Santa Fe and Taos

Caution - heavy weaving content ahead.

I chose this RV Park due to its proximity to the heart of Santa Fe. Its an older park set behind adobe walls with plenty of trees but most of the sites are close together (ours is a little better than most but we pay for that with the noise of being close to the front entrance on a very busy road - think Kingsway or King George Blvd). The utilities are OK, except the bandwith of the wifi leaves a little to be desired, and the laundry/restroom building is older and small. It does have the unique feature of a solar drying area - two long clothes lines complete with close pegs set behind the laundry room. But on Thursday morning we took advantage of its greatest asset, a bus stop on a direct route to downtown right out the entrance. The $1.00 day pass took us into the heart of old Santa Fe in about 20 minutes and we spent the next five or so hours on foot exploring the historic centre of town,

touring the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, and poking in and out of some of the hundreds of galleries in the downtown and along Canyon Rd.

There were way too many to explore so we just went in to those that seemed to interest us (or had a welcoming dog at the entrance). Found one currently featuring the work of three weavers, one showing transparencies, one primarily rugs (beautifully ikat dyed) and one tapestries. There were a lot of galleries and shops featuring American Indian Art, both local and further afield, contemporary and historical pieces. Prices were astronomical.
We also stopped by the State Capitol building

and then made our way over to the Railyard district for a late lunch/early supper at a Mexican restaurant (it seemed the most appropriate choice) and then caught the bus back to Trailer Ranch about 5pm. The day was sunny with some high clouds, temperatures in the mid to high 60's but there was a chilly wind at times but that probably worked to our advantage for a day spent on foot in an urban environment.

Friday we awoke to clouds and showers. We packed away the damp picnic shelter and took off for the High Road to Taos. Our first stop was in Espanola at the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center.

In a somewhat down at the mouth setting this storefront hosts a retail outlet for supplies and consignments for the over 200 members (both local and some out of state we were told) to sell their works and both new and donated yarns and fiber. It also has two large rooms full of looms and associated equipment for members to use and to host workshops. It was quiet when we visited and cold, but at least the rain had stopped. I picked up a skein of local 2 ply tapestry yarn nature dyed in cochineal and a locally made small tapestry beater.

By now the showers had given way to broken clouds and we continued up the road in increasing elevation to the town of Taos, a very crunchy granola feel here and the home of Kit Carson. A smaller version of Santa Fe with many galleries and a good yarn shop. Part way up the road to the Taos ski village we came to the bend in the road know as Arroyo Secco. Here I wanted to visit Weaving Southwest.

This is both a studio and a retail space for yarn and a few other supplies and a gallery and retail store for some gorgeous rugs by local weavers. We were given good information about the weavers and found some rugs by one of the weavers who had been featured in the show in the Marigold Gallery we visited yesterday in Santa Fe. We were in the sun here, but it was cool with a cold wind and the owner had the wood stove burning to chase away the chill.

Back to Taos and them up and down the back side of the scenic byway High Road to Taos with many lovely glimpses of the snow covered ski runs on the surrounding mountains to the town of Chimayo which has a number of fibre related stops but as the day was getting long I only made Pete stop at one, Ortega's Weaving Studio.

This establishment has been in business for 8 generations and has both a studio with a number of looms (primarily 2 harness counterbalance) and a large retail shop with a huge number of their weaving products as well as some jewellery and pottery. Next door they have a galleria with more touristy offerings that seemed to have a greater interest for a group of Japanese visitors.

From Chimayo we headed back to Santa Fe past at least four huge casinos (all native run one assumes)  and did our grocery shopping before returning home to the Trailer Ranch at about 6:00pm.

After we leave here I had originally planned to head to Northwestern NM and then up into Colorado to a Passport America park in Ute, near Durango but the weather forecast with a possibility of 6 inches of snow in the San Juan Mts in Colorado has suggested a different option so from here we will head back to Arizona to the Navajo country along Hwy 191 to a campground near the Canyon de Chelly National Park and then head north into Utah from there (hopefully with a side trip to the Four Corners Monument). Once in Utah we will start our visits to the National Parks: Arches, Bryce Canyon, Zion, the Grand Canyon and any others that get in our way. We are expecting to have little or no cellular service for most of the next ten days so wish us well with the weather and see you on the other side.