New Mexico to Arizona

Our last report had us in Santa Fe and getting ready to go to Taos. 

We visited the Museum of Indian Culture in Santa Fe, where these figures where seen in the sculpture garden.

We left our lovely campsite at Cochiti Lake on Monday and drove north through Santa Fe and on up to Taos (which we had heard so much about).  The winding mountain road followed the Rio Grande up and up – 70 miles of curvy driving with great views of the snow capped mountains.

But, were we disappointed when we got to Taos.  Wind blowing dust like crazy, dry and not so beautiful landscape, road lined with ticky-tacky tourist traps (not us!).  Even  the shops around Taos Plaza were nothing special.  Oh well, won’t go up there again.

We came back to Santa Fe, had dinner at a wonderful restaurant we had discovered in 2006.  Stayed at Motel 6, and woke up to snow falling!

We headed south to the New Mexico/Arizona border on Route 60, a scenic route through the mountains.  This took us to Springerville, AZ, where our expected state campground was closed due to the budget.  Carole’s visit to the police station resulted in us parking in the Safeway lot overnight – the temp dropped to about 28 degrees, and the furnace ran all night.

The next day sent us down Route 60 towards Phoenix, through the Salt River Gorge – a spectacular, awesome drive – all Vera got to see was the yellow line on the roadway – too scary to look over the edge!  Carole’s pictures are below.

We went on down the road towards Phoenix,, where we are staying with Maria and David for a couple of days.  More on Friday.


Hope all of you are doing well.