Taos

We are camped on the north side of Santa Fe in part so we also could explore the town of Taos.  It also is a pueblo town, but has grown over time into an arts area along with being a snow skiing resort.

We took one route over to Taos and another on the way back.  The first route was the “high road to Taos”.  It travels up and on the mountains and mesas.  Our GPS unit gives us elevation readings as we travel.  We were generally in the range of  8,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level on the drive.  There were several little villages with small galleries and Indian crafts along the way, making it a popular day trip out of Santa Fe.

 

The town is another one of adobe style buildings.  The town square was surrounded by galleries and specialty shops. Turquoise jewelry is especially popular in this area.

 

 

 

Our trip back was the “low road” which follows the Rio Grande River through a gorge carved through the rock mesa.  The Rio Grande originates in the mountain areas of Colorado and draws most of its water from the mountains of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.  I caught quite the sunset on the trip back.

 

 

One thing that has been ever present here are the long green and red New Mexico chiles.  These aren’t the super hot peppers but they definitely have tang and flavor.  They are probably most similar to an Anaheim variety of pepper, but they are served with every meal here.  You are asked if you want green or red and if you want both, the proper request is “Christmas”.  And the red ones are used for decoration and you see bundles of them everywhere.

 

We broke out the golf clubs one day, something we need to do more often if we are going to keep hauling them around.  We played a Par 3 course.  Gary hit one tee shot to about a foot from the cup – and then proceeded to miss his birdie putt.  He was not a happy camper, er golfer.