Land of Enchantment

Hello Arroyo Seco!

Arroyo Seco is little town just north of Taos, where my Aunt Bobbie and Uncle John decided to stake a claim after they retired.   We met up with Gangi in Denver, and headed south for a little trial Southwest road trip.  We did our best to beat sunset, but the last bit of our drive was after nightfall, which in Northern New Mexico rangeland is VERY dark, leading to a few alarming encounters with deer and horses (!!!) on the road.

Once it was safer to drive, we went up into the mountains to check out Taos Ski Valley, and take a little hike along Italianos Canyon Trail.

It was a little cool up there, and we even got rained on - plus all that walking makes some of us very hungry, and possibly a little grumpy.  Time for some sun and some lunch!  Luckily, the Taos Mesa Brewery Mothership had plenty of both.

The 'mothership" is a converted airplane hangar a short drive outside of Taos - in addition to serving beer and food, has a large outdoor venue space for live music (or just exploring), a vintage trailer "hotel", and is a site for Julia Roberts spotting, per Bobbie and John.  

We took a walk across the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, which was pretty cool - particularly if you only dimly remember your high school geography and are pleasantly surprised to discover the Rio Grande is in New Mexico and not just running along the Texas-Mexico border.

Lucie found the 565 foot drop to the river below a bit scary, although not as scary as my uncle John, who declined to walk at all, and met us with the car on the other side.

She much preferred picking and wearing Apache Plume flowers.

Onward in the Bravery Department, Brennan surprised me by a) saying he wanted to go horseback riding, and b) actually going.  We went on a trail ride in the canyons southwest of Taos.  Our guide, Melissa, was a bit of a character - we got through the whole ride with no snack breaks, minimal whining, and only a few water stops because the kids were kind of afraid of her.  But the horses were very gentle and well-cared for, and brought us back safely from our Westworld trek.  We were just a short drive away from the Rio Grande, so we made a short stop to cool our hot, dusty feet in the river after riding.

We enjoyed exploring Arroyo Seco, too - shopping at the Mercantile (home of perhaps the most photographed artfully distressed vintage pick up truck in the state)-

- and an ice cream stop at Taos Cow.  I felt like I'd had too many tacos to indulge, but luckily the kids' "small" cone of Mexican chocolate was too big for either of them to finish and I was pressed into service.  Otherwise I would have missed out on what may have been the Best Ice Cream Ever.

Most of all, the kids liked hanging around with my aunt and uncle, drawing pictures, lounging on my grandmother's porch swing (which is enjoying an encore career in New Mexico after years of service in Michigan), and helping John water the trees and fill in prairie dog burrows.

Too soon, it was time to head back, Gangi & the kids had a flight to Michigan, and I was due back at work in San Francisco.  We wished we stay longer for more prairie dogs, ice cream, hikes, and wide open New Mexico skies -