Following our stay in Santa Fe, we headed north into the mountains for a couple of nights in Taos. We detoured to visit Bandelier National Monument, a collection of cliff dwellings and ruins in a canyon west of Santa Fe. As you hike along the cliff wall, various ruins and carved out nooks dot the trail. A couple have been rebuilt and several have ladders allowing you to climb up to them. The settlements at Bandelier date from about 1200-1600, a humbling thought when you consider that by the time the villages were abandoned, Jamestown was just getting settled. One cluster of homes was built about 140 feet above the canyon in a huge alcove. In the alcove is a reconstructed Kiva, a ceremonial covered pit. It seems that those who settled here lived like every ten year old boy dreams of living.
Continuing north to Taos, we stopped at a small roadside burger and BBQ joint called Sugar's. Little did we realize that Sugar's was named one of the top ten roadside restaurants in the country by Gourmet magazine. Lucky for us. I downed a delicious Sugarburger (complete with green chile) and we hopped back in the truck.
Set on a wide plateau surrounded by mountains, Taos is a town where ski bums and art collectors equally feel at home. And let's not forget the environmentalists, artists, wealthy vacationers, celebrity ranch owners, and dreadlocked hippies. It's quite the melting pot of people. We stayed at the grungy Abominable Snowmansion hostel located halfway between town and the Taos Ski Valley resort in the tiny village of Arroyo Seco. During the day we browsed galleries, enjoyed the hostel's cozy fire and friendly cats, gave ourselves vertigo on the 650 foot high Rio Grande Gorge bridge, and dreamed of sustainable living after touring an Earthship. Check out www.earthship.net for more info, very cool.
We then trekked through the mountains for about 45 minutes and arrived in Mora, on the eastern side of the range. A small town hosting us for the second year, it was a fairly quiet, uneventful week. Come Sunday, we headed 30 miles down the road to Las Vegas, NM, picked up the interstate, and headed west to Las Vegas, NV.
That day's drive was one of our longest, taking us a total of about 12 hours on the road. Until you get to the Flagstaff area, there isn't much to see, but from then on it was one of the more beautiful drives I've had on this tour. Around flagstaff there were scattered hills and mountains, tall pine forests, and a still melting snow pack. Unlike most people's perception of Arizona, this looked uncannily like Spokane. As we drove the mountains cut a sharp silhouette against the darkening sky. A little In-and-Out burger, a drive across Hoover Dam, and soon we saw the lights of Las Vegas unfold before us. The 1,000 foot tall Stratosphere and the Luxor beam bookended the Strip from a distance, my first glimpse of this unnatural wonder of the world. Even our lodging for the week, the Budget Suites, had a sign with enough color and dazzle to rival the Fiesta Casino sign across the street. What a strange city.
No comments:
Post a Comment