8/15/24: The Taos, New Mexico Getaway Continues!

Almost exactly two years ago, a good friend, Darlene, asked me to join her on a road trip to Taos, New Mexico so she could show her stunning fiber creations to a gallery owner in the lovely northern New Mexico city. Steven had found several fun and quirky places for us to explore on the drive that Darlene and I had a blast discovering on the way to and from Taos. Unfortunately, I never got around to writing up our experiences but when Darlene asked me to join her for another trip to her Taos gallery, I decided to change that!

In my previous post, I took some photos of some glorious Colorado mountain vistas, and wrote about our “out-of-this-world experience” at the UFO Watch Tower, exploring the very unusual Cano’s Castle, the house that Indiana Jones lived in, and touring the Earthship development that was far ahead of its time. Since I didn’t include photos of our stay in Taos, I’ve started with those in this post.

The Apache and Navajo began settling the area almost a thousand years ago and constructed adobe buildings as early as 1350 at Taos Pueblo, the country's oldest continuously inhabited community and the only UNESCO Living World Heritage Site in the US. Though Darlene and I didn't tour the Pueblo, we had great fun walking around the city two years ago and again a few weeks ago. 

Photos from two years ago:

I read that artists and artisans have been bewitched for decades by the solitude and beauty of the majestic mountains and sage plains that surround Taos. Sculptors, weavers, writers, painters, and photographers have been particularly drawn to the city’s and environs' remarkable quality of light. It wasn’t surprising that twenty-nine galleries line the downtown streets!

Photos from 8/15/24: I googled the photo of the mural to learn the story of the women but unfortunately only came up with images in other cities and states. Update: The mural by Jenny Ustick features four historical women of Taos, who were chosen by the community of Taos and the Taos Pueblo in the spring of 2022.

The Historic District of Bent Street, one of Taos' early residential streets, was named after the state's first territorial governor, Charles Bent who lived and died on the street. 

As Darlene and I drove north toward Colorado, vibrant yellow flowers carpeted the hillside for miles and miles.

Sunflowers also lined the highway for miles and miles on our trip this year. 

I don't know how Darlene and I missed seeing the almost scarlet-colored hills on our trip two years ago! A sign pointed to Red Hills Lava Products which sells various-sized lava rocks throughout the country. 

It was unusual to see the rounded mountain on the Taos Plateau just south of the Colorado border.

NOT a colorful sign welcoming folks to Colorado, unfortunately!

I took these photos of some of the half-submerged Earthship Biotecture homes a few weeks ago as we headed north from Taos and looked toward the stunning Sangre de Cristo mountains. I described the very unusual housing development in the last post.

Colorado’s oldest church, Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, was built in 1863 in the historic railroad town of Antonito in southern Colorado. Tradition has it that when a group of Spaniards were traveling across the San Luis Valley, one of their mules refused to continue on the journey despite many attempts to get it moving. The group found a small statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the mule’s pack and was convinced that the Blessed Virgin wanted a church built in her honor and dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

As soon as they vowed to build the church in the exact same place they stood, the mule no longer needed any persuasion to move and began jogging alongside the other mules. The Spaniards returned and erected a picket church dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Later it would be replaced by a larger and permanent church. 

The present Our Lady of Guadalupe Church dates to 1927 and serves a heavily Hispano parish that has long-standing ties to the settlement of the San Luis Valley.

A few miles north of Antonito was the town of Manassa, home of the Manassa Mauler aka Jack Dempsey. 

Dempsey, the ninth of eleven children born to an impoverished Scottish-Irish farm worker in Manassa, left home at the age of 15. Riding the rails, he fought quite literally for his supper. After coming to the rescue of Jack Kearns in a tavern, Kearns urged Dempsey to move to Los Angeles and turn professional. Under Kearns' management, Dempsey won 69 out of 70 fights, many by overwhelming knockouts. The phrase 'killer instinct' came into the lexicon as a reference to the fights that made Dempsey legendary. 

Dempsey last visited Manassa in 1966 from his home in NYC for the museum's dedication.

Somehow I missed seeing the brick silo with the crane mural outside of Manassa two years earlier.

About 40 miles north of Manassa in the heart of the San Luis Valley was the small city of Monte Vista. Each February, sandhill cranes, the valley’s oldest visitors, begin their annual migration north from their wintering grounds on and around Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. They gather in large numbers on the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge to take advantage of the open water the refuge provides for roosting and grain for food. 

We can only surmise what the early residents of southern Colorado thought about the sandhill cranes' majestic migration. However, a six-foot-long petroglyph that is unmistakably a sandhill crane has been discovered on a rocky cliff face in the San Juan Mountains on the edge of the valley. 

It would be great fun to attend at least once Monte Vista's annual sandhill crane festival held each March. 

Highway cut by Moffat, a 'town' of just 100 souls at the last census:

Winter looked like it was around the corner when we saw more than a dusting of snow on the distant mountain peaks.

At 14,276 feet, Mount Antero is the highest summit of the southern Sawatch Range.

I hadn't known there was a sheep industry in tiny La Jara, a town of only 750 people tucked away between Alamosa and Antonito in southcentral Colorado.

Instead of staying in Taos on our recent trip, Darlene and I decided to drive onward to the town of Salida in central Colorado and spend the night there. The town of 5,300 was first established in the 1800s as a stagecoach stop and later as a stopover for travelers on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad.

We set out the next morning to explore downtown Salida as it's on the National Register of Historic Places and has Colorado’s largest historic district. Salida is known as the “crossroads” or as the locals prefer, the Heart of the Rockies!

On a quiet weekday morning, I was able to stand in the middle of Main Street and take a shot of the big "S" for Salida on the mountain dead ahead.

I was happy not to see any Starbucks or other fast food shops in downtown Salida and that locals were patronizing independent coffee shops and stores.

Here's another view of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range just outside of Salida. With a dozen peaks that rise above 14,000 feet in Chaffee County, there are more 'fourteeners' there than in any other Colorado county. Hiking enthusiasts take pride in climbing as many of the state's 58 fourteeners as possible!

I hope someday Steven and I can venture to Salida for a couple of days so we can relax in the town's hot springs, hike the many mountains that surround Salida, and take a walking tour of the huge historic district. For so long, we've traveled far and wide but rarely in our own backyard - we should change that.

Towering aspens in Chaffee County:

The Collegiate Peaks or Collegiate Range is a name given to a section of the Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains located in central Colorado. The mountain range includes some of the highest mountains in the Rockies and received its name because several of the mountains are named for prominent universities.

A few weeks ago, Darlene and I then stopped in Fairplay even though we'd first learned about the importance of the burro and burro races on our previous visit two years ago. 

Some background: The term South Park was first used in the 1840s by hunters and trappers who roamed the Rocky Mountains. Ten years later, word spread across the country of three successful gold strikes in Colorado. In the days of the early pioneers, as optimistic gold prospectors fanned out across the area, the town of Fair Play was established in 1859 to serve as a supply center for nearby mining camps. Fair Play was rechristened as South Park City in 1869, then changed back to Fairplay (one word) in 1874. As the mining industry faded, tourism, cattle-raising, and hay-growing became the economic foundation of the area. 

In 1874, seven years after Fairplay became the county seat and two years before Colorado achieved statehood, local officials replaced a small log courthouse with the impressive Italianate-style Park County Courthouse constructed of native red sandstone. The building still actively serves the public today. The courthouse and the small red sandstone jail behind it were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Scenes from around the courthouse square:

The sign in front of the building identified it as Doric Lodge #25 and that they were the caretakers of the lodge over Simpkins Store but we didn't know where it was. 

Across from the courthouse was the Fairplay Visitor Center and Museum.

A block from the museum was South Park City, a heritage area with 44 historic buildings. In the late 1950s, a group of residents concerned that the old mining and ghost towns of Park County were being dismantled and destroyed created the area. To recreate an 1800s gold mining town, buildings were brought in from the high gulches of the Mosquito Range and from mining towns such as Buckskin Joe, Leavick, Montgomery, and Alma.

Since we were pretty close to our homes in Littleton and wanted to get back, Darlene and I decided not to walk around the heritage area and instead walk past Fairplay's adjacent historical buildings.

Hathaway's Bank on the right was one of the first brick structures built in Fairplay following the fire of 1873. After the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I had to wonder who would want to belong to such an organization!) purchased the building in 1887, they held their meetings on the bank's upper floor and still do so to this day. The lower level is now an antique store. 

Looking back before climbing Kenosha Pass and our final leg home after a great getaway to Colorado's small towns and northern New Mexico including Taos:

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Next post: Back to the Asia post and seeing lots of adorable panda bears in Chengdu, China!

Posted on September 6th, 2024 from our home in Colorful Colorado as the sign said! Please take care of yourself and your loved ones, and stay safe and healthy.