The road to Taos

So whenever I think about Taos, I think skiing.  That's all I've ever really known about it.  Since moving to New Mexico, I've learned more about Taos, and have been wanting to get up there.  Besides skiing, Taos has lots of areas for great hiking, a thriving artisan community, the Taos Pueblo, museums and a famous church.  Having had a rough week over Thanksgiving (not the holiday itself), I decided on a whim to take the dogs and head to Taos for the day on a Sunday.  It's about 2 1/2 hours from ABQ.

So I headed up I-25 to Santa Fe and turned off toward Espanola and Taos.  Merging onto 64North, I drove toward Taos.  It was a cold, but typical sunny beautiful November morning.  The sky was an incredible clear blue color.  About 15 miles south of Taos is the Rio Grande River gorge.  Route 64 winds through the hills, and after one hard curve, a breathtaking vista opens up.  The road passes through the bottom of the gorge, hills on either side; and the Rio Grande river on the left.  I stopped off at the Rio Grande Gorge visitor center.  Had a nice talk with the ranger there about dogs - he had a snoring Boston Terrier and Aussie under the counter.  I told him I recognized that snore!!  There was a trail head off the opposite end of the parking lot.  So after the long drive, I and the dogs stretched our legs and hiked the trail up to a bluff with some amazing views of the gorge.

Heading into Taos, I stopped at the Taos Visitor Center on the right, just before the Taos Plaza.  The visitors center has locally made crafts for sale, as well as maps and information from the helpful staff on things to see and do in the area.  The Taos Plaz is the center of the original Spanish Settlement.  It has the distinction to be the first place in the US to fly the American flag day and night.  Driving on past the Plaza, I headed through the Taos Pueblo.  The Taos Pueblo was established many centuries before European arrival making it one of the oldest, continuously occupied pueblos in New Mexico.  Since I had to dogs with me, I decided not to stop in at the Pueblo, although they do have tours open to the public.  Please note that there is a camera fee and rules to follow to respect their traditions.  Several friendly "Rez" dogs were roaming the parking lot and greeting visitors.

Continuing on, I headed out of town about 11 miles to the the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  The bridge is the tenth highest bridge in the US towering 650 feet above the river.  If you go, definitely plan on driving across the bridge, parking off to the left in the dirt parking area and taking a walk back across the bridge.  There are usually several vendor/artisans marketing their wares opposite the parking area - be sure to take cash if you're interested.  Walk along the side of the bridge to the center if you dare.  Don't do this if you are afraid of heights.  The bridge actually moves in the wind and with car traffic.  There is a small area in the center on each side where you can pause and admire the view.  I have to admit, although I'm not afraid of heights, I did have to put a hand on the railing before I looked down.  It's absolutely breathtaking and mesmerizing!

On the return from the bridge, I stopped in at the Plaza area to hit a few stores.  Sadly, none of the ones I made it to took credit/debit cards.  I hadn't brought any cash as this was spur of the moment trip.  So instead I took the dogs for a nice walk through Kit Carson park and decided to head home.  All in all it was a delightful day trip and only served to whet my appetite to go back and spend time in shops, museums, touring the pueblo and perhaps next summer, rafting down the Rio Grande!

Exploring the west side

So a few weeks ago, I decided to explore some of the west side of ABQ with the dogs.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be the coldest weekend of the season so far.  Windy and pretty darn cold - but still, the sun was out.  So I decided to venture out anyway.

On the west side of ABQ there are the Petroglyph mountains.  There is actually a monument area with visitors center and trails to the Petroglyphs.  I didn't go there.  Because it is a heavily populated tourist destination, they don't let dogs in that area. So... I did a little research and found a day use area on the back side that is less populated and is dog friendly.

The day use area surrounds a group of three volcanic plugs, remnants of volcanic eruptions from 150,000 years ago.  The resulting Basalt rock formed the volcanic plug.  And there are 3 separate trails ranging from easy to moderate leading to each of them: the JA Volcano, Black Volcano and Vulcan Volcano.  Basalt is the rock made from the cooling lava.  It is generally grey or black in color, but with age weathers to brown or red-rust due to oxidation of mineral content.

It's a nice drive out the other side of the valley and up the outer rim of ABQ on the west side.  After passing an industrial area, the road leads past flat desert pastures.  I spotted a few cattle on the left side making their way through the pasture.  The day use area has a paved parking lot, and thankfully, a bathroom as well!  There is even a doggy poo bag station and trash cans at the entrance of the trail head, along with reminders to stay on the trail and not to take anything from the landscape (other than trash or doggy poo, of course!).

If you decide to use the trail during the warmer months, be forewarned.   A popular resident of this area is the rattlesnake.  Apparently they are quite proliferate.  The website for the day use area gives tips for encountering/avoiding them.  Fortunately, I was hiking in cold weather, during the time they tend to hibernate.  I'm not ready to encounter that particular wildlife species here; and neither are the dogs.

The dogs seemed to be having a blast.  There were very few people out in the cold.  Doc loved the area!  Maybe it was familiar to him?  I did adopt him from a west side shelter.  He was alert and excited and totally at home there.  Jane did okay, until we got to the top of the first volcanic plug and the wind started whipping viciously.  It was cold and windy and sandy, and Jane hated it.  See photos below.  I know it will appear that I am a terrible owner to be snapping her picture while she was so miserable.  I can assure you that we headed back down the second after I snapped the picture.  Actually I carried her a little way, poor thing.  She's not very much of a hiker.  After traipsing around the other two plugs a bit, we gave up on the cold and headed back home.  But it was a nice outing anyway with some great views.  It's always good to get out on a cold weekend instead of mewing up on the couch!

Remembrances

Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead) is a mexican holiday with roots that extend back some 2500 years.  It is traditionally celebrated November 1st and 2nd - a time to gather with family and friends to remember and pray for loved ones who have died.  Altars are set up with marigolds, skulls, and the favorite food and beverage of the deceased.  Parades are held and festivals with skulls and skeleton figurines everywhere. In Albuquerque, the annual Marigold Parade is held November 4th.  I missed it this year, but plan on attending next year.

Something about this holiday intrigues me.  It serves a much better purpose than Halloween has come to mean.  Our own Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve, stems from a similar background - remembering the dead; or a more pagan version being that it is a time when then the veil between our world and the dead thins - allowing the dead to come through and visit us once more.  Today's Halloween has become a selfish excuse for children to beg for candy and eat until sick; for adults to allow themselves to become silly children for a night (not a bad thing!); for churches to rail against (and yet come up with some unique ways of celebrating the night, still having candy and calling it something different).  Day of the Dead seems to me a much better holiday.  What better way to remember our departed loved ones than a celebration, a remembrance of their lives, prayers lifted up?!

We all have our own ways to remembering.  For my family, well, for my Mom, who taught me, the tradition was to keep flowers on the graves.  It was something immensely important to her - that they not be forgotten, that the graves be tended lovingly in remembrance.  She changed the silk flowers out every season and for each holiday - July 4th, Christmas, Easter, etc.  I even remember when visiting relatives that she always made time to go by the cemetary in those towns to pay respects to lost family.  Many, many times when I lived at home, I went with her.   She taught me how to stuff the vases with the green florist blocks, and arrange the flowers so it didn't show.  Although I'm sure she despaired of me ever being really great at flower arranging! LOL! And I often remember asking to go with her if I had come home for a visit from far away.  It's peaceful there at the cemetary. Not morbid at all.  A respectful silence - like a breath held a moment in anticipation.  It was comforting to me - a way of embracing my brother and great aunt (and now mother and close friends), cherishing their memory and their love.  It grounds me, helping me to remember my roots, and to see how far up I have grown.  Silly as it may sound, I talk to them while I'm there.  Yes, I have chosen to continue my mother's tradition.  Although I no longer live in town, whenever I am there, I put new flowers there.  Even for my good friend, Terry, whose marker doesn't have a vase - I stick them in the ground beside the marker, even though I know the groundskeepers will just pull them up again when they mow.  It's not how long they last.  It's that I remember, that I still care, my respectful thanks for their presence in my life.

So yes, I talk to them as well.  I tell them that I miss them.  That I still remember.  I tell them a little about my life now.  I tell them I won't forget.  Hmmm, perhaps the visits are more for me than for them. But no matter, I will continue the tradition.  It's something I can still do for my mother and for myself.  Hopefully, although I do not have children, I can pass this tradition on to someone else as well.  Tradition keeps us all connected.

And so I urge you to take some time during this celebration to remember your own traditions, your own departed loved ones - not with sadness or regret, but with happiness that they are connected to you and still live on in your heart.

If you see me at the cemetary some day when I am in town, feel free to join me.  I'll be the one arranging the new flowers and dusting off the edges of the markers...  Maybe someday I'll live closer and can change the flowers more often.  Mom would like that.  

Miscellaneous ponderings and wanderings

I have been remiss in posting lately.  I had a wonderful trip home to visit family and friends in South Carolina.  I tried to time it so that I could see the beautiful fall colors.  But, alas, the colors this year weren't as lovely as usual.  Still, it was great to be home - to see trees and grass and the mountains.  One of my goals was to get some mountain apples fresh from an orchard.  There are no orchards within three hours of Albuquerque that I've been able to find.  And I'm used to having access the bounty of fresh picked apples and apple cider in the fall.  So my friends and I set off to the NC mountains near Asheville to find an orchard.  We aimed for Hendersonville, and ended up in Bat Cave, NC.  Got some great Mutsu apples from Justus Orchards.  We stopped in for a look around - it's really the end of apple season here.  I discovered that a bad frost in the spring had killed off a lot of the apple harvest this year. That's the kind of thing you don't learn in a grocery store!!  So I gorged myself on cider and apple doughnuts, apple pie, apple bread and apples, apples, apples!!  I managed to purchase a half bushel to bring home with me on the airplane.  And let me tell you, they are seriously heavy in a back pack.  But it has been so worth it to have fresh, mountain apples!  Nothing like it in the world!  And a little taste of home out in the high desert.

Coming back from vacation is always tough.  So this past week or so has been really super busy at work and personally.  I did manage to spend an afternoon carving pumpkins with my mentee for Halloween though....

And this weekend has been filled with hunting for a rental house.  But I took some time out to take a hike with a new friend of mine.  We went to the Elena Gallegos open space.  I hadn't been there yet.  It's only 15 minutes from my apartment.  So I've no excuse at all.  And I intend on going back quite often.  It was simply beautiful.  We walked up the mountain side of the Sandias for about an hour - decided that was enough for the day and headed back downhill.  But seeing the trees and the blue sky and the rock covered mountain side - it just made for a wonderful, peaceful day.  My friend is native american.  He says the Sandias are a sacred place to the Navajo - that there is strong energy in the mountains.  Many Natives come there to pray.  He says the strong energy can disorient you very easily there and get you lost.  And that because it is a sacred place, the natives believe that you shouldn't eat there or disturb things.  We kept an eye out for bears, but didn't see any.  He said that he used to bring his kids there and they would howl like coyotes and get the real coyotes howling with them!

The open space is a 640 acre park supporting a pinon/juniper habitat.  Coyote, bear, cougar and hawks are among the wildlife that can sometimes be seen there.  Elena Gallegos was one of the original Spanish colonists that settled this area.  She obtained a land grant sometime around 1712 for this area.  It's absolutely beautiful up there.  I could spend hours just watching the blue sky through the trees.

This is definitely a must return to space.  As often as I can.  Although the recent time change will probably limit that to weekends until spring.  Ah well.... lots to do the next two months.  Holiday celebrations will soon abound and I am determined to make a few more of the Luminarias.
Jules

2012 41st Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Part 2

Getting up early can be a challenge for some.  I've always been an early riser, but 3:30 AM is too early even for me!  It's dark, and at this time of year, cold - around 40 degrees.  I stumbled around to dress and managed to get the dogs out and fed.  Even though afternoons are in the 70's, I needed to dress very warmly for this morning - layers and thick socks, heavy coat and gloves for cold fingers.  Then I headed out to the Park and Ride to meet some friends.  This is the last day of the 41st Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque!  My timing has not been great to see the early events - Dawn Patrol and Mass Ascension.  This is my last chance until next year.  I am praying for the winds to stay calm.  The sky appears clear as I can see some stars over toward the mountains.

Arriving in the mall parking lot, I stroll past the line of school buses and wait at the orange barreled entrance along the lanes of colored plastic flags.  It is 4:40 AM.  There is almost no one there!  Very different from last weekend - I arrived at 5:30 AM and had to wait for an hour.  This time it was easy.  The bus took us quickly to the Fiesta park.  Little traffic today.  It's the last day and no one wants to get up so early.  It's too early even for the balloons yet.  Still pitch black away from the long line of white tents.  Although I must say the smell of fried foods and doughnuts at 5:30 in the morning is just too much!  Yuk!  We strolled back through the tents and vendors again.  All of us had done this a few times last weekend already, but it's too cold to stand still.  Although many people are huddled around the picnic tables covered with blankets and clutching hot chocolate or travel coffee mugs.

At 6:00 we begin to barely see things on the field.  They are inflating a few of the balloons for the Dawn Patrol!  These are the first balloons to go up and check out the wind conditions.  So we made out way out onto the field in the dark with many others.  When the balloons are all lined up in a single line and inflated, they start the countdown to launch.  The entire crowd starts chanting along - as if we were launching a space shuttle - 5-4-3-2-1!   And we all cheer and clap as the first balloon lifts off, and then the next and so on - glowing in the dark and winking in and out of view in the dark sky.  We stamp our feet and grin and try to time photos with the light of the blowers.

Now many more trucks and trailers are pulling into the field.  More balloons are lain out on their tarps and fans started.  Slowly the balloons start to fill.  At first, we wander through the field easily and manage to score a few trading cards!  Trading cards are given out by some of the balloonists.  They have pictures of the balloon on the front and the stats on the back.  We scored one for the Wells Fargo team ballons and for "Airabelle" - The Creamland Cow!  People often trade and collect these cards like the pins each year.  We strolled out to the middle of the field among several balloons being inflated.  At first it was easy to see.  Then as the morning light got brighter, we were surrounded by people and by the huge inflating balloons!  Everyone was walking around with cameras in hand, bumping into each other, taking pictures for others, and exclaiming over the beautiful colors and shapes - all while being mindful of the tarps, the balloons, the ropes extending everywhere.

At 7:12 AM, sunrise, the Mass Ascension began!  The first balloon rose, trailing an American Flag, amid the cheers of the crowd!

And then....slowly....one by one, the others began to lift off!  Soon it was hard to see along the field as the inflated balloons stood up tall.  People hurried from one to the other seeking the warmth of the blowers.  And it was hard not to act with the wonder of a child - running first one way and then the other, exclaiming over each one, and just gasping, WOW!, over and over again.  The balloons did indeed fill the sky!  It was the most amazing and incredible experience I've ever had!  To be able to stand among the balloons as they rose and watch them trail out over the sky!!  Not something I will soon forget.  Waves of cheers rose and fell as the crowds around each balloon clapped at lift off and waved at the balloonists in the baskets as they drifted high and away - and in between, the quiet of the morning and the cheers, the sounds of the gas blowers puffing and chuffing....  It was just incredible and lasted at least an hour or two.  As we came back on the bus, we were able to see where many of the balloons had landed in parking lots, on the side of the interstate, in fields, in school yards(this past week a few even landing on I-25 causing major traffic jams)....waiting for their chase crews to find them.  And some few still drifting over the city.  If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend the experience.  Plan on spending the week and both weekends, just in case, because you can't ever predict the weather here and may need to try many times before one occurs.  I am sooo glad that I tried again and was able to experience this event. It was well worth it!