NEW MEXICO trip
Oct. 8-15 2021
PART 3
As we continue on US 64, things really get, uh, interesting.
The stretch between roughly Cimarron and Taos was a scenic highlight, but it's also where we appeared to have a flat tire. After we wosted a good 20 minutes inspecting the tires, we concluded it was just a faulty flat indicator.
This doesn't look like a U.S. route, but it's still US 64.
US 64 again.
I'm not sure what this area is called - maybe Cimarron Canyon.
I think this formation is near where we pulled off to look at our tires, except I thought it was snowing when we stopped.
US 64 cuts through the fog like a poop knife.
This could be Eagle Nest Lake.
You guessed it! US 64 again!
Practically the whole morning was all US 64, all the time. That is, after we left the hotel in Raton where there were bugs and where the knob broke off the sink.
NM 68 in Taos. Earlier - during the COVID-19 pandemic - Taos was the home of mask vigilantes. This posse threw rocks at people seen without masks outdoors, wrote down their license plate numbers, scratched their cars with keys, and made a Facebook page attacking Taos authorities for being too lax in mask enforcement. The town was founded circa 1615. The neighboring Taos Pueblo was probably built between 1000 and 1450 and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the United States. The pueblo has an elaborate multistory adobe dwelling built in that era. The pueblo lacks electricity and running water.
Southwest on NM 68.
NM 68 again.
NM 68 again and again!
The mighty Rio Grande can be seen at right.
The Rio Grande is more prominent here.
NM 68 slices through the spoils of a shredded social contract.
NM 68 glissandoes through the mountains of northern New Mexico.
The Rio Grande reappears.
NM 68 in Española. The town was founded as San Juan de los Caballeros, the capital of the old kingdom of Nuevo México, in 1598. We lunched in Española. In a state known for police state tactics in the early 2020s, it was hard to say how Española compared with the rest of New Mexico.
NM 30 at Santa Clara Pueblo. Around here, a pueblo is like a village inhabited by Native Americans, often for hundreds of years. Santa Clara Pueblo was established around 1550. I have a 1995 New Mexico atlas that marks a much bigger area (including Española) as Santa Clara Indian Reservation. The indecipherable Google map may show the pueblo covering a similarly large area.
NM 30 again. The mountain could be La Mesita.
Still NM 30.
NM 30 approaches NM 502, which sports a freeway-style interchange.
NM 502 heading towards Los Alamos. And lemme tell ya, Los Alamos had more issues than a magazine rack. I don't say that very much about towns on my trips, but that one was in a league of its own.