New Mexico landscape frames this sunrise mountain with a serendipitous delight.
Still a southwest landscape in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
The Rockies.
South Park: not the animated series, but high intermontane grassland basin, approx. 10,000 ft in elevation, encompassing 1,000 square miles.
Mining in Cripple Creek.
San Geronimo Chapel in Taos Pueblo
North Pueblo. Pueblo Mountain, the Sacred Mountain of Taos Pueblo, is furthest to the right.
Red Willow River and South Pueblo.
The cemetery and the original church destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
Ovens and Ladder.
Something different: San Francisco de Asis Church, Ranchos de Taos. Ansel and Georgia own the rear. I'm claiming the Sphinx-like front and side.
Any visitor to Taos must travel the 85 mile loop around Wheeler Peak, NMs highest mt. (Notice the bullet holes, like any sign in the West worth its mettle.)
Actually it wasn't the scenery that was the most moving moment in the circle.
It feels like this might be the only place I didn't go on this trip out west.
Wheeler Peak and a little snow.
Chevron's contribution to making mountain scenery on the Circle: a dis-enchanted molybdenum strip mine.
And a side trip to the Rio Grande Gorge, 800 feet deep, exhibiting the Taos Plateau volcanic field (there will be a test at the end of this blog).
Figured I'd check out where it all began, so to speak.
The view from the mesa, but I didn't have clearance to get past the museums and what not.
So this is Taos.
And this is where I slept. After the music, fall out, and what not.
It's all about adobe.
And the shops.
And then there's the out-of-place architecture of Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.
And some Spanish killer of course.
But Saint Francis rules the day (he's everywhere in New Mexico)!
And, of course, the adobe.
With a little Georgia O'Keefe (and Ansel as well) thrown in for good measure (the church is another Saint Francis, this one in Taos, stay tuned for my pix of the same).
Acoma Pueblo on the Mesa.
Mica Window.
The Sacred Mesa as Seen from my Tour Guide's Backyard.
Mission San Esteban Rey, Cemetery, and the Many Little Houses where US Treaties were Signed.
Lintel and Ladder.
My tour guide, Gary (his Indian name does not translate). Because I had come early, I was the only one on that tour. The next one had at least 40 people! Gary was informative and put up with all my questions patiently (although he was very circumspect when it came to traditional religious matters). He gave me his blessings at the end, told me to be good with my grandchildren who would be coming soon, and remember to always live from your heart. I walked back down to the visitor's center, alone and in awe.
Back to New Mexico.
I did not take any pictures at Zuni (I eschewed the $10 permit knowing I was visiting Acoma the next day). I did buy this eagle carving though (picture somewhat blurred). I had stopped at the Turquoise Gallery, on the Rez (and possibly owned by Arabs as more than one Zuni told me [but I never did go in]), but before entering, a dark-skinned Zuni, Averell Lamy, asked me if I wanted to purchase this carving for $20 from his cousin, Jamie Mahootie, who was sitting in a parked and packed pick-up truck next to my car. He introduced me to Jamie, who later, after a walk and talk with Averell to the ATM and back (I had forgot to get cash earlier, expecting rather foolishly that credit card would do me fine [which it would have at the Turquoise Gallery and did in a Zuni gift shop later, but doesn't exactly work with such a street transaction]), and after my telling him my intent was to buy an Eagle carving, told me his name translated as White Eagle.
El Morro National Monument, once Zuni land.
Moon Over Mesa Verde.
Spruce Tree House Black and White
Mesa Verde Eyes
Around Kiva
Spruce Tree House Color
From Newspaper Rock petroglyphs: Anasazi (pre-1200AD) to Navajo (1700-ish)
To Meas Verde
Where Amazing Anasazi cliff dwelling: Cliff Palace
Lighting Windows on the Anasazi (aka Ancestral Puebloans)
Standing beneath the cliff with history
The actual mesa, Mesa Verde, from my motel
Island in the Sky region.
On the Colorado River side of things.
View from Mesa Arch; my favorite vista of the whole trip!
Somewhere out there is the Confluence.
Where the Clouds and Land meet.
Meanwhile on the Green River side of things.
