End of the Santa Fe Trail
Dear Fellow Travelers,
Apologies for the dearth of entries recently. As stated in the last post, I've been having too much fun in Santa Fe to write. And then I needed a vacation from vacation. But here we go again.
As you will recall from our last episode, Annventurer had just made it to Tucumcari NM. Sunday morning, after blogging, I took Route 104 from Tucumcari to Las Vegas (New Mexico, not Nevada). I'm fairly certain I had never been on the first half of that route. I had the idea that it would be similar to the Texas panhandle -- endless miles of flat terrain covered sparsely by desert grasses, but instead it was similar to other colorful, scenic areas of NM -- escarpments, junipers, tiny Hispanic villages of adobe buildings, gates for roads into ranches, the occasional corral, the occasional classic Northern New Mexico church -- a rectangle of adobe with a pitched galvanized tin roof and a little white wooden cupola, often sitting seemingly in the middle of nowhere. At the bottom of the impressive red Canadian Escarpment a sign announced Corazon Ranch, and I suddenly flashed on a fun and romantic weekend there with friends when I was in college (the ranch belonged to the relative of one of them). The road climbed steeply up the Canadian Escarpment, and then the land was fairly flat and sparsely covered with desert grasses, but on the Western horizon were the Sangre de Cristos -- the tail end of the Rocky Mountains. Las Vegas is on the eastern side of them, Santa Fe on the western side.
I went into Las Vegas to look for a bathroom and a Coke or coffee. Las Vegas is an old railroad town that is an odd blend of northern New Mexico adobe architecture and Victorian architecture similar to what I had driven through in Ohio and Indiana. It has not (yet) been "discovered" (thank God), although it is home to New Mexico Highlands University and the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West. I went first to the Visitor Center, housed in the old train depot; it was closed. I then tried for coffee at the historic El Fidel hotel; the coffee shop/bakery was closed. I noticed that all the antique and curio shops were closed -- in fact, the town was pretty much shut down. OK, it was a Sunday, but it was the Sunday of Memorial Weekend -- the weekend when every God-fearing American is on Holiday and ready to put down cold cash for cute, silly, or inventive unnecessary objects and to buy brunch, lunch, fancy coffees, dinner and lots of other things that will boost the economy. Perhaps the attitude to be inferred helps explain why Las Vegas has not been discovered (and why I might want to live there).
On through Glorieta Pass via I-25, which was much more curvy and steeply graded than I had recalled. I believe I-25 through that section follows the Old Santa Fe Trail, around the south end of the Sangre de Cristos. I took the first exit into Santa Fe, following the Old Pecos Highway until it merged with the Old Santa Fe Trail, then following the Old Santa Fe Trail to its end at the Plaza. Went to Pam's house, unloaded the car, and went to Maria's for blue corn enchiladas with green chile. Then took Pam home, picked up Mary Lou, and drove to Albuquerque the back way, along the Turquoise Trail. This passes the state penitentiary, with it pens of buffalo, passes the little town of Cerrillos, which may have been the setting for a Western you've seen, and then passes through Madrid (slow to 20 mph). Madrid (pronounced MAH-drid) was a coal mining town. When I was a child, it was a ghost town, the wooden miner's cabins losing their paint and their integrity, weathering and listing more each year. Then, in the '70's, Madrid was discovered by the hippies. They began buying the cabins, shoring them up, and started small craft shops (remember macrame?). The town is now a bustling artist community, with only one or two collapsing cabins left -- all others restored, built out and brightly painted. The thing that has preserved Madrid from being taken over by Money in the fashion of Santa Fe is that it has terrible water. See http://www.turquoisetrail.org/madrid.htm for more info on the town.
The Turquoise Trail then goes south through a couple other tiny, ancient towns, eventually joins the road that goes to the ski area and Sandia Crest, and continues on the backside of the Sandias to I-40, where you take a right turn to go into Albuquerque. At the newly rebuilt Big Eye (intersection of I-40 and I-25), we went south on I-25 to the airport and picked up Anne. I then drove Anne and Mary Lou past my childhood homes and went by the law school, which has acquired a huge new wing since I studied there. We then went to The Range Cafe in Bernalillo (ber-na-LEE-yo) for dinner. Albuquerque, which comprises about 1/3 of New Mexico's population, is the county seat for Bernalillo County. The little town of Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque, is the county seat for Sandoval County. Go figure. The Range became an institution after I left NM. It moved to its current location after the original location burned down. There was a cartoon in the restaurant that showed two cowboys looking at the smoldering ruins, with one saying, "I think I heard a discouraging word." I had the green chile enchilada and steak combo. Yum.
On up to Santa Fe on I-25. It was dark, so not a lot to see, especially since the stretch between Bernalillo and Santa Fe is all Indian reservation with almost no development, except for a few new casinos by the road. But due to the vast emptiness, there are places where you can have a perspective of two ribbons of light that are miles long -- a white ribbon of headlights going south and a red ribbon of tail lights going north. About halfway there, you climb La Bajada hill (which is actually an escarpment), and then suddenly see the lights of Santa Fe in the distance. We drove there, dropped off Mary Lou, went to Pam's, and collapsed into bed.
Apologies for the dearth of entries recently. As stated in the last post, I've been having too much fun in Santa Fe to write. And then I needed a vacation from vacation. But here we go again.
As you will recall from our last episode, Annventurer had just made it to Tucumcari NM. Sunday morning, after blogging, I took Route 104 from Tucumcari to Las Vegas (New Mexico, not Nevada). I'm fairly certain I had never been on the first half of that route. I had the idea that it would be similar to the Texas panhandle -- endless miles of flat terrain covered sparsely by desert grasses, but instead it was similar to other colorful, scenic areas of NM -- escarpments, junipers, tiny Hispanic villages of adobe buildings, gates for roads into ranches, the occasional corral, the occasional classic Northern New Mexico church -- a rectangle of adobe with a pitched galvanized tin roof and a little white wooden cupola, often sitting seemingly in the middle of nowhere. At the bottom of the impressive red Canadian Escarpment a sign announced Corazon Ranch, and I suddenly flashed on a fun and romantic weekend there with friends when I was in college (the ranch belonged to the relative of one of them). The road climbed steeply up the Canadian Escarpment, and then the land was fairly flat and sparsely covered with desert grasses, but on the Western horizon were the Sangre de Cristos -- the tail end of the Rocky Mountains. Las Vegas is on the eastern side of them, Santa Fe on the western side.
I went into Las Vegas to look for a bathroom and a Coke or coffee. Las Vegas is an old railroad town that is an odd blend of northern New Mexico adobe architecture and Victorian architecture similar to what I had driven through in Ohio and Indiana. It has not (yet) been "discovered" (thank God), although it is home to New Mexico Highlands University and the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West. I went first to the Visitor Center, housed in the old train depot; it was closed. I then tried for coffee at the historic El Fidel hotel; the coffee shop/bakery was closed. I noticed that all the antique and curio shops were closed -- in fact, the town was pretty much shut down. OK, it was a Sunday, but it was the Sunday of Memorial Weekend -- the weekend when every God-fearing American is on Holiday and ready to put down cold cash for cute, silly, or inventive unnecessary objects and to buy brunch, lunch, fancy coffees, dinner and lots of other things that will boost the economy. Perhaps the attitude to be inferred helps explain why Las Vegas has not been discovered (and why I might want to live there).
On through Glorieta Pass via I-25, which was much more curvy and steeply graded than I had recalled. I believe I-25 through that section follows the Old Santa Fe Trail, around the south end of the Sangre de Cristos. I took the first exit into Santa Fe, following the Old Pecos Highway until it merged with the Old Santa Fe Trail, then following the Old Santa Fe Trail to its end at the Plaza. Went to Pam's house, unloaded the car, and went to Maria's for blue corn enchiladas with green chile. Then took Pam home, picked up Mary Lou, and drove to Albuquerque the back way, along the Turquoise Trail. This passes the state penitentiary, with it pens of buffalo, passes the little town of Cerrillos, which may have been the setting for a Western you've seen, and then passes through Madrid (slow to 20 mph). Madrid (pronounced MAH-drid) was a coal mining town. When I was a child, it was a ghost town, the wooden miner's cabins losing their paint and their integrity, weathering and listing more each year. Then, in the '70's, Madrid was discovered by the hippies. They began buying the cabins, shoring them up, and started small craft shops (remember macrame?). The town is now a bustling artist community, with only one or two collapsing cabins left -- all others restored, built out and brightly painted. The thing that has preserved Madrid from being taken over by Money in the fashion of Santa Fe is that it has terrible water. See http://www.turquoisetrail.org/madrid.htm for more info on the town.
The Turquoise Trail then goes south through a couple other tiny, ancient towns, eventually joins the road that goes to the ski area and Sandia Crest, and continues on the backside of the Sandias to I-40, where you take a right turn to go into Albuquerque. At the newly rebuilt Big Eye (intersection of I-40 and I-25), we went south on I-25 to the airport and picked up Anne. I then drove Anne and Mary Lou past my childhood homes and went by the law school, which has acquired a huge new wing since I studied there. We then went to The Range Cafe in Bernalillo (ber-na-LEE-yo) for dinner. Albuquerque, which comprises about 1/3 of New Mexico's population, is the county seat for Bernalillo County. The little town of Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque, is the county seat for Sandoval County. Go figure. The Range became an institution after I left NM. It moved to its current location after the original location burned down. There was a cartoon in the restaurant that showed two cowboys looking at the smoldering ruins, with one saying, "I think I heard a discouraging word." I had the green chile enchilada and steak combo. Yum.
On up to Santa Fe on I-25. It was dark, so not a lot to see, especially since the stretch between Bernalillo and Santa Fe is all Indian reservation with almost no development, except for a few new casinos by the road. But due to the vast emptiness, there are places where you can have a perspective of two ribbons of light that are miles long -- a white ribbon of headlights going south and a red ribbon of tail lights going north. About halfway there, you climb La Bajada hill (which is actually an escarpment), and then suddenly see the lights of Santa Fe in the distance. We drove there, dropped off Mary Lou, went to Pam's, and collapsed into bed.
posted by Annventurer | 4:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home