High Road to Taos

There are two routes from Sante Fe north to Taos.  Both are very scenic.  The Low Road follows the main highway up through the gorge of the Rio Grande.  On Thursday, August 9th, we instead took the High Road, through the hills.  We started on the same route (Highway 84 and 285) that we had the day before, but instead of turning west at Pojoaque, we headed east, on Highway 503.  At Nambé, famous for its metal alloy used in art-dishware, we stopped at Sacred Heart Church, cordially let in by one of the parishioners, who said that we should also see the replica of the church in the graveyard across the road.

We then went into Nambé Pueblo, in order to see Nambé Falls.  This required payment of a $15 fee (to the Pueblo) and a fifteen-minute walk, some of it a little steep and rough.  Niagara it is not, especially in the dry season, but it was pretty, and led to a good, short hike.  A group of kids was there, too, for a picnic at one of the ramadas, or picnic shelters.  I think that they only took the lower valley walk.

Next, we went to the Catholic shrine and pilgrimage site at Chimayó.  This was more developed than I remembered it to be from our last visit there, a number of years ago.  Besides the main church, over 200 years old, with its "pocito," or "little well," where a crucifix was found in 1810, there is also an 1857 chapel in honor of the Christ Child of Atocha.  At the pocito, pilgrims dig out "holy dirt," which is supposed to useful for healing various ills.  For Mary Joy, "holy dirt" is an oxymoron, but we are, nonetheless keeping an open mind, though we did not ourselves take any.  I don't remember that all the shops and other facilities for pilgrims and tourists existed the last time we were there.

We stopped for lunch at a Lonely-Planet-recommended cafe on the main street of tiny Peñasco: Sugar Nymphs Bistro.  We had a very good light lunch there, that, unfortunately, didn't leave us room for any of their delicious-looking baked goods.

While we were eating, it started raining, and continued to rain on and off almost all the way to Taos.  I think that the High Road is more impressive in better weather--at least, so I remembered it from the last time.  We went to Dreamcatcher Bread and Breakfast, which was out in the country, in what didn't seem to be a great neighborhood, and it turned out that the owner, Mary Beth, had just taken over a week before.  But Taos is so small that we were a five-minute drive from the Plaza, Mary Beth was very welcoming and our room, Kachina, was very, very nice, so our concerns were completely allayed.

We drove into town, easily found free parking, and wandered around looking in stores, or at least their windows.  Taos is, like Santa Fe, an upscale, artsy town, and has been so since the early 20th century.  The novelist D.H. Lawrence owned a nearby ranch, where he is now buried.

A rock band was playing on the Plaza, while we decided where to eat dinner, eventually deciding on Lambert's.  The meal was good, but not outstanding.

Bandelier and Butterfly

On Wednesday, August 8th, we had another nice breakfast, then got into the car and headed north, past the Opera, to Pojoaque, where we turned west, and then southwest, until we came to White Rock.  There we drove out to the lookout point overlooking the Rio Grande's White Rock Canyon.

We then went to Bandelier National Monument.  During the summer, private car are not allowed in Bandelier between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.  It was necessary to catch a shuttle bus at the Visitor Center in White Rock, eight miles away.  We just barely caught the 11:00 bus, which was jam-packed with people.  A twenty minute ride brought us to the Bandelier National Monument Visitor Center.  We got into the park free, with the lifetime Senior Pass I bought for ten dollars in 2009 (as of this year, they now cost $80).

Bandelier, less than fifty miles from Santa Fe, is principally about an Ancient Puebloan (the term "Anasazi," which means "ancient enemy" in the Navajo language, is, understandably, no longer in official use) settlement in Frijoles Canyon, which includes a walled village and cliff-dwellings in the caves above.  We paid two dollars for a pamphlet and did the self-guided tour.  The place was crowded and noisy, but nonetheless interesting.  We saw carved petroglyphs and even paintings on the cliffs.

As we walked, we saw black clouds appear above the far end of the canyon.  Then we heard rumbles of thunder.  While weather in the southwestern mountains is often highly localized--heavy rain in one spot, completely dry less than a mile away--we thought it prudent to hurry to the finish, and go back to the Visitor Center.  We were hit by raindrops as we arrived, but it didn't turn into anything heavy.  We saw most of the video about Bandelier showing in the theater, but had to leave early to catch the 1:30 bus back to White Rock (also jam-packed--as we were nearly the last on, we stood at the front of the bus.

We drove back to Santa Fe, and at 5:00 went for dinner to La Plazuela, in the central atrium of the La Fonda hotel.  This had begun in the 1920s as a Fred Harvey hotel, part of his chain for tourists on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, which included several National Park lodges.  The interior was designed by Mary Jane Coulter, who designed a number of the buildings at the Grand Canyon.

The meal was very good, and amazingly inexpensive.  Mary Joy's huitlacoche tamal was her second-favorite meal of the trip.

The reason we were eating so early was, again, that we were going to the opera, this time Madama Butterfly.  This production was not the usual version that we had heard before (the 1907 "Standard" version), but the 1904 "Brescia" version.  It seemed to me to be more dragged-out, less crisp and pointed, but I would have to see the other version again, which I haven't seen in a long time, to compare the two.  But the singing and staging were otherwise wonderful.