The Drive Up ~ Just Some Boring Scenery

 

 

All packed up on Friday, I spent most of the day driving north from the mountains east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, enjoying breathtakingly beautiful scenery all along the way up to the Carson National Forest, just 30 miles west of Taos, New Mexico.

I choose to avoid Albuquerque traffic and, since the route from my house is slightly less distance to Santa Fe (and a lot more interesting), than if I lived in Albuquerque, I drive the scenic Turquoise Trail through the quirky, unique, and historic villages of Golden, Madrid and Cerillos.

 

Driving through Santa Fe, I knew there would be traffic since it was a holiday weekend, but boy howdy! Was it crowded! Took me about 45 minutes to get from the southeast side to the northwest side of Santa Fe. A drive that usually takes only 15-20 minutes.

Then I was on my way, traveling up NM285, past the Indian Reservations (and casinos) of Tesuque, Cuyamungue, Posuwaegeh, K’uuyemugeh, Pojoaque, and Nambe, driving beneath beautifully designed bridges.

 

(Please ignore the bug guts on my windshield)

 

Then my drive took me through the town of Espanola, where they had the wise idea to be working on a major road construction project on a holiday weekend. Took me about 30 minutes to drive through this normally quiet town that takes less than 15 minutes to drive through. In Espanola, I could choose to continue traveling northwest on NM285, or I could take the especially scenic route, albeit longer route, along route 68, through the Rio Grande Gorge, towards Taos.

I chose the more scenic route because I’d never been that route before, and I knew there were some letterboxes along the way that I wanted to find.

The first letterbox was near the village of Velarde. It was supposed to be a quick stop ,easy find letterbox called Las Palabras Viejas. A chance to stretch one’s legs. I may have had my clues confused, especially considering the rough conditions of the dirt road I was traveling on, but I searched, frustrated, for more than 30 minutes, to no avail.

So, it was back on the road again for me, towards the town of Pilar, where there were two letterboxes placed that I was eager to look for.

 

The road was a little crowded, but not so bad that I wasn’t able to enjoy the lovely scenery as I drove along northwards. The Rio Grande River was swollen with guided raft tours. I don’t think I will ever make a reservation to raft a river on a holiday weekend. I’m not sure how the groups managed to float down the river without becoming tangled up and bogged down like proverbial branches and debris that eventually threaten to dam up a river in narrow spots.

I finally made it to Pilar and drove into the Orilla Verde Recreation Area to search for the first letterbox located in this area, called Road Trip. The letterbox was placed on a trail at the end of a dead end. At the dead end there was a camping site and a turn around. I followed a car pulling a little pop-up, not much bigger than the one we own, into that dead end, and then had to wait 20 minutes for them to figure out they had no clue how to either turn around or back out of the turn-around. Several times they even removed the camper from their car and tried to push it, even with the river on one side and the steep road behind them, and a drop off on the other side. It took a lot of patience from me to not just walk up to them and jump in their car and get that little camper turned around!

I finally gave up waiting, and just parked in the empty camping site, since I knew that the letterbox wasn’t located too far away, and I’d be able to come back and move my van if someone showed up wanting that site.

I located the letterbox within a few minutes. It was really awesome filled with 14 stamps that were donated by various letterboxers, including myself, as a congratulations for friend and fellow letterboxer ‘lionsmane’ in finding his 1000 letterbox. All the hand-carved stamps were created with a road trip theme.

(The trail to the letterbox, looking south. This used to be one of the main driving roads leading to Taos. Now it is closed off to all, but foot traffic)

 

After stamping in, I took a few photos and hiked back to my van, where I was relieved to find that the pop-up people had finally managed to maneuver out of the turn-around road.

(Looking up from that dead-end road at the beginning of the hiking trail)

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After leaving that location, I drove across the Taos Junction Bridge, across the Rio Grande, and immediately left the paved road for a steep, switch- back, washboard, gravel road with heart-stopping drop-offs that were lacking in guard rails. I steadily climbed upwards, slowly, taking in the breathtaking views, getting out and snapping a few photos where there was space to pull over.

After 15-20 minutes I located the rutted dirt side road where the next letterbox, called Side Trip was located.

(See the Rio Grande River down below? See the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) Mountains on the horizon? See the dirt and gravel road to the far right? That’s the road I drove up to reach the top of the gorge)

I was standing at the edge of the Rio Grande Gorge.

This can be so surprising, because if you walk just 100 yards away from the gorge, the terrain looks flat all the way to the mountains north of Santa Fe, with no sign that a wide, deep gash is ripped within the earth, until you come right up on it.

I quickly located the letterbox, and a new friend.

Isn’t he gorgeous? He was longer than my arm from nose to tail. Anyone know what kind of lizard he is?

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It was already after 4pm, and time for me to focus on my final destination, the beautiful Dragonwycke Ranch, with the 1.5 million acre Carson National Forest as a neighbor on 2 sides, and not far from the tiny village of Tres Piedras, and only 30 minutes from Taos.

I only had another 30 minutes to drive before I arrived at a truly magical place, where my horse camping adventure would begin…….

(Just a few sneak peeks until the next post)

There is much history in the particular photo below, that I shot while staying at Dragonwycke Ranch.

Do you see that little log cabin below those Pre-Cambrian granite boulders, that were created about 1.5 billion years ago? That Log Cabin is over 100 years old and was used by the owner of the Stagecoach that carried Taos visitors from the Narrow Gauge Railroad Depot in Tres Piedras into the town of Taos. The old railroad right-of-way is still visible about a ¼ of a mile to the east of the Dragonwycke property and is a part of the old Denver and Rio Grande Railroad that still operates as a tourist line from Antonito (about 30 miles north) to Chama under the name of Cumbres and Toltec Narrow Gauge Railroad.

 

Our Campsite. The tent I slept in, is to the left of the donkey, beside my van.

 

Colleen’s granddaughter, T, and I goofing around while playing Horse-opoly at the camp dining table, along with our equine pal, Ruby.

Apache and I bringing up the rear. Our favorite place to be. That’s Etta Bay and Colleen riding in front of us. This was not long after we all watched a young bull elk run across our trail and up into the forest!

Apache and I posing for a photo in front of the Pre-Cambrian Granite Boulders on the Dragonwycke Ranch property.

Come back soon for more from our horse camping trip.