SUNDAY - Winston and VerJean pulled out of Juniper Campground about 10-minutes after we did this morning at 10:20AM.
We've only got about 87-miles to go today before we arrive at the Coronado Campground in Bernalillo, NM. It's amazing to me that the three RVs left at three different times from two different locations and we all arrived at Coronado Campground within 30-minutes of each other.
Not wanting to go back through the military style check point again in Los Alamos we took a different route back to the Interstate this morning.
As you can see in the photos there were some pretty steep roadway grades along the route, thankfully going in this direction most of them were all downhill.
There's a hard switchback to the right and you can see the lower road down below.
Thankfully the lower road was on the bottom of the canyon.
Now it's time to go back up a little, but I'm not going to follow what that street sign says.
As we got back near the Interstate we noticed snow on top of the mountains. I'm pretty sure that wasn't there two days ago when we last drove by here.
Winston and I arrived about 10-minutes apart and John pulled in about 20-minutes after that. As soon as John unhooked his trailer from the truck we all jumped into our respective vehicles and drove back out to the street and ate lunch at the Bosque Brewery just outside the campground.
John and Katherine on the left, Winston and VerJean on the right and we're in the middle.
After lunch we all ended up at Walmart to fill up with fuel and stock up on groceries. When we move tomorrow we'll be parking THE POD for two whole weeks and I'll be taking ROVER in for repairs at the FORD dealership in Albuquerque.
ROVER is getting to that age (7+ years) and mileage (138,000) where things are going to start to malfunction. This time around it's just an oil and coolant leak, nothing too expensive I hope, but that's what our Extended Service Plan with FORD is supposed to cover.
When we all got back from lunch and the grocery store we had an uninvited guest show up behind our rigs. He was pretty sneaky but when he started to howl we spotted him.
I hope he and his friends don't make too much noise while we try to sleep tonight.
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FRIDAY - We left the Taos Valley RV Park just after 10:00AM to begin our short 2-hour, 81-mile travel day to the Juniper Campground in Bandelier National Monument.
We headed out of town on NM-68 and it wasn't until 40-miles later when we arrived in the town of Española that the scenery started being photo worthy.
It was at the 63-mile mark in our route that we came upon something unsettling.
We were in the town of Los Alamos, that may sound familiar if you were privy to the existence of the Manhattan Project from 1942 to 1947. Administrators in Los Alamos decided it was an ideal location for the secret laboratory where they designed and built the world's first atomic weapons.
The puzzling part for us was when the GPS guided us directly up to a military style check point. I stopped and pulled over to the far left lane that wasn't being used to decide what to do, use the turnaround lane and leave or proceed up to the guard gate.
I felt making a u-turn at this point might be worse than get told no at the gate, so I pulled forward and told the guard I was headed to Bandelier National Monument. He asked for my ID and then told me to go 4-1/2 miles up the road and turn left. DO NOT STOP, DO NOT pull over or turn left or right on any of the side streets. Plus, NO PHOTOGRAPHS!
When a man in uniform gives me instructions, I pay attention. I guess this is still an active site, but civilians are not welcome to pop in for a visit.
It wasn't very much further down the road when we arrived at the front entrance to Bandelier National Monument. After showing my ID and Lifetime Senior Pass to the attendant we avoided paying the $25 Entrance Fee.
We've had better views out our back dinette windows...
...and definitely more level sites than this one has, but...
...I don't believe we've ever had such a huge backyard.
After struggling to get all leveled up on our campsite, we headed down to the Visitor Center to eat lunch in the little café they have on site. Then it was time to get my Passport Book stamped, grab a hiking trail brochure and check out the museum.
Around 5:00PM a very familiar white van, named VanV, came into the campground and pulled into our site.
We haven't seen VerJean and Winston since we all got together last April in Texas to watch the Total Solar Eclipse. We knew they were coming here, but it was still a pleasant surprise to see them doing so well and to be able to give each one of them a big hug.
After a few hours of sitting in THE POD talking and catching up, they moved their van over to their own campsite on the other side of the loop and got settled in themselves.
We made plans to meet for lunch tomorrow back down at the café and then hike the 1.5-mile Pueblo Loop Trail here in the park. Of course all that depends on the weather, and right now we are supposed to get a fair amount of rain tomorrow with a few longer breaks when we might be able to sneak in our hike.
SATURDAY - We were able to get lunch in thanks to it being an indoor cafe, but the hike just didn't happen this time around.
Tomorrow we move down to a city park for one night just outside of Albuquerque, NM. Winston and VerJean will also be joining us there and Katherine and John will be arriving later in the day.
The gang is getting back together ya'll!
Looking for our Visited States Map and Data? How about our State by State Bucket Lists or Visited Campgrounds List? If so, click on the sign below to be taken to our other website.
TUESDAY - Well this morning was a first! We were awake and on the road by 4:15AM! What! Why would you do such a thing?
Remember how I told you we cheated and came into the camping loop going the wrong way to facilitate "backing" into our "pull-in" campsite?
The "RED X" on the map to the right marks the location our campsite with the unobstructed view of the Great Sand Dunes.
You can see how little of the loop I had to go backwards on to get to our campsite and back-in.
After three days of thinking about it, and one sleepless night, I came to the conclusion that pulling out of the campsite and turning right was not going to be possible.
Just to double check my brain's calculations, and my eyesight, I dug out my trusty (I mean rusty) slide-rule and did some complex geometric calculations to determine we were not going to be able to miss hitting that rock at the end of the driveway.
My initial thought was to just move the rock, but it turns out that was not an option either!
With my fears confirmed, we felt our best move was to go backwards around the other 85% of the loop to get out of here and what better time to do that than at 4:15AM when everyone else is sound asleep. One other benefit of leaving so early in the morning was that the citation-happy Park Police weren't on duty yet!
If the National Park Service would just make the loop road wide enough so that two 28' travel trailers could pass each other going in opposite directions there would be no problem.
I looked everywhere and didn't find one single suggestion box in the entire park.
Where do you go at 4:15AM with a travel trailer in tow? Walmart of course, and there just so happens to be one on the route to our next stop. Just 35-miles from Great Sund Dunes National Park is the town of Alamosa (pop. 9806) and that's just big enough to warrant a Walmart Supercenter.
I don't like driving in the dark, especially where wild animals could come out of nowhere and run in front of your lane. So we drove mostly 45-50MPH in the 65MPH zone until we reached town.
We pulled in at 5:30AM, just as Trica's walk-n-talk phone call came in, so she started walking and I went back to sleep.
When the store opened we went in and did our obligatory shopping and then at 11:30AM we walked next door to the Wendy's and ate lunch. By NOON we were back on the road to finish up the second 90-mile leg of today's travels and it had us arriving at 2:00PM just in time to check-in for our next 3-night stop in Taos, NM.
While en-route to our campground we knew we would be crossing over the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It is roughly 600' above the Rio Grande River, making it the seventh highest bridge in the United States. It's span is 1280', the distance from one side of the Rio Grande Gorge to the other at this location.
Tricia snapped this photo as we flew over the bridge at the posted speed limit of 35MPH.
Less than 15-miles further down the road we had arrived at the Taos Valley RV Park. I know, I KNOW! It's a privately owned park and we usually try to avoided them like the plague, but in the Taos area, there very few public campgrounds within a 25-mile range.
Taos Valley RV Park is guilty of the thing we hate most about private parks, the sites are very close to each other with little to no privacy between sites. Price is the other thing we don't like about privately owned parks, but Taos Valley RV Park is actually very reasonable compared to most privately owned parks.
Now the good things we like about private parks. The amenities, like free hot showers, fairly priced laundry equipment and level sites.
We've only scheduled 3-nights here while we check out the sites around Taos, so it shouldn't put us into bankruptcy at $58 a night, even though that's three times our average camping fee.
This is a fairly small park and our site is right across the road from the showers and laundry.
As private parks go this one is pretty nice, well kept and at least 15' between sites.
WEDNESDAY - In addition to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge yesterday we saw something else just off the road that caught our attention.
On Google Maps it's called the Earthship Visitor Center. It's an introduction to the idea of living completely off grid, kind of like we attempt to do every once in a while.
This idea is something Tricia has been following on YouTube recently and I just knew we would be going back to check it out more closely before we left Taos.
They build homes, alternately called vessels, that generate their own electricity with solar panels and wind turbines, catch rainwater and snow melt from the roofs for their water needs, grow their own food in indoor greenhouse gardens and are generally self sustaining.
The community began in 1969 and today there are 113 finished homesites. They have been averaging two or three new homes every year with no slowdown in site.
EARTHSHIP BIOTECTURE
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From a mile away it looks like any other dessert community in New Mexico.
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As you get closer you get the feeling that this one is a little bit different.
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Then you arrive at the Visitor Center and realize this place is pretty unique. First you notice all the windows that face south on the entire side of the dwelling.
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On the north side of the dwelling earth and rock is piled right up to the roof height.
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On the roof there's solar panels and large vents to bring fresh air inside.
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The nearly flat roof makes an excellent way to catch runoff rainwater and snow melt.
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Just inside the south facing windows is an indoor greenhouse for growing food.
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All the homes commonly have windows and solar panels facing south and dirt on the north.
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This permitter wall was left unfininshed to show how it was constructed using recycled materials such as rubber tires, aluminum cans and glass bottles.
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It's amazing how artistic looking these "recycled" homes can be. This one even has a wind turbine to generate electricity on windy days and especially nights.
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How many glass bottles were used to construct this one wall?
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Here's is someone working on a nearly finished home. It could even be his own.
In case you're interested, I know I was so I asked, a half dozen of these homes are for sale. The most affordable sits on 2-acres of land, it is a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom model that is move in ready. You'll never have an electric bill, water bill, garbage bill and very little grocery bill to help make it more affordable.
You will however have to fork over $600,000 to move in! There are other larger homes for sale on 3 acre lots that will set you back $1,100,000!
If you're looking for an investment property there is an unfinished home that was foreclosed on that's 6000 sq. ft. with 8 bedrooms that needs $200,000 to finish with a $600,000 price tag. It's estimated to be worth $1.6-million when finished.
We spent about an hour looking around and learning a few things about the community. Interesting!
After leaving the Earthship property we went back to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge to get some proper photos from the Rest Area located on the southwest corner of the bridge.
Here we are looking north towards the bridge.
The Rio Grande River is not looking very "grand" today.
Beyond the bridge the river heads south towards Texas and then eventually into Mexico.
THURSDAY - Our visit to Taos wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Taos Pueblo located just outside of town.
Taos Pueblo is one of the nineteen U.N.E.S.C.O. (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
World Heritage Sites in the Lower 48 States. That designation doesn't come easily and that alone is worth the reason to visit.
We've seen several sites where communities thrived a thousand years ago, but I believe this is our first visit to a community site where the descendants of the original inhabitants still live.
I'll admit, I didn't do very much research on this place, so I didn't really know what to expect, other than it's someplace we should visit.
Upon our arrival I saw a sign pointing to Visitor Parking and other sign stating that Taos Pueblo was closed. My heart sank immediately! Then a woman in the parking lot explained that the Admissions Window opened at 9:00AM, it was currently 8:47AM.
At 8:55AM I began walking towards the Admissions Window and another woman asked us to return to our vehicles and come back at 9:00AM. At first I felt this was kind of petty, but then realized I was walking into their community without permission.
At 9:00AM sharp everything changed and we were welcomed with open arms. After paying our $25 admission fee we were shown were to wait if we were interested in taking the FREE 9:20AM guided tour.
TAOS PUEBLO
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The 1850 St. Jerome Catholic Church is still used by roughly half of the Pueblo residents. Outside of the church entrance is coincidentally where our guided tour began.
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This 3-story adobe dwelling is a collection of small individual "condominium" like rooms. It is called the North House, or Hluamma in the indigenous Tiwa language.
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Generally speaking the dwellings are inherited by the women of the family.
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Turquoise seems to be a popular door color throughout the community.
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Although a few of the doors have been painted red.
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In the Pueblo Plaza there are drying racks previously used for animal hides.
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These large kiln ovens are used for all kinds of baked goods, like breads and cookies.
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Across the creek in the South House (Hlaukwima) is where most current residents live.
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The Red Willow Creek is the only fresh water source for the entire community.
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Inside the cafe/gift shop was a 4-1/2 foot tall drum made from the hollowed out stump of a cottonwood tree and the hides of two bison. The cafe operator asked if we would like to hear it and of course we said yes. Simply put, it sounded like thunder inside the small room.
All together we spent a leisurely 1-1/2 hours at Tas Pueblo, the first 45-minutes on the tour and the rest walking around and patronizing the residents arts and crafts tables in front of their homes.
Tricia purchased a pair of earrings and a copper bracelet, plus a loaf of bread and a few pastry items. I purchased a hot chocolate before the tour started, it was 50°F outside!
We highly recommend taking the tour, it's so much better than walking around reading from a brochure. After the tour you are free to walk around and revisit the locations you want to see more of.
Looking for our Visited States Map and Data? How about our State by State Bucket Lists or Visited Campgrounds List? If so, click on the sign below to be taken to our other website.
