A Solitary Fall Trip in the Four Corners

FOUR CORNERS ROUNDABOUT -

STEPPING (A LITTLE) OUTSIDE THE BOX

Albuquerque and beyond

I flew into Albuquerque through storm clouds hiding all but scattered patches of blue sky. The Sandia Mountains peaked through low lying clouds. The city’s annual balloon festival which draws hundreds of balloon owners from around the world had had to cancel activity that day because of clouds and rain. But I am heading out, with the wind at my back, for my first trip as a senior citizen, and a solitary one at that.

The Albuquerque airport is one of few that I think is a pleasure to travel through. It’s relaxed, and colorful with Southwestern art and architecture. I particularly love the old style chairs of wood and leather. Welcome signs abound on the roadways and the traffic in out of the airport flows easily. Well almost, the baggage backed up on the turnstile twice. A cute lady in shorts from Southwest had to jump into the forbidding looking tunnel where the bags emerge to untangle them.

I drove up to Santa Fe in a rented white Jeep at 75 mph, the legal limit. The longer I drove into the open high desert, through the sculpted arroyos and mesas, the freer I felt. I had cheerfully signed up for senior rates on the Southwest flight, but for the rest I planned to wing it, and look for rooms, restaurants, and recreation as the spirit moved me.

No room at the Inn – discovering a new one

When I pulled into my favorite hotel, The Inn of the Governors in downtown Santa Fe, I found that my bet that rooms were easily available on a Sunday night had been trumped by a three day holiday and cancelled activities at the balloon festival. All the balloon people went to Santa Fe. Actually there were rooms at the inn, but at double the price, so I set out to explore for options. Circling the city on a new commuters loop, I reentered on Carrillos Road, the busy strip where locals shop and eat. I passed many decent chain hotels, but ended up in unique spot the El Rey Inn about two miles from the downtown Plaza. It’s a much expanded and renovated 1930‘s adobe-style motor court with the charm of that era. El Rey is not really a “best kept secret, but it was new to me. It has bountiful courtyard gardens with lots of seating, a beautiful pool, still open in October; and two hot tubs, one indoor and one outside. The service was friendly, knowledgeable and prompt and I felt safe and at home. There is a good sized breakfast buffet offered each morning. There were hard boiled eggs; I tried to heat one up in the microwave. It exploded. I believe I’ll be remembered by the breakfast host!

A hometown restaurant in Santa Fe

Along with the El Rey Inn, there was a restaurant discovery, Los Portreos, on the other side of the street from the Inn. It’s a hometown eatery, with painted tables, tile floors, and hand carved horse heads on the chair backs. I think portreos means horse. The Mexican food there is better than average, the service is fast, and I loved people watching. This Sunday night there were Hispanic families, the fathers in cowboy hats with turned up brims, smiling soft-voiced wives and little girls with tight braids in tow. Maybe they were coming from a late Sunday Mass. There were white haired Anglo types, ranchers in town for a break, I’d guess and various single women, probably from New York or California, going native.

Small Museums in the City Different

Looking for something different to do in the “City Different” I drove up Old Santa Fe Trail To Museum Hill where four small special interest museums are perched above the city. The museums focus on Indian and Spanish Colonial art. I visited the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, where there was an exhibit on early Navajo weaving. It was interesting, but not particularly impressive. I drove back downtown, to join the crowds around the plaza and went into the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art, another beautiful building in a great location across from the cathedral, but with little to see. It’s disturbing when the gift shops are better than the exhibits, which was true of both these museums. On the plus side both were free, and both had friendly docents.

In a conversation with an owner of a shop near the square, I learned that city merchants are concerned about a recent drop in tourist business but are looking forward to a new commuter train from Albuquerque, the development of more parking in the downtown area and the completion of a civic center addition which will be able to house larger meeting groups.

My favorite piano bar

My best outing of the day was a Monday night foray to Vanessie, the piano bar/ restaurant that has been popular with locals for about 25 years. The crowd was good size, even at 6:30 pm when I arrived. Many were avid fans of the pianist Doug Montgomery who has played at Vanessie since it opened. He sits at a baby grand piano below a giant mirror. The music was either romantic or dramatic and several of the regulars, retired singers, joined him.

I was surprised, and somewhat relieved that many there were women, in groups, pairs, or single like me. It was comfortable and lots of fun. When not singing along with the crowd, I was deep in conversation with the owner of a car dealership in Texas who offered to take me to his yurt for the evening. I was flattered but declined. The choice of wines by the glass was good, the bar food was so-so. There is a formal restaurant in the next room. I left around 10 pm a happy camper. One memory stands out, watching a table of attractive, beautifully coiffed women, widows I was told, reflected through the giant mirror. It reminded me of a painting by Degas

The River Road to Taos

Heading north toward Taos on Tuesday, there were blue skies and a light powder of snow on mountain peaks. Along the road there are new bright colored murals and designs on the overpasses and sidings which cheer the way. Less highway blight, what a concept! Government work to be proud of, and we all need a dose of that.

Small Indian pueblos along the Rio Grande have gone into the casino business with a vengeance in the last ten years or so. And they prosper. The parking lots were full at 11 am on Tuesday. A reversal of fortune, Indians lining their pockets with white mans’ money; the thought kind of makes you smile. A good time seems to be had by all.

There are lots of new things now in this valley I remember as down and out: a Lowes, a Super Wal-Mart, a golf resort hotel, new houses in the Indian pueblos and along the hill tops. One pueblo sported a new stadium.

I stopped at a road side stand along the Rio Grande for chilies, honey and some pinto beans (the most expensive beans I’ve bought in a while. I expect great things from them!) I asked the owner what she thought of the casinos. She was less enthused than I, having heard stories of people who gambled away their retirement money. She also talked about water use at the golf course. This is a desert area with a long history of fights over water. That said, the new prosperity was cheering.

I drove up the River Road beyond the pueblos into rough mountain country, past clumps of bright cottonwoods by the river. The road was lined with a soft yellow plant I think is called the Turpentine Bush, a bright harbinger of fall in the high desert.

I stopped for lunch at an isolated spot along the river, Embudo Station, population 21. There is a restaurant there next to the river in the brightest clump of Cottonwoods of all. The New Mexican style food was fresh and really special. The tortillas were homemade and the enchilada fillings creative. I had tomato and squash enchiladas. There were many folks eating there from parts far and near.

Taos

Taos is growing too, but still a village of about 7,000 people, many of them artists and counter culture types who enjoy living off the grid. The local radio station, a necessity in an isolated place at high altitude, plays music by home town musicians as well as hits from the a 40’s and jazz.

The shops are filled with local art, ranging from good to great, in my opinion. The best galleries seemed to be on Bent Street and on the main drag north of the plaza. Right across from the civic center and park was one I particularly liked; Art Divas is a gallery that promotes women artists from the region. There were paintings of all styles, a wide choice of sculpture and crafts and handmade jewelry, all created with a woman’s touch.

I checked into a B & B where I have stayed over the years, the Old Taos Guesthouse, at the eastern edge of town. The owners have gradually reclaimed the 180 year old adobe farm house. There are now nine rooms. Tim and Leslie Reeves are of holistic bent, skiers and happy in their work it appears. There are dogs, cats, a hot tub and no TV’s. It’s very quiet. The Reeves and their two children have lived at and operated the inn for 18 years, a rarity in the business.

Route 64

I left town on Route 64, west, for a favorite drive, just past the bridge over the dramatic Rio Grande Gorge at the edge of Taos. I passed a site where I’d like to stop at another time, a building called Earthship, a center that promotes sustainable housing. Homes built in the earth, homes built with recycled materials, with solar heating and the like are scattered throughout a subdivision just past the center. It looks fascinating. Another time.

Route 64 is an east-west route across northern New Mexico, and rises and falls from 5000 to 10,000 feet and back. So I drove into wide open spaces heading into mountains where almost no one lives, moving past groves of cedar, then pines and finally spruce and aspen - no houses, no filling stations, and few cars passing. So I munched walnuts and cranberries and ate cookies for lunch and stopped occasionally to take a picture of the white aspen trunks up against huge spruce trees. It was chilly up there leaves had fallen and winter was about to arrive.

Tierra Wools in Los Ojos

On the other side of the mountain I stopped at a tiny village, off of Route 84/64, Los Ojos, where a weavers shop and school called Tierra Wools is located. This enterprise aims to keep the traditional Hispanic weaving, wool growing and sheep herding alive in the Chama Valley. The weavings are beautiful, shawls, pillows, and wall hangings are for sale. As I remember, it is this area that is the home of decedents of the original Hispanic settlers who came up the Rio Grande in the 16^th Century.

It looks as if the weavers are having a moderate success, but this is a poor rural area. There are trophy ranches, that are beautiful and well kept, but Chama, the little town just to the north is on its last legs.

Pagosa Springs discovered

I checked out Pagosa Springs in Colorado; just an hour drives further on Highway 84 north. This is a pretty little mountain town of about 2,000 in a county of only 11,000 people. It has been a tourist site for years, but now its beginning to boom. There is a big Fairfield timeshare property in the area and in downtown Pagosa a revamped mineral springs and a small resort is going gang busters. I was told that folks from California, and New York were investing in the area and buying second homes.

I could not get a room at the resort, (There are only 50 rooms) so I stayed the night at a place called Pagosa Lodge about three miles west of the Springs. It’s a large, nicely run older hotel, owned by an older couple who live in Moab, Utah. The owners and I met in the hotel restaurant, the only people dining at 6.30 p.m. They invited me to eat with them. The food and company were very good.

In the morning went back to the center of Pagoasa to the mineral pools, which were wonderful. You wander among different pools of different sizes and with different temperatures, all set on terraces leading down to the rushing San Juan River, where really brave souls dip themselves after a hot soak.

The hot springs are open to the public from seven in the morning until late at night. The sulphur smell might bother some people. Not me, it was a delightful experience and the springs are an easy place to drop in. They supply towels, and soap. You can buy a bathing suit if needed. It costs $15 per visit. I recommend this place, so does Oprah, I hear.

I arrived at the Springs before breakfast and could have stayed all day had I not gotten hungry. I went next door for coffee and a muffin at a little store run by an attractive lady who had moved to Pagosa Springs from Holland, after traveling extensively in the orient. We had an interesting political conversation about Americans and the environment. I did my best to explain our frontier mentality.

A Four Corners Home Coming – Bragging about Farmington

Next I drove west on Colorado160 and then south toward Farmington NM, to see some friends and check out my old stomping grounds. The drive was one of the most beautiful of the trip, moving down from the alpine climate of Pagosa and Wolf Creek Pass to the high desert mesas of the San Juan Basin.

Three rivers meet in ‘Farmington, which lies in a beautiful valley sounded by red-tinted mesas. Farmington and the surrounding little towns of Bloomfield and Aztec once were as bucolic as their names imply, settled a thousand years ago by the Anastazi, then in the 19^th century by Mormon farmers and traders. Many traded with the Navajos living nearby on a reservation about the size of several New England states. Then boom…oil and gas were discovered. In the 1950’s the San Juan Basin filled with oil industry folk, mostly from Texas. It’s an interesting cultural mix to say the least.

Today Farmington is the commercial hub of the Four Corners area. It fills most weekends with shoppers from ranches and the reservation. This is the place to come to get what you need… for a shopping fix at the mall, a new car, or a beer and an evening out at Appleby’s ,Outback or a local hot spot like the Three Rivers Brewery or maybe an evening at a dinner theater. There is a new one in town at the old Totah movie house.

What I like best about Farmington is its cool, dry and sunny climate. It’s an outstanding place for outdoor recreation, for the do- it-yourselfer. There are not many tourist guides here, but if you want to make your own adventures, and explore the lesser known aspects of Native American cultures, this is the place. In Farmington, guys and jobs are available and they all seem to hike, bike, raft, fish and four wheel every weekend in the huge public lands surrounding the town.

For the more academic explorer and collector, this a good place to learn about Indian culture, ancient or modern. It is also the place to find the best Navajo rugs at the most affordable prices, if you are willing to search the trading posts. Most Navajo weavers live within 100 miles of Farmington. My friends go to the trading posts just west of Farmington before you reach the reservation. There are many, lined up in unassuming little buildings along Route 64. I like Hog Back Trading Post and Bob French’s and there are several trading posts run by the members of the Foutz family along the way. In Farmington the Fifth Generation Trading Post a big place on Broadway has a lot of smaller crafts and jewelry. It specializes in sand paintings. The prices in this area are a real improvement over Santa Fe, if you are a bargain hunter.

The next morning across from my motel, (a Comfort Inn, which happily lived up to its name) I went for a walk along the River Corridor; one of Farmington’s hidden gems. It is a beautifully developed riverside trail that runs for six or so miles along the Animas River. That day the one of the plazas along the trial was hosting a story telling festival. School buses from all around the area were arriving with kiddos of all sizes, colors and age groups. It was a lively and nice to see.

Because of the oil and gas industry Farmington is a wealthier town that most in New Mexico. Over the years, community leaders have invested a lot in quality of life infrastructure. There are 73 parks. The Civic Center is good size and there are a number of big sports tournaments held in Farmington because of the quality facilities. For an out of the way place they have a lot to brag about.

On Sunday I drove back to Albuquerque and my plane home in a quick three hours on Route 550, a now enlarged road that greatly improves a trip that used to be much more challenging. I am pleased; this trip went like clockwork, a lightweight adventure for sure, but invigorating and a solitary success during my sixty fifth year.