’t just want to walk a little further and plan to turn around.”

With a pained look the Woman said she would try to finish. And to her credit, despite running out of water in what turned out to be a 5 hour ordeal, she did do it. We stopped a bunch in what little shade we could find, and we always had in mind the two rewards we would experience when we arrived – the overhead view of the arch, and the geocache container that someone had hidden at the end of the trail. Both possible rewards kept us going until the goal was achieved. And the best news was that the geocache container was actually there and we found it. We find that geocaches that are remote like this one aren’t always there when you arrive – so bonus!

We had a couple of other minor things we wanted to do in the park, but after the 5 hours we committed to the hike, dusk was already approaching. So, we decided that we had done all we needed to on this visit to El Malpais. But we got one more unexpected reward in Grants. Tonight was the visit of the “Blood Moon” or “Super Moon”, where the complete eclipse of the moon caused by the Earth passing right directly between the Sun and the Moon causes the moon to appear bigger than from Earth than at any other time. It is the first time this has happened since 1982, and it won’t happen again until 2033. So we were happy to be in a location with very little light pollution, and big skies to see the impressive result.

Talk to you soon!

One more off the bucket list!

I mentioned how disappointed I was that we were to be denied chance to ride the Cumbres and Toltec Historic Narrow Gauge Railroad. We had tried several times in the past, and were always shut out because they close down operations in mid-October. I thought this was the year, but the delay in booking our reservations resulted in the train being completely booked for the rest of the season.

I suggested the Woman ask the folks if they kept a list in case they received any cancellations of previously booked rides. The folk with the Railroad said they never have any cancellations, but were kind enough to take down her name and number. We were hopeful in that we had given them a two week window in which we would be able to ride any of the routes they operated, but they clearly discouraged our enthusiasm. Well, while we were actually out hiking the Continental Divide Trail at Wolf Creek Pass, the Woman’s phone rang from a number she didn’t recognize. When she read off the number to me I thought it was a New Mexico based number, and told her to call just in case it was the Railroad. It was! They actually had a rare cancellation of 4 seats in the Parlor Car (full bar service with a host) on a day which would allow us to spend as much time as we wanted in the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, and meet the Woman’s brother and nephew in Antonito Colorado for the trip. Obviously the travel angels were looking out for us!

Since we had to catch the train in Antonito Colorado, we checked out the town a bit before boarding the historic rail cars. I had to admit that I was a bit surprised. While I understand that Colorado’s new recreational marijuana law has created a lot of buzz, I had to admit that I was surprised that a city with a population of 781 needed not one, but two recreational dispensaries. I hope those 781 folk smoke a bunch!

The oldest congregation in Colorado is Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Conejos Colorado, just outside Antonito. While I hate to preach, I am pretty good at it. Conejos and Antonito are prime examples of why Congress has no idea how to run a business. Congress essentially demands that the US Postal Service make a profit – why not, both FedEx and UPS are huge commercial success and are in the same business, right? Well, neither FedEx or UPS have offices in either Antonito or Conejos – as I said, Antonito had a 2010 population of 781, and Conejos a whopping total of 58. Just a little over a mile from each other, the stone full service US Post Office facilities in both towns are why Congress has no clue – the US Postal service is a public service that cannot be compared to for profit businesses that know how to make money!

The original church was built in 1858, and nearly burned to the ground in 1926. The congregation was able to save the foundation and most of the walls of the church, and in 1927 they rebuilt upon those walls and created the oldest continuous church in the State. Not only were the walls and foundation preserved, but the historic stained glass and altar were preserved as well. This church is well worth a visit.

Also in Antonito is Canos Castle. Born Dominic Espinosa, Espinosa, a Native American veteran, began being referred to as Cano in the 1980’s – some say that his name came from the beer cans that he used as basic raw materials in his monument. It seems that Cano can’t decide whether his inspiration for his creation was Jesus or Mary Jane – something that wasn’t legal recreationally in Colorado when he first built his castle.

While not open for touring as Cano lives in his mostly recycled masterpiece, you can’t miss the twin spires anywhere you happen to be in the town of Antonito. So getting a chance to take in this interesting roadside phenomenon is not at all a problem.

When we got to the depot we had a new fun experience. Not only did we enjoy the new technology associated with the proliferation of amateur drones, but we also saw the advent of the new wave of marketing. No longer are you required to buy the DVD of a canned piece of footage of some generic trip on the Cumbres and Toltec Narrow Gauge Railroad. Now, at the end of your trip, you can buy the actual DVD of your specific ride, and you may even see yourself boarding or riding the train.

The track for the Cumbres and Toltec RR was originally laid in 1880 to support the lucrative mining operations in the area at the time. Over the years the typical boom and bust cycle impacted the line, but somehow it survived Into the late 1960’s when the successor Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad filed with the states of Colorado and New Mexico to abandon the line. The two states got together and managed to save the most scenic portion of the route.

A National Historic Landmark, the line is the longest surviving narrow gauge rail route covering 64 miles between Antonito Colorado and Chama New Mexico. The route closely hugs the two states’ borders, with the line crossing from Colorado to New Mexico and back no fewer than 10 times during this 64 mile trip.

The fall colors were at their peak for our trip – at least peak for the West. While there weren’t the prominent reds that we saw last fall in New Hampshire and Vermont, the yellows and greens were luminescent. The mountain sides provided the true natural canvas that Mother Nature used to spread her palette. Every turn and every curve gave new perspectives which left us all in awe.

The trip was magical in that the original coal fired steam engines are what pulled the coaches. Because we had 9 cars heading up the grade, it actually took two steam engines to provide the power needed to get us up there. Once we hit the mid-point in the trek we were able to lose one of the engines, as well as the fire suppression rig that was following us all the way up the mountain due to the potential for hot cinders coming from the coal fired engines.

At the longest trestle in the line we had a bit of a delay. It turns out that the trestle is not strong enough to bear the weight of two engines, so they have to disconnect one of the engines when they have a large collection of cars. They run the single engine across the trestle, and then the rest of the train follows. Once safely on the other side, they reconnect the two engines and continue on their way.

I can’t believe our luck in getting tickets when they never have cancellations. I also can’t believe how spectacular this trip is. While you can’t really go back in time to experience what elegant travel by rail was like at the time, the experience on the Cumbres and Toltec gets you close to that time travel. We have now traveled 3 of the 4 remaining narrow gauge lines of any length in the US, and truly enjoyed the experience.

Talk to you soon!

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!