Memorial Day Long Weekend....New Mexico and Colorado..

Stu and I decided to head down to New Mexico for the Memorial Day long weekend....(it's still hard to believe you can drive to other States in a few hours...we've been to 8 States already, in 5 months), and left the house after school on Friday.  Traffic through to Pueblo was awful...not sure if it was the weekend traffic or typical of peak hour, but I couldn't imagine doing that every day!  It gets dark around 8.30pm which is great (Daylight Saving, WA.....take note!!) so gives you plenty of time in the afternoons to do things.  However, by the time we got through the awful traffic, daylight was fading, and we could see large outlines of mountains around us, so I'm sure it was pretty nice.
We hit the New Mexico border in the dark....

and eventually found our accommodation for the night at Columbine Inn, in the Taos Ski Valley.  It looked nothing like this (imagine all the snow gone), coz it's Spring (nearly Summer) but it was really nice...and importantly, a good price.

We chatted with some motorcyclists who were participating in a Rally in the Valley....which is for bike enthusiasts and proceeds go to community charities.  They asked us what our Australian motorbike looked like and did it have a pouch??  Hahahaha, hilarious!!! They were very friendly and were a few of the 1000's of motorbikes and riders we encountered over the 3 day weekend!
The next morning we wanted to see the Rio Grande Bridge and Gorge, so made our way there.  It wasn't quite what we were expecting but it was still pretty "Grande".

 

 and one of my favourite songs....Ry Cooder's, Across the Borderline, was going over and over in my head.
One of the guys who worked at the accommodation recommended we do a drive called the Enchanted Circle and we are really glad we did.  Colorado has such beautiful mountains and scenery and we have been a bit spoilt.  This scenery wasn't as spectacular, but was still really lovely.

Questa, NM...flags representing US soldiers who were injured or had died in conflicts overseas

We arrived at Red River to be met by literally 1000's of motorbikes, bikies, bikie chicks, loud music coming out of loud motorbikes, lots of leather....leather vests, leather chaps, spikes, studs (and I don't mean studs as in good looking men!), tattoo's, moustaches (let me say, the motorbike guy from the Village People would have fitted right in!)....

bandanas, not many helmets and stalls selling everything bike related... including gun vests.  We were caught in the middle of all this,

what can I say?...

so decided to take advantage of a chair lift that was still operating...my first chair lift ride in the US. They had slowed it right down and it was really lovely, but SO SLOW!!!

 At least we could watch the huge amount of traffic coming into Red River, from up high! 

Red River

We stopped for lunch in Taos...which was a nice town, loads of people... probably a bit too "up market" for my liking, but the buildings were really interesting...typical of the Pueblo architecture, which I really like.

lots of pretty "fake" flowers

Next stop was at a lovely old church....

and in the same town we got see a wooden aqueduct which spans a deep gorge, with an elevation approx 8000 ft above sea level. It is an example of an acequia, which is an historical engineered canal that carries snow runoff or river water to a distant field.  It is planned, manufactured and overseen by a group of cooperative farmers, and acequia law states that all people with irrigation rights have to participate in the annual maintenance and cleaning up of the ditch.

Fortunately Stu was paying more attention to the surroundings than me as we continued our drive, and out of the corner of his eye saw some unusual buildings.  So we "chucked a uey" and came across this...El Santaurio de Chimayo....possibly one of my most favourite places I have seen so far (other than the natural scenery).

El Santaurio de Chimayo

 It is considered the "Lourdes" of America,

 and fortunately we got there quite late in the afternoon, as there were hardly any people there, and all the touristy shops had closed for the day.

 It was quiet, serene and very spiritual. Pilgrims come here for prayer and healing.

.....an outdoor altar...

Santo Nino chapel

One thing that I really dislike about travelling in the US is the lack of distance signs. At home, there are small posts by the road, every 5km, telling you how far the nearest town is. Here, you get told once and that is it! And if there is something scenic to see, there is a sign, but no distance...so it could be 1 mile or 50 miles...who knows?  So I am sure we have missed plenty of great things to see because we didn't know how far in they were.
But this time we decided we would take a look at a lake as there WAS a sign saying 6 miles.  When we got within earshot of the lake, there was a Ranger at a gate, charging $10 to get in.  We decided we didn't need to see it THAT much so turned around. On the way back to the main road, I only told Stu 7 times to slow down (not 8) and yep, we were pulled over by the cops for speeding.  He was doing 51mph in a 35mph zone.
At home, that would be considered hooning, your car could possibly be impounded, you would lose demerit points and cop a $150 + fine.  In New Mexico (God Bless NM) it was an $80 fine and that was all. (Oh, and they have "Sheriff" written on their cars...cool!!)
We got to Sante Fe late in the afternoon, which is the oldest and highest capital city in the US. I think the altitude got to me again and I ended up with a really bad headache, so that evening was a wipe-out for me.

Next morning, feeling full recovered, we headed into the Old Town Plaza in Sante Fe, which was a nice area...very touristy, but worth spending a couple of hours wandering around.

Selling their wares, but sadly too expensive for me....

I've heard of waking up with a horse's head in your bed, but this is ridiculous!!

Bridges of Santa Fe

Love the bridges.....

It had been suggested to us to visit Pueblo de Taos. It is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos (Northern Tiwa) speaking Native American tribe of Pueblo people... It is approximately 1000 years old and is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the US.  We didn't balk at the $10 each admission cost, but I was a bit annoyed having to pay $6 per camera to take photos!  But it was really interesting and we were given a very informative tour.

Hard to believe it snows here....

 

After spending a few hours there, our plan was to drive to Alamosa, in Colorado...but along the way we had to stop at a few places, including this shop......

Stu sharing his icecream....again.....

yep..Jesus was on sale....

Hey Poncho!!!!!

A nice jumper for Stu....and Kym I reckon!!

After the owner tried to rip us off, we continued on our way....enjoying the scenery....

a sustainable project out in the middle of nowhere....

no explanation...just a sustainable project.....

stopping at the Rio Grande so Stu could have a quick dip......

 before the rafters headed downstream.

We crossed the border again....this time during the day, so we took the liberty of taking photos from both sides.....with Stu wearing a couple of tablecloths I purchased in New Mexico....

After crossing back into Colorado we stopped at the oldest church in Colorado....

.....Our Lady of Guadeloupe Parish Church, built in 1858 in Conejos.  It was a tiny town but we still managed to find a sign for Stu....

We arrived in Alomosa, in Colorado on Sunday evening and checked into our hotel, went out for tea and had a relaxing soak in the hotel hot tub......not quite the same as the hot tub we had at our cottage in Washington.  The next morning we were up early and headed off to the Great Sand Dunes NP.....a place I was really keen to visit and it did not disappoint.  There was hardly anyone there when we got there, it was cool, there was no wind blowing and it was stunning.....

 Stu climbed all the way to the top and it was supposed to take 2 hrs, but took him 30 mins. He found a bit of plastic to slide down on which unfortunately didn't work, so he ended up running down the dunes.

Jen

Medano Creek

We spent a few hours at the Great Sand Dunes NP and left as the crowds and heat were arriving.  It's a great place for families.....sandboarding and a shallow creek to play in.
We chose a scenic route to head home on and it was truly spectacular.  Snow capped mountains everywhere, green, green grass, blue skies....just amazing....

 Painted Rock Campground in Pike National Forest, Front Range, Colorado......

 We arrived back at the house around 5pm.....after a fantastic weekend (again)....and it was great to have the 3 boys there to greet us.....and making them sit through a photo slide show of our weekend! Speaking of photos, I must acknowledge that both Stu and I take the photos I use in my blog. I just take the better ones.....hey Stu!