Enchanted in New Mexico

1. From the Santa Ana Pueblo gate
see all photos »

This morning I woke with dawn in Bernalillo (yesterday is of little consequence for y’all, I needed to cover some miles and didn’t want to get to Santa Fe yet. The one part worth noting was driving through American horror movie hallowed ground: The Atomic Bomb Test Sites). I had no idea where to go today. That was a good thing. A good ten minutes were spent debating in my car possible routes and destinations and sights. Bear in mind please, that I hate backtracking. This is new, and it’s because I’m on a road trip for crying out loud and I’m in America and there are too many roads available to make backtracking rational. One of my travel companion (books) recommended a loop in northeastern New Mexico, and it looked possible to do most in one day, because I’m a kickass marathon driver and don’t really care to stop at every pottery place one of my books recommends.

2. Before the turn towards Jemez Nation
see all photos »

The destination I was determined to experience was first on my list, the Jemez Pueblo. In college I read Momaday’s The Names: A Memoir, and had thus hoped to one day visit the inspiring lands of the author's youth.

With my sorry command of English, I don't have words fitting for this place

The first glimpses of the unique geology of these lands enforced what I had been told about the region, how spiritual it feels. I began to document my drive, and through these next entries, you can watch the phenomenal transitions of rock, mountain, rivers, and prairie within a three hundred mile loop.

3. The red earth of the Canon de San Diego region
see all photos »

On route 550 North, a number of reservations and their respective pueblos are situated one after another. These are not the depressing plots of land usually dedicated to relocated tribes, where if you look around and the ground is arid and there aren’t any trees you’re most likely on a reservation. Starting with the Santa Ana and Zia reservations, I saw stretches of land that, for lack of a better description, are undoubtedly worshipful. Had I been born beneath these cliffs and painted rocks, I would have felt chosen, special, and closer to some spiritual center.

3. A better shot
see all photos »

These are depressing plots of land because for all the beauty and history, the pueblos are poor, unpopulated places. The Hemish people, for example, used to subsist off the earth in plenty, and numbered 30,000 before the Spanish arrived. At the height of Spanish influence, well under a thousand remained. After decades of successful resistance, the subdued nation was moved in order to concentrate the population. They are near their ancestral ground, but it is in the Federal Land holding.

Joined with the Pecos Pueblo, the Jemez nation has grown to well over three thousand members, and enjoy a little bit of tourist interest. About fifteen or twenty miles off of 550 on route 4 (one of the most scenic drives I’ve yet experienced) there is the protected pueblo (a curious community to outsiders but not a spectacle- you can’t go around taking pictures like in Amish country, and certainly cannot explore their ceremonial ground). Although I felt nervous shooting pictures of the scenery, the regulations around the community demanded a certain respect and awe that I appreciate. Just after the pueblo is a museum and visitor’s center. John, the caretaker, was very nice and helped tour me around the site. I tried to express to him how I felt in these lands.

3. Again
see all photos »

The majesty of the Canon de San Diego region begged photographs. I could not capture what I wanted with my camera, but as you can see, I attempted as much. Dirt is terra cotta, rich like the blood of the earth. Canyons and gorges fall out of the ground, and cliffs hang above the prairie. The earth there feels new, raw, and very much alive. Rainbows of reds, pinks, and oranges paint the first mountain and cliff seen on 550. On the opposite wall, the rock is pale, and drips in bulbous growths from inside like white lava. Further in, the rock walls I walked by nearly brought me to tears. I can’t explain why the deep reds and chalky composition of the earth there engrossed me so, but I just couldn’t stop taking pictures. The stories I have read about this place must be why it meant so much to walk through it- Big Bend was a singular experience because my words and pictures introduced my family and friends to the place, but here I was not only enthralled with the distinctive geography, it was much much more than a pretty place.

3. All these were taken across the street from the Museum
see all photos »

After an hour or so in the Jemez region, I plotted on, backtracking just a bit with my next destination in mind- Taos.