what is this?

In September Kevin and I visited Midland. One of our stops was Ste. Marie among the Hurons. I asked Kevin to take this picture in one of the old buildings. This was a storage room and there were deer parts and grouse and geese hanging from the rafters. I used a new photo editing software called Picnik. I think it looks like a still life painting from the 170o's.

On a clear day you can see forever, well 11,000 square miles, anyway

Yep, once you take the Sandia Peak Tramway to the top (almost 11,000 ft) you're supposed to be able to see 10% of New Mexico's landmass. It was a cloudy day and watching the storm come in from the southwest was too cool. The views were still spectacular.
This was installed in 1966 (designed and built by a Swiss company, natch) to shoot skiers up to the top for skiing thereby eliminating the circuitous drive around the mountain from the west face to the east face to access the skiing.

Kevin doesn't look the least bit scared.

The first of two towers before you reach the peak.

 This is looking out the back of the cable car. The building at the bottom is the boarding station. We have not yet reached the 1st tower.

 When you trek the crest trail, in some places the only thing separating you from death at 11,000 feet (that's the START of your fall) is  about a foot of dirt.
Witness:

And remember you're walking this thing completely exposed to the 20 mile an hour winds blowing at you. There's the cliff on your right side, and the wide open sky on your left.

Here are some random shots from the top

Yeah, he's laughin' now but he has to climb back UPHILL at 11,000 feet. I don't care how long you've been going to Crossfit you're going to be wheezing.

The long journey West

Today's drive took us from Albuquerque west to Grants, and south to El Morro. This a large sandstone outcropping  became home to Indians (who built a pueblo at the top) but also was a rest stop for travelling Spaniards and Americans and Civil War soldiers. It had a reliable source of water in the form of a large pool, or cistern so pioneers, Spanish soldiers..all stopped here to rest and water their livestock and horses. It was very moving in that we could read the names people had chiselled in the rock when they passed by.
One of them, the Governer of New Mexico, Don Juan de Onate, inscribed in 1605. He was particularly vicious to the Indians he was in the process of subduing, along with the help of missionary priests, of course.

It was a fantastic place for a picnic lunch, then northward on to Gallup. There were many 'trading posts' that we were interested in seeing but no bargains to be had. Here are the sights along the way home to Albuquerque.

Bye bye Taos

Saturday we spent on a photo safari with Bob Ayre -one time aeronautics engineer, atomic bomb salesman, silversmith and photographer. We visited the Taos Pueblo - claiming to be the longest occupied village in America, the plaza and downtown area and San Francisco De Asis church.

The shot above was taken in a Trading Post. I thought using old stirrups as containers to display this stuff was pretty cool.

 A mockingbird.

The Taos Inn is pretty famous. Inside you'll find Doc Martin's restaurant (named after a local doctor who was generous about taking payment in chickens instead of money), the Adobe Bar and it's an inn. We went in Saturday night for margueritas, dinner, more margueritas. We sat in the bar which was a great opportunity to people watch. At 7pm a fantastic flamenco show started. We loved the whole day.
The picture above with the dog is funny. It says The History of the U.S. according to Michelle Bachman's dog. In 1776 George Washington and John Quincy Adams sailed to Americal aboard the Nina, the Pinata and the Santa Claus where they freed all the slaves in Massachusetts except the gay ones."

Found out a few interesting factoids about the state - you do not have to get your car safety inspected - EVER. The state has been a state for less than 100 years (the anniversary is 2012) and, until 10 years ago, there was no building code. That explains why they only have 1 washroom in a restaurant that holds 100 people (and that's a co-ed washroom most of the time).

The Enchanted Circle

Drove the enchanted circle from Taos. First stop was Arroyo Seco, tiny town with maybe 10 shops. Kept a lookout for Julia Roberts and her children but didn't see them this trip. Lots of pickup trucks though.

This old truck was parked outside one of the shops.

In Red River, New Mexico. It reminded me of what Banff might have looked like 100 years ago.
Big ski area.

I just ate lunch. Can you tell?

Foothills of the Sangre Cristo mountains, the southern tip of the Rockies. Looks a lot like Cochrane, alberta.

Morning in Taos

Yesterday's post was frustrating. The internet connection is not very powerful and it took almost an hour to upload the photos.
Today we are driving "the enchanted circle" . We're heading north from where we are and driving an 82 mile circle, clockwise, through the mountains, Cimarron and back to Taos. We are interested in the small town of Arroyo Seco as there are many art galleries and they are more reasonably priced than Santa Fe.

We felt rather chilly last night while sleeping and woke up to find the water in the birdbath frozen (outside, not inside the casita) Looking west over about a mile of sagebrush we spotted a hot air balloon sailing through the Rio Grande Gorge. They do a think called splash and dash. They descend, just touch the surface of the river, then rise again. The Rio Grande Gorge bridge spans this crack in the earth's surface at a height of 800 feet. We are going to walk/drive across it later.
Tomorrow we have a photosafari booked with a local photographer and one stop will be Taos Pueblo.
Heading out soon but wanted to show you a few more pics, including the sink in our bathroom.