Northern New Mexico

New Mexico is dominated by deserts and mountains. In the south it is deserts with mountains at the edges, but in the north it is mountains with deserts in the valleys.
On Thursday we moved to the north of Albuquerque and are staying in a small town called Espanola, we chose this because of its location.
Espanola is in the Rio Grande Valley, with Santa Fe to the South, Los Alamos to the West and Taos to the north.

Espanola
So on Friday we set out to explore Espanola. We found that the town is split by the Rio Grande, with the old town on the West bank and the new town business section and a pueblo called Santa Cruz on the East side. The main features of the Old Town was a plaza which had several nice buildings, a replica, built in the traditional adobe way, of a local church which is used as a community centre, a plaza, and a museum based in the local home of a tradesman called Bond. We enjoyed both of these buildings as it gave a good insight into the local history. We then enjoyed our lunch in the Plaza before coming home, via the Santa Cruz Pueblo, to relax for the afternoon.

Taos


Saturday was to be our adventure to Taos. Taos has been a beacon to us for some time as it incorporates a lot of things that we wish to see.
First is the scenery itself. To get to Taos we had to drive up the Rio Grande River valley, as we approached Taos the scenery became more and more spectacular as the mountains closed in, now high enough to have snow on their tops. The geology of the areas seemed to have a level layer of very hard rock, either volcanic or limestone (need to check), when the road was below that level it provided Mesas (high flat areas) with long ridges. As the road climbed it left the Rio Grande Valley, suddenly we reached the top and drove out onto the mesa, which stretched away into the distance. You could see Taos nestling under the heights of the snow capped Pueblo, Wheelers and Lobo Peaks which make up the Taos Ski Valley area. Across the flat mesa to the West you should see the huge gash in the ground which is the Rio Grande River Gorge disappearing into the distance to the North. we stopped to take photos, but as usual there is no way that you can capture the scope of this scenery on film.
We drove on into Taos and parked near the Old Town Plaza which was really a bit of a tourist trap, still we got our and had a wander. From there we went to the Taos Pueblo for a tour round this fascinating place.


Taos Pueblo.
First another short word about Pueblos, because as we travel we are learning more. From around the 10th Century a peaceful, agricultural peoples 'arrived' in the area of New Mexico/Southern Colorado. for four hundred years they lived peacefully in small communities (about 40 of them) from El Paso in the south right up to Taos in the North. They used adobe bricks to build villages. Adobe bricks are a sun baked mix of mud and straw. This is then covered with a layer of mud (see our visit to Albuquerque Old Town). A flat roof of timber poles with mud to seal it means that they are great as long as it doesn't rain! The mud layer is renewed annually, making the walls thicker and thicker and giving them a sort of rounded, melted look. These people lived quite happily until the arrival of the Spanish, who, as mentioned before, took advantage of them until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when they were kicked out. The revolt was led and organised by the Taos Pueblans (so they say anyway). To this day there are 19 Pueblos remaining. As a native American People they have fought for the return of their land, with some success. However each Pueblo is autonomous
so success has varied, Taos Pueblo has been able to reclaim some 200,000 acres of its original land.
Taos also has one of the most complete Pueblos, its original adobe buildings are still intact and are quite impressive as they are three stories high, the whole village is surrounded by a wall and it still looks like it was 600 years ago. (No electricity, water or TV). most of the Pueblans now live outside the village, but retain their property in the village. We had a fascinating tour given to us by a young lady who is studying conservation at the local North New Mexico University. This has really helped us to understand the importance of these people to this area of the south west USA.

Rio Grande Gorge and Bridge
After our visit to the Pueblo we drove about 10 miles out of Taos to the Rio Grande Gorge. Route 64 crosses the gorge and it is one of the most spectacular sights. There is a single span bridge 650 feet above the river, which just serves to put the gorge into perspective. As I have started to look at this area it has become obvious that there are some very interesting and unique aspects at play. The Rio Grande Gorge is part of the Rio Grande Rift Valley. The Rift Valley is a line down the Earth's crust where two land masses are being pulled apart, leaving a gap between them. The Rift Valley has also been subject to massive volcanic activity and there are various volcanoes, lava fields and igneous intrusions. dating back a mere 50,000 years. It is fascinating to drive through this countryside and see the raw forces of nature tat have been at work.

Earthship
Anyway, when we had looked enough at the gorge we wandered a couple of miles up the road to a small community called 'Earthship', which is a large number of houses which are built on sustainability principles, with adobe walls with bottles or cans as the 'bricks', lots of solar power and hydroponics. Very interesting, if a bit bizarre.
We decided to go home 'a different way', on the map there was a small road which ran down the west side of the gorge, this would save going back to Taos, so we went for it. It was a very good paved road. We could see the edge of the gorge to our left, slowly getting closer. Then two things happened; The road turned to a rough gravel track, wide enough but lots of loose stones and dust; the road turned left and nose dived into the gorge. We went with it! and eased our way down the side of the gorge, as the road twisted and turned down to the bottom of the gorge (650ft, remember?). Then when we reached the bottom we crossed a bridge and returned to paved road and we now travelling down the beautiful Rio Grande river, with high canyon walls, once again we were astounded by the grandure of the scenery. As we moved south the canyon opened out and became less high, eventually we met the Taos road and returned to the trailer tired but astounded by the scenery we had encountered.