Month: September 2024

The Petroglyph cliff. The Mother Road episode 17

Still in Santa Fe and still just loving it here. Another hike was in order, again not a particularly long or challenging one but still good to get out and stretch some limbs.

This selection from Alltrails was La Cienaguilla loop and from the reviews it was not a huge elevation but did promise some pretty decent petroglyphs on the cliff face of the mesa.

It was a short drive from the campground….almost convenient…. 😁.The trailhead parking lot was mostly empty when we arrived…… (we definitely appreciate having the trails to ourselves when it happens..!!)

Despite reviews that say this is a hard trail to follow……we found our way fairly easily…… a flat sandy path along the base of the mesa….and then pretty much straight up…..

It was steep and rocky, but not terribly far to reach the base of the cliff….

Once there at the base….not the top…..the petroglyphs were numerous… it put me very much in mind of the pictographs in Skaha, British Colombia.

The pictures were quite fascinating…..apparently they age between the 13th and 17th century. To view more of them we had to edge our way along a rocky ledge path….

….but the further up we went, the more glyphs there were…..

Eventually we made our way up onto the top of the mesa… not a huge elevation but the view is still pretty impressive….

Taking a bit of a break from the graphics, we followed the Alltrails path around the mesa and down the other side…….

and a couple of crows that were making me very nervous as I gingerly made my way across the slope….just waiting for one of them to clonk my head……they did not……but they did keep the blogtographer amused.

Then….as we made our way down we found even more petroglyphs….

They were all just so cool……!!! and for a site that is so open they are so unspoiled. We had expected to see some more recent graffiti….but if there was any we did not see it…..and were very pleased not to.

As the day wore on the temperature began to climb….and time to call it and head home to the brave little air conditioner that could…. 😂….and a shower…!!!

Extra Pix

Nambe Badlands. The Mother Road episode 16

The old route 66 does a loop up through Santa Fe, adding time and distance to the journey. Even although this is the original route there was still a little bit of debate whether we should do this loop or not. We were conscious of the increasing temperatures in some of the destinations ahead of us, and the urgency of having that a/c unit repaired.

In the end we were so glad we decided to do it. We fell instantly in love with Santa Fe with its cooler climate in the mountains particularly welcome, especially with just the one air conditioner working.

The cooler clime created the opportunity to get the old legs stretched out again and Alltrails offered us a couple of likely candidates. The downside of a trip like route 66 is a lot of time sitting and driving and this far into the summer months…..the heat adds to the disincentive to be particularly active.

We picked a hike on the road up toward Taos, (Taos is on the list for a return visit 😁) Nambe Badlands. We have seen many different badlands landscapes by now but never tire of them…..they are all incredibly beautiful, and all so very, very different …

It’s a loop trail……

and we had lots of water….it was cooler than Tucumcari….but still pretty hot…!!!

There was really no shade for the truck….

….also no real hope of any shade for us on this particular trek through the coulees…….

…..and up onto the plateaus and mesas…..

……. taking every opportunity for a little shade…..

The path was well laid out and easy to follow ……..

….and the views were suitably spectacular…..

..as per the landscape we went up,

then down,

then up and down again….

…and again……

We kept up a steady pace and drank lots of water……

..it really is a spectacular landscape…breathtakingly beautiful…..and then….on the way down we met one of the local residents. Our first sighting of that old Western movie favourite, the Diamondback rattler.

I did not get anywhere near him despite encouragement from the photographer (“it’s for the blog..!!!!”) I circled around the bush. He may have been stretched out lazily in the heat, but I was not about to find out how quickly he could coil….!!!

Finally….hot, sticky and dusty we sighted the truck again……it was good to be out……but good to be done…..

……now home for a shower…!!!

Extra Pix

Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Mother Road episode 15

Our last night in Tucumcari was far from comfortable. The daytime temp was at 39 degrees C (102 F), no shade and with only the smaller ac unit working its little bones off all night sleep was of reduced quality…!!!

Santa Fe, New Mexico was the next planned stop as 66 looped north and the elevation climbed promising slightly cooler temps.

On the way we pulled off to a small roadside stand just past Pecos where we picked up some absolutely delicious cherries and sweet peas……from this very lovely young lady…

Yum…they were superb……

Next order of business…I had found an RV tech in Santa Fe who had a 5 star rating with over 200 reviews (impressive…!!)

Matt…the RV tech was superb arriving only 15 minutes after I called him. Unfortunately what he found was an enormous puddle of freon on the roof……AC unit officially pooched. There was a lot of dust in the desert and AC had bitten all of it requiring complete replacement…not a job for a mobile tech as it required a forklift to raise the unit onto the roof and he did not have a shop….or a forklift

Santa Fe RV could do the job…but in 4 weeks time….We did not plan to stay that long, so we decided to take our chances in Albuquerque.

In the meantime, Santa Fe required a little further investigation.

Our first foray was to Canyon Road on a recommendation from our friendly RV tech (always follow recommendations of locals) . Canyon Road is a whole neighborhood of art galleries and artisan shop fronts….

It was a beautiful day…in a beautiful place…..

In the meantime…

We had been having a little bit of an issue with a tire losing pressure, Scott could not resist the appeal of stopping at Chihuahua Tire to get it checked out. (Editor. Why attend some bland chain store if there’s a local shop and they were great by the way) An oil change at Oilstop and off to the downtown core of the city.

In the evening, we wandered downtown. Santa Fe is the oldest permanent settlement in North America. The Palace of the Governers in the downtown core is the oldest continuously serving seat of government in North America having held local government since 1610. A very cool place.

The old streets and little stores were just lovely….

It is an incredibly beautiful city. Not just its actual artwork and friezes on the highway barriers and bridges…but the buildings are either adobe or in that style. (Even McDonalds and Starbucks have conformed to the local building requirements.)

We lingered for a while around the cathedral…just because it was lovely…..one of the beautiful things which has made Santa Fe an artist hot spot is the colour of the light, as you will see in the photos below. It has a warm softness, accentuating the natural adobe colours, surprisingly easy on the eyes for a desert location.

Our last evening in the city we tried to capture the remaining neon on Old 66 but unfortunately most of it was no longer lit.

Extra Pix

Mariachi Elvis and the Giant Flipflop. The Mother road 14.

We made a lunchtime stop just across the New Mexico border at the Glen Rio rest stop and Visitor Centre.

Glen Rio is a tiny (derelict) ghost town…but the visitor centre is nice. The lady in there recommended we stop at San Jon (pronounced San Hon) to see the world’s largest Flip Flop (under construction). On the journey of the giants, one could not possibly bypass that one which was on the way to Tucumcari…our destination today…and she assured us, not only should we swing by to see it, but the road was suitable for the trailer…..it was not..

We traveled a short distance hoping it would improve but with our teeth almost shaken from our mouths a sense of dread as to the condition of the trailer overtook us. With nowhere to turn around, we reversed from whence we came, it was no smoother the second time……the flipflop would wait for another day.

Blaze-In-Saddles, Tucumcari.

I kid you not………when we pulled into the campground in Tucumcari (Blaze In Saddles) I asked the owner if it would be possible to stay extra nights. He gave me a sideways ‘are you a crazy person’ look and said, “there’s nothing in Tucumcari”…..”Oh yes” we said eagerly.. “there’s the Rawhide Festival this very weekend…..!!!”

To be fair…if it had not been for the festival he was completely correct… Tucumcari is a town that is well past its sell-by date. The town is probably more than 50% derelict and abandoned……it has definitely seen better days. Once boasting a population around 12,000 it’s now down to 5,000.

Sad because there are a lot of iconic things here (claim to fame being that its where the TV series Rawhide was filmed …Clint Eastwood stayed here when he was a much younger man, and the town was a bustlin’ metropolis …!!)

The main strip is not long, but the remnants of a once thriving town are clear.

Tucumcari is one of the towns that the Pixar movie Cars was based on, it’s a town bypassed by the new highway and has lurched along into decline ever since. Mesa Tucumcari just outside the town is the inspiration for the Radiator Springs mountain in the movie.

The big draw for us was Rawhide Days Festival and the parade on Saturday featuring Mariachi Elvis…who could resist. What the parade lacked in size, was more than made up for by the man himself, Thank you very much.

Mariachi Elvis was absolutely not a disappointment…he was fantastic .

He even put on a rhinestone sombrero and white bejeweled ascot, belting out some Elvis songs in Spanish. He had a great voice, knew how to work a crowd and looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself…….we certainly were. If you ever get a chance to see Mariachi Elvis…get yourself there with bells on…you will not be disappointed.

Also stood and chatted to a lady who was sitting at the back spinning (well really….how could I resist..!!) Lovely lady…thanks for your time Eleanor…. :-).She also showed me some work she had done bias weaving on a pin loom….I may have another hobby…….!!! (Editor, just what her ladyship needs, a new hobby)

It was a fantastic day….

In the meantime, based on a recommendation from the lady in the New Mexico Visitor Centre on the highway…..we also had to back track to San Jon. It is indeed under construction and if you kinda look sidey ways, half shut your eyes, squint a lot and pile in some imagination…….well…..what do YOU think…? I can only assume the residents arrived by the small boat, which ran aground leaving the stranded.

The trip back to San Jon led us through some more relics, lost places off the now beaten track.

There is so much old neon in Tucumcari that we had to do a night drive to see how much of it was still operational…..

The whole time we were in Tucumcari the temp did not drop below 38 C ……and in the midst of it our front AC unit failed…. (that’s the big one that does most of the work……argh) With a bit of internet sleuthing I had some possible reasons for it and with luck some simple solving. Also found a mobile RV tech in Santa Fe with a five-star review…Santa Fe, New Mexico being the next stop on our calendar.

Extra Pix