NEW MEXICO: ROSWELL

June 30, 2021

We spent the night at a Super 8 in Las Vegas (New Mexico), a quirky hotel in a quirky little town. I loved the peacock decoration that was part of the hotel landscaping.

However, Las Vegas didn't hold a candle to the quirkiness of our next destination: Roswell, New Mexico, home of the [in]famous July 1947 "Roswell UFO Incident." The basic story is that a "flying disc" crashed at a ranch about 75 miles from Roswell and was reported to authorities by the Roswell Army Air Field. However, the Army quickly retracted the statement, saying that it was actually a plain ol' weather balloon that crashed. 

Things were quiet until the late 1970s when a retired military man exposed the "cover-up" to a UFOlogist, or a researcher of UFO sightings. Many more "eyewitnesses" soon came out of the woodwork, including several who said that at least one alien spacecraft had crash-landed and bodies had been recovered by the military.

In 1994, the US Air Force came out with a report stating that the crashed object was a nuclear test surveillance balloon, and in 1997 they added that the recovered "alien bodies" were probably test dummies that had been dropped from high altitude.

What I can gather is this: 1) Something crashed into a field 75 miles outside Roswell in July 1947; 2) There was some kind of cover-up, although whether it was because it was a nuclear-related device or a UFO can be debated; 3) There are a lot of crazy people out there; 4) Roswell makes a big chunk of money off its UFO/alien image. As for #4, why else would we have gone to Roswell, except perhaps as a bathroom stop on our way to Carlsbad Caverns? 

As soon as you hit the edge of Roswell's business district, there is no question what the big draw is.

NEW MEXICO: FROM LAS CRUCES WATER TOWERS TO UTEP

July 3, 2021

We had spent the night in Las Cruces, so after our hike in the Organ Mountains we returned to our hotel, showered, and checked out. We hadn't eaten breakfast, so we searched online for the "Best Chile Relleno Burrito in Las Cruces."  We ended up at a run-down drive-thru called El Jacalito. A jacalito is a small adobe house (which this drive through was not). And if these are the best chile relleno burritos Las Cruces has to offer, I feel pretty sorry for them. We gave them a B-/C+. Very disappointing.

When he was planning the trip, Bob ran across information about a tour of the Las Cruces water tanks, each painted with historical/regional murals. He knows this is the kind of thing I enjoy, so we headed out to do that before driving on to El Paso.

Each of the water tanks is 32 feet tall and contains two million gallons of water. The artistic genius behind the murals painted on the tanks is Tony Pennock, who completed his first water tower when he was still a high school student.

The first water tank we saw was actually painted to honor New Mexico State University, Pennock's alma mater (although he did not paint this one).  Look at that background! The Organ Mountains are really spectacular.

Jornado del Muerto, or "Journey of the Dead Man," depicts the Conquistadors making the the 100-mile journey from Las Cruces to Socorro, New Mexico. This was Pennock's FIRST mural, completed over a six-month period when he was seventeen years old. He used a project and worked at night to transfer his design onto the tank. Pennock revitalized the flaking mural in 1991 and transformed it into La Entrada, or "The Entrance," focusing on Don Juan de Onate leading a procession of settlers and livestock into the American West.

NEW MEXICO: CUISINE, PECOS NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK, AND FRED HARVEY

 June 29, 2021

The one food I really wanted to eat in New Mexico was a Navajo taco. I remembered eating one on a visit to New Mexico 30 years earlier, and I remembered how amazing it was.

A Yelp search for Navajo tacos led us to Los Amigos in Santa Fe. We ordered two for take out (for a whopping $27!) and ate them in the car. I was so disappointed. They were just American-style tostadas on a piece of not-that-great fry bread. They were also huge and so loaded that we couldn't get to the bottom. We ended up eating about half and tossing the rest. I would have been happier with the giant Coke we saw at the side of the road as we left town.

On our way to Pecos National Historic Park, we passed this mural. I was intrigued enough to take a photo. Turns out it is a painting of Pecos Park itself!

The national park includes thousands of acres, but the main section contains the ruins of Pecos Pueblo, also known as Cicuye, "the village of 500 warriors." The pueblo's first buildings were built around AD 1100, and by about 1450, there were more than 2,000 people living on the site in a five-story building. According to Baltazar de Obregón, Pecos Pueblo "is congregated on a high and narrow hill. . . . It has the greatest and best buildings of these provinces and is most thickly settled. . . . It is enclosed and protected by a wall . . . and by tiers of walkways which look out on the countryside."

The Pecos people were farmers, and the broad valley we saw looks perfect for cultivated crops of the Three Sisters: bans, corn, and squash. The pueblo was strategically located and a major center of trade.

The base of the wall still snakes around what must have been the perimeter of the living quarters.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 5: CATHEDRAL BASILICA OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI AND THE LORETTO CHAPEL

 June 29, 2021

It began to rain as we approached the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, and it pretty much rained for the rest of the day. Luckily, we were able to park fairly close in a lot at the rear of the church and entered the complex from behind. Even at the back of the church, St. Francis was there to greet us.

These two large talevera pots on the walkway are some of the most beautiful I have seen.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 5: SANTA FE'S MUSEUM OF INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART

 June 29, 2021

I had no idea what Santa Fe's Museum of International Folk Art was. I had never heard of it when Bob added it to our itinerary. He knows I love folk art and art museums in general, and so the name attracted his attention.

It was raining when we got to the museum complex known as "Museum Hill." Four museums are on the site: the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and the Museum of International Folk Art. In addition, there is also the Botanical Garden at Museum Hill. So much to see and so little time! 

You could easily spend two days on this hill, but we only had one afternoon, so we made our way to the Folk Art Museum.

At first, it seemed like a normal art museum. We paid our entrance fee and started down a hallway, passing

Triple Eyes (2007) by Alexander H. Girard

When we entered the main exhibit room, however, we discovered an art museum unlike any other we have visited. It was a very large room, warehouse sized, absolutely crammed with dioramas of scenes from various cultures along with dolls, masks, religious folk art, costumes, toys, and so on. More than 100 countries are represented. It is an eye-popping collection. In fact, the Folk Art Museum houses the largest collection of folk art in the world.  There are more than 135,000 artifacts, about 10% of which are on display at any given time. I could have spent the entire day in this huge room with its warren of displays. Bob, on the other hand, was a bit overwhelmed. It's more my thing than his.

Here is a sampling of a few of my favorites. It may seem like a lot of photos, but it is a small fraction of what I saw. I am not going to try to group them together by type because that is not how I experienced the museum.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 5: STATE CAPITOL IN SANTA FE

 June 29, 2021

The New Mexico Capitol Building in Santa Fe is the only round capitol in the United States and is sometimes called "The Roundhouse." I love that New Mexico paid this tribute to its local culture instead of mimicking the traditional US Capitol style, as so many states do (although previous iterations of the New Mexico Capitol, most notably the 1900 version, were much more traditional).

This building, dedicated in 1966, is supposed to resemble the Zia sun symbol when viewed from above. The Zia is the symbol on the New Mexico flag, a symbol we saw reproduced all over New Mexico.

As the symbol implies, the Capitol has four similar entrances, differentiated by the sculptures in front of each one. Each entrance is topped by a stone carving of the State Seal of New Mexico.

Door handles are not my usual blog fodder, but check out these turquoise inlay handles.

The rotunda is 49 feet in diameter and 60 feet high. The skylight uses the design of an Indian basket, and the blue- and coral-colored glass represent the sky and earth.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 4: VALLES CALDERA NATIONAL PRESERVE AND LOS ALAMOS

 June 28, 2021

This post covers two places that at first glance appear to have nothing in common other than that we visited them on the same day: the Valles Caldera National Preserve and Los Alamos. Read through the post and see if you can find the common link.

After our trek through Bandelier National Monument, we headed into the Jemez Mountains to the Valles Caldera National Preserve, which contains one of three supervolcanoes in North America, the other two being Yellowstone and Long Valley (eastern California, the central Sierra Nevada Range). A series of volcanic explosions here a million years ago was 500 times larger than the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980. The resulting caldera is 13.7 miles across and is crisscrossed by streams that give it a lush green hue.

This panoramic camera shot just doesn't do the vastness justice. The valley is ginormous.

More shades of green than I knew existed carpet the flat caldera floor, and dramatic clouds provided a nice backdrop for photos.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 4: BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT

 June 28, 2021

I had never heard of Bandelier National Monument before this trip, and now I am wondering why. It is a fantastic place to go hiking--almost 34,000 acres (or 50 square miles) of scenic wilderness, three miles of road, over seventy miles of hiking trails, and dozens of structures built between 1150 and 1600 AD by the native Puebloans.

The area was designated a national monument by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and named for Adolph Bandelier, a Swiss-American anthropologist who did a lot of research in this area and advocated for its preservation. Much of the park infrastructure was completed in the 1930s by the CCC.

Our first stop was at the Frijoles Canyon Overlook (so named for the beans that grow along the creek). This is the canyon where we would do all our hiking.

We took a selfie while we still looked relatively fresh.

We made our way to the Visitors Center, where I was once again wowed by the explosion of hollyhocks.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 3: A MIRACULOUS VISIT TO THE RIO GRANDE GORGE AND A DRIVE TO THE WHEELER PEAK TRAILHEAD

 June 27, 2021  

From Taos we drove to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, about 12 miles. The scenery was spectacular, as usual. I never ceased to be surprised by the color palette of New Mexico.

Once we got to the bridge, we parked on the far side and walked back to the center where we could see the gorge on both sides. This gorge begins near the Colorado border and runs 50 miles through a volcanic basalt field. At this point it is 800 feet deep. This gorge and 242,500 acres around it form the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument.

Apollo 15, 16, and 17 astronauts trained here in 1971 because of its geologic similarities to the moon landing site.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 3: TWO TAOS ART MUSEUMS

 June 27, 2021

Taos is full of art museums and art galleries, most with a focus on local art. If you are hoping to see a Picasso or a Rembrandt, this is probably not your scene. But if you love the mystery of the Southwest, you'll love Taos.

We visited two art museums back-to-back. The first was the Nicolai Fechin House, home of the Taos Art Museum.

Photo from Wikipedia

Nicolai Fechin (1881-1955) was a Russian artist who immigrated to New York City in 1923. After he contracted tuberculosis, he moved to Taos for the drier climate, where he began to paint Native Americans and the local landscape. The Fechin's purchased an adobe home, which they spent several years remodeling. 

After Fechin and his wife Alexandra divorced in 1933, he moved to Southern California, and she kept the house. It is now a museum dedicated to Fechin's works and includes some work by other Taos artists.

Fechin is known for his portraits. I like his style.

Self Portrait (n.d.) by Fechin

Alexandra (1930) [This is Fechin's wife]

The Masquerade (c. 1940) 

Indian Girl with Kachina (ca. 1927-1933) 

Portrait of Frances Rollins Steen (n.d.) 

This was fun--the robe worn by Francis Steen in the portrait above.

My favorite portrait:

Tethered Burro (n.d.)

I am impressed by the range of Nicolai Fechin's talents. He was also a woodcarver. These two undated pieces are entitled Large Pilgrim and Alexandra.

He even worked in bronze:

Grandfather (n.d.)

Along with the portraits, the museum includes several of Fechin's landscapes.

Palm Canyon (n.d.)

Taos Pueblo (1928)

As I mentioned earlier, the museum includes some work by other local artists. Here is a sampling.

Taos Landscape (n.d.) by Joseph Henry Sharp

New Mexico Landscape (n.d.) by John Young-Hunter

War Bonnet Shadows (ca. 1925)
by Bert Geer Phillips

When I was looking up some information about Nicolai Fechin, I ran across two other portraits by him of people I am familiar with: Karl Marx (1918, located in the State Art Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia) and Willa Cather (c. 1927, located in the University of Nebraska Art Museum).

Our second art stop of the afternoon was the Harwood Museum of Art. Founded in 1923 and the second oldest art museum in New Mexico, it has been owned by the University of New Mexico since 1935. It was about a mile from the Fechin House, so we decided to walk it

The walk  was worth it just to see this mural on a marijuana shop wall. This is a new use of the Virgin of Guadalupe that I haven't seen before, but a good prelude to what we would see in the Harwood Museum.

The Harwood had a few interesting pieces outside. 

If the sculptor had this view of Manhattan in 1972, I wonder what he would think of it now.

Manhattan Totem VII (1972) by Bill Barrett

These chains of paper cranes (called senbazuru in Japan) hanging from the eaves of the Harwood Museum caught my eye. They were made through a collaboration between a Japanese artist named Izumi Yokoyama and students in the Taos school district. 

Frida sighting near the ticket booth. Must be a good place.

At first glance, this looks like a standard art museum.

After I looked at the first piece of art I came upon, however, I realized I was in a different dimension. Is that a Franciscan friar and native American on that cloud? The license plate is "PEACE."

Heavenly Drive (2018) by Victor Goler

I think that is Mary and Jesus in the front seat.

OKAY. The Harland Museum had an exhibit of the Mexican-American lowrider culture. If you don't know anything about that, read about it here.

Next up, the Virgin of Guadalupe and a lowrider.

Impala Faith (2021) by Kevin Urban

Well, I thought I would see what else the museum had to offer and come back to the lowriders at the end.

These two pieces are made by the Lopez Family, a respected family of artists well-known for their devotional art. These two are Cruz de Viernes Santo en Chimayo (Holy Friday Cross in Chimayo) and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe), both created in 2019.

I don't know anything about this crucifix, but I like it.

Death Shrine I (1972-1976) by Ken Price is an interesting take on the Day of the Dead shrines common in Mexico.

Decoration Day (1940) by Barbara Latham

 There are a lot of more traditional works that I really love:

Acoma (1934) by Gene Kloss

Chamisa in Bloom (c. 1920) by E. Martin Hennings

Winter in New Mexico (c. 1930) by Walter Ufer

Deserted Mining Camp (c. 1940) by Ernest L. Blumenschein

Okay, back to the faith-filled cars. This is one of my favorites. At first glance, it looks like a nice desert drive.

Sacred Heart (2020) by Toby Morfin

Look closer and note the Sacred Heart on a cross on the steering wheel.

Look even closer and see a crucifix dangling from the rearview mirror, an angel carving on the left, and a monk on the right. Also, the exit sign is for Santa Cruize.

A painting by the same artist hangs nearby.

Our Lady of Guadalupe
Watching Over Low Ride
(2020) by Toby Martin

Here is Our Lady of Guadalupe embedded in the grill. Unfortunately, I didn't get the name and artist of this one.

Not a lowrider work, but this woodcarving fits in the transportation genre.

Death Cart (c. 1931-1935) by Patriciño Barela

I'm always a little surprised by how constant the death motif is in Mexican-American art. This is Doña Sebastiana (2006) by Victor Goler.

Whoa! What is this?

The Great Deception from ongoing series "Chariots of the Gods" (2020) by El Moises

The artist's statement is very helpful:

Did you know there are lowrider bicycles? I have seen men riding these in Los Angeles. Check out the crucifix on the back, the crown of thorns over the handlebars . . . 

. . . the crucifix on the pedals, and the crown of thorns and nails in the spokes.

The face of Christ on this metal piece reminds me of the Shroud of Turin.

Wow. Give me something a little more traditional, please! Oh good, here is something.

San Jose (c. 1875) by Laguna Santero

Guadalupe (c. 1800) by Pedro Antonio Fresquis

One final painting brings us back to the current time.

The Return (2020) by Maja Ruznic

I didn't see a single hollyhock in all that art. I'm glad the museum landscaping provided me with this respite.