We spent most of the rest of the day in the town of Taos, well-known as an artists' colony.
However, it is also the location of the final home of American frontiersman Kit Carson (1809-1868), and we started our Taos sojourn at the Carson Home, now a museum. Carson lived here with his third wife, Josefa. (He was married twice before to Native American women. The first died giving birth to their second child, and the second wife divorced him.) Josefa was just 14 years old when they married, and she bore him eight children. She died from complications of the final birth, and Carson, crushed, died a month later.
Once an all-American hero, Carson's activities have come under closer scrutiny in recent years. Was he a man of character and champion of Native Americans, or was he, like so many others, simply exploiting the local people? Respected historians take both sides, and it appears that the jury is still out.
The museum, of course, takes the more romanticized view of Carson.
Regardless of your feelings about Kit Carson, his home/museum, which focuses primarily on his family life, is an interesting place to visit. The first room had a History Channel biography of Carson playing on a small screen. We had limited time, so we opted to try to find it online when we got home.
We spent the morning of Day 3 in what we called "Georgia O'Keeffe Territory." As mentioned in the prior post, O'Keeffe owned two homes in New Mexico. We stopped at the second one she bought first, was a crumbling adobe on three acres in the village of Abiquiu (pronounced A-bih-cue) when she purchased it. She remodeled it extensively, and it became her principal residence in 1949 after her husband died. She lived there until 1984, two years before her death in 1986. The name "Abiquiu" means "wild choke cherry place" in the Tewa language.
We got there pretty early in the morning before anything was open. Unfortunately, advance tickets are required to take a tour of the O'Keeffe property, which was declared a National Historical Landmark in 1998. Tours of the O'Keeffe home on the property are not available right now because of Covid, and we couldn't even find the actual house on the property, which nowadays is dominated by the Abiquiu Inn and what looks like upscale cabins/casitas for rent.
However, as we drove around the property, we discovered that it also serves as an outdoor art gallery, with most of the art for sale! We had a good time checking out the various pieces, such as Water Garden by Brenda Jones:
One of the museums I was most excited to visit on this trip was the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. It's common to visit an art museum that focuses on a genre or time period, but less common to visit an art museum that focuses on the life work of a single artist.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929 at age 42. She bought a home there in 1937 and a second one in 1945. New Mexico became her permanent home in 1949 (three years after the death of her husband) and she lived there until she died 37 years later in 1986.
Santa Fe's Georgia O'Keeffe Museum opened in 1997, eleven years after O'Keeffe's death. The building itself has the Santa Fe/Southwest adobe construction that is so prevalent in the area. The collection includes many of her best-known works, along with many others I would have never guessed were hers.
There are hundreds of paintings on display, just part of the collection that rotates among the galleries. I present my favorites, not in chronological order, but in the order I viewed them at the museum (and in the approximate order they are displayed, which is more or less thematically and definitely not chronologically). Occasionally as we walked through the galleries we read some interesting narrative that I will include bits and pieces of.
"In 1915, while teaching art at Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina, Georgia O'Keeffe made a radical decision. As she later explained: 'I have my things in my head that are not like waht anyone has taught me. . . . so I decided to start anew.' The bold drawings that resulted, infused with energy and emotion, were some of the world's first 'pure abstractions.' . . . Her abstractions were first exhibited in New York in 1916 at Alfred Stieglitz's avant-garde gallery '291.' By the mid-1920s, O'Keeffe was recognized as one of America's most important artists."
"In 1923, Stieglitz began organizing annual solo exhibitions of O'Keeffe's work. The following year, they were married."
Our second day in New Mexico was going to be another hot day, so we tried to get an early start, We arrived at Petroglyph National Monument at 8:50 AM. As it didn't open until 8:30, that wasn't bad.
We spent our time in the Boca Negra ("Black Mouth") Canyon, a 70-acre section of the park with many of the most easily accessed highlights. We started with Mesa Point, a .3-mile climb up this basalt hill. (It was harder than it looks.)
One of my favorite petroglyphs was right next the the trail head. It looks like it has been enhanced, or perhaps it is the modern recreation of an ancient petroglyph. There are supposed to be many of these spirals--which are associated with wind, water, spiritual emergence, and one's journey through life--throughout the Southwest.
"Breathtaking" has a very literal meaning when you are hiking up a steep hill in warm weather.
As we continued on our slow trek north, we saw signs for the town Truth or Consequences and decided to take a look. T or C, as it is informally known, has a population of about 6,500.
Originally named Hot Springs because of curative natural hot springs in the area, it changed its name in 1950 when Ralph Edwards, the host of the radio show Truth or Consequences, announced that he would air the 10th anniversary program from the first town that renamed itself after his show. For 50 years Mr. Edwards returned to T or C during the first weekend in May for a fiesta that included a parade, a stage show, and a beauty show. (Note: The radio show Truth or Consequences eventually became a syndicated television show.) That May Fiesta continues to this day.
Our next destination was a national wildlife refuge called Bosque del Apache, or Woods of the Apache. "Bosques" in the Southwest are the dense shrubbery and tree growth that occur alongside the Rio Grande River and in its floodplain.
We entered the reserve close to 5:30 PM, and it was still 99°, so we didn't have any desire to get out and go for a walk. We were happy to drive the 12-mile loop.
The refuge includes areas of floodplain, irrigated farms, wetlands, arid grasslands, and mountain foothills.
The dominant tree is definitely the cottonwood.
The trees were full of ping pong ball-sized clumps of "cotton."
There are cultivated fields in the reserve--a cooperative agreement between farmers and the government for the benefit of the birds and other wildlife. It was beautiful scenery, and SO GREEN for such a hot time of year.
We saw deer in at least three different places during our drive.
We also saw plenty of wild turkeys.
Turkeys are so ugly--much uglier than vultures, if you ask me. I'm so glad Ben Franklin didn't get his way. He wanted turkeys to be our national bird.
I thought the way the sun shone through the turkeys' wattles was interesting.
Bob has many more photos of birds than I do, but I did get this photo of what looks like a headless kingbird. My bird photography skills leave much to be desired.
Crossing the "Big River."
We finally made it to Albuquerque, our destination for the day. We arrived in time for dinner at a place Bob had scouted out ahead of time: Church St. Café.
I loved the mariachis on the roof. I could tell this was going to be a fun place.
In fact, it turned out to be one of my favorite eating experiences of the whole trip. First of all, I loved the décor--adobe walls, a large open room, New Mexico colors.
I have developed a fondness for the Virgin of Guadalupe and liked seeing her adorning this clay oven/fireplace. The grill beneath her feet has a silhouette of a church.
I have no idea who this is, but he looks very "New Mexico-ish."
Each table in the restaurant has a different hand-laid tile picture top.
Stars twinkle above.
The live entertainment was unlike any mariachi band I have ever heard. The harpist was fantastic, and so was the guitar player. Bob commented that these two men might be his favorite musical entertainment ever in a restaurant and even tipped them twice.
The food was as good as the atmosphere. Bob had a vegetarian sandwich and his second batch of fries with chile cheese sauce of the day. It was good . . .
. . . but not as good as my chile rellenos. Drool.
It was evening by the time we finished. The restaurant is located in Albuquerque's Old Town, so we decided to try to walk off some of what we had eaten.
In one direction, we found this statue of Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdes, who founded Albuquerque in 1706. He rides his proud steed at the entrance to Old Town, which appears to be a popular gathering place. (We even saw one woman taking photos of her chihuahua carefully posed between the horse's legs.)
In the other direction lies the Old Town Square (or zocolo, as it is known in Spanish) and the church. This part of Albuquerque feels like old, traditional Mexico.
Every zocolo needs a bandstand in the center. This one is especially charming. It looks like a movie set.
Facing the zocolo is the San Felipe de Neri Church, which was built in 1793. The oldest church in the city, San Felipe has been in continuous operation since the first church was built on this spot in 1706. The 1793 version was remodeled in the 1850s-1860s to give it a more European appearance, but it has retained a Colonial-era feel.
Unfortunately, it was locked up for the night, and when when we returned the next day, they were preparing for some big event and we still couldn't go inside, but here are a few photos from our daylight visit:
There she is again, Our Lady of Guadalupe:
I saw her all over the gift shop as well, including this depiction of a tender embrace with Pope John Paul II and a representation of Juan Diego, the Mexican peasant who was visited by her.
I have to include two shots of "The Old Town Loo," which was next to where we parked our car. I was very impressed by how clean and efficient it is!
Anyway, by the time we finally got to our hotel at the end of the frist day, I could barely make it into my PJs. We had been going all day on just an hour or two of sleep, if that, and were grateful to finally climb into bed.
