<< Day 12: Bandelier National Monument to Santa Fe | Day 14: White Sands National Monument >>

Santa Fe to Alamagordo, New Mexico

 

I woke at 5:30 this morning to the loud chorus of birds chirping happily nearby. We had left our windows open last night, along with the hallway roof vent. We had thought that the rain was behind us, but not so. There was a large puddle on the hallway floor—oops!

These flowers at the campground were beautiful:

We headed south on the Turquoise Trail, which is a 52-mile National Scenic Byway that got its name from the vast deposits of turquoise found in the surrounding hills. There are a few small towns along the way, with a museum, historical district and many art studios. However, we weren’t stopping to sightsee today. We had at least 5 ½ hours of driving to get to our next stop, Alamogordo, New Mexico.  We were all feeling a bit tired and very "full" from the many wonderful things that we had experienced over the past few days.

Many of the homes around Santa Fe were stucco and matched almost perfectly in color with the landscape. There was a quiet beauty in the blending of home and earth, with a sense that the builder was in harmony with the environment, instead of working against nature.

Here is some of the initial landscape that we saw on the Turquoise Trail:

We passed by the entrance to the town of Cerrillos, which is thought to be one of the oldest mining areas in North America. There is evidence that the turquoise was mined as early as 900 A.D. and was traded as far south as Monte Alban (a temple and community located in southern Mexico outside of Oaxaca, which we visited this past spring). We plan to venture back to Cerrillos someday and explore its museum and other treasures.

We also would like to stop and savor the small artistic community of Madrid, which we drove through today. There were a lot of art studios with shops, and some colorful sculpture displayed along the street. Here are a few photos that I took:

The clouds in the distance were sitting solidly on top of the mountain.

Other clouds were making patterns of gray in the sky.

The road ahead:

The landscape consisted of patches of dusty green grass with large dark bushes.

Even this church blended in with the landscape.

Sandia peak, which is 10,678 feet high, was completely covered in dense clouds today.

There is a tram that people can ride to the top of Sandia peak for a fabulous view of Albuquerque, but not today! The word “sandia” translates to “watermelon” in Spanish; at sunset, Sandia peak often turns a brilliant pink.

We reached the end of the Turquoise Trail and entered onto the interstate freeway, heading east.

This small church was using the internet for marketing:

The rain began pouring down. Buckets.

After days of quiet 2-lane roads, the busy freeway was a bit of a shock. And a bit dull. I looked over our map of New Mexico and designed another route so that we could eliminate any more freeway driving for today.

A scene from our 2-lane road . . . ahhh, much better:

We passed an agricultural field with a big rolling sprinkler machine—it wouldn’t be needed today!

We saw water accumulating in puddles along the roadside. I wonder how often that happens!

There were a lot of mobile homes. (I know that this photo is fuzzy, but I still liked the sky.)

This house had a quiet strength in its solitude:

We also passed some cows.

We entered the small town of Estancia, which proudly proclaimed itself to be the “Punkin’ Chunkin’ Capital”. However, we didn’t see any pumpkins (not even fake ones) or anything that looked like it could be a “chunker.”

The road became very narrow past Estancia.

This farm had lush green crops growing:

Ben and I smiled back at this happy storage tank:

Large fields with barbed wire fences stretched on both sides of the road. We expected to see a lot of cows grazing . . . but we only saw this solo cow amidst all of the open space.

Further on, we saw a horse:

We drove beside of a railroad track for a short distance. We were lucky enough to see a long freight train roll by--with four engines and 120 freight cars!

At the junction of two roads, this restaurant looked as if it had served its last hamburger many years ago.

This house had a large water tank on its roof.

Some other buildings that we passed:

The hill in the distance was covered in wind turbines.

Up ahead, we could see a large opening of blue sky.

Genevieve had expressed concern this morning that it would be raining on her birthday tomorrow. So we hoped that this patch of blue sky would be over our stopping point tonight. The blue sky shape soon changed to a . . . headless angel.

The “town” of Cedarvale looked like its heyday had long passed.

I glanced over and caught sight of a red-headed turkey buzzard gorging on a dead deer next to the road.  I had read about turkey buzzards, but this was the first one that I had ever seen, so I was quite . . . well . . . thrilled, actually! (No photo however.)

We passed miles of open desert, with mountains in the distance.

We entered the town of Corona.

We were ready for a lunch spot, so we stopped at the nice wide picnic area in front of the historical marker.

The marker informed us that Corona had a population of 210 and was 6666 feet in elevation. It also indicated that the “first settlers” were Spanish ranchers in the 1850’s. (There was no mention of Native American inhabitants.) The town had became a stopping point for the stage coach and later the railroad. After the railroad was built, mining became profitable, and there once had been 300 families living here. The school had been considered one of the best in the state. Today, the trains no longer stop here, but the school is still “the heart of the community.” And the land is once again used for ranching.

Genevieve made her own sign in the dirt:

(Sigh . . . I am so lucky!)

Some other buildings in Corona:

We continued onward, past Muncy ranch.

The road ahead:

After miles of desert and a few houses here and there, this wind water pump was a visual feast!

We watched distant mountains get closer and closer.

Then we would pass them and find more distant mountains that we could watch get closer and closer.

Over a rise, the landscape abruptly changed to miles and miles of what appeared to be miniature Joshua trees. We could also see streaks of dark grey rain.

The sky changed in less than an hour:

We drove through the town of Carrizozo, which a sign proclaimed to be “Billy the Kid Country.”

The town had several painted animal sculptures in various places. Here is a yellow goat:

I noticed on my map that about 25 miles directly west of here was “Trinity Site”, which is the site of the world’s first atomic bomb. I looked in the distance where that spot would be—the sky looked like it was still weeping.

Outside of town, we passed this home:

This house displayed some creative architecture, merging a modular unit with a travel trailer:

The sky, the mountains, the grass—it was all so beautiful:

During the last 40 miles to our stopping point tonight, I interviewed the children about how the trip was going.

Both children chose the Hummer tour in Moab as their favorite experience so far.

I asked them how they felt about having to be in the RV during 5-hour drives. Genevieve said, “Well, I can entertain myself.” Sebastian said, “I don’t really like it. It’s not exciting, and we’re not really doing anything.”

Sebastian also mentioned that he really liked hiking at the Tent Rocks, and Genevieve said that she is really looking forward to seeing Nana and Granddaddy (my parents, in South Carolina). She is also excited about white water rafting in West Virginia.

I asked each child to name one thing they know now that they didn’t know at the start of our journey. Sebastian, such a wise soul, said, “Stuffing your head full of too much information makes you forget things.” So true. However, he did remember, “In the Lehman cave, the man who found it let people take a candle and write things.” Genevieve said, “The white flowers on the pepperweed plant are edible and taste like horseradish.”

Both said that they felt like the journey had just started, and that neither of them wanted to go back home at this point.  Whew!

We passed some pistachio farms close to Alamogordo.

While doing research on “roadside attractions” across the United States, I had come across several “World’s Largest . . . “ items. As we passed McGinn’s Pistachio Tree Ranch this afternoon, I was looking at the giant pistachio nut in the parking lot and thinking that it looked familiar. Then I remembered seeing a picture of it on the internet—this was it! I grabbed my camera and caught a side photo (missing the shell split with the green nut showing). Ta-daaa! I saw it, and here it is for your viewing pleasure—the World’s Largest Pistachio Sculpture:

FYI: The nut sculpture is 30 feet high. It was constructed with 5 yards of concrete and has 35 gallons of paint.

At our campground tonight, I met the owner, Ken Bonnell. I said a short phrase to Genevieve in Spanish, which started Ken talking about his childhood. Many years ago, he was raised in a neighboring town, which had a population that was 85% Mexican or Mexican-American. He said that in the first grade, the teachers lined up all of the students; those who could speak English were put in one classroom, and those who couldn’t were put in another. The children were then taught English during the year, and in second grade the children were mixed together. However, he grew up learning and speaking Spanish to his classmates. Ken is a retired banker, and he recently wrote the book, “An Apache Woman’s Story” (which I purchased but haven’t started reading).

After checking in, the children spent some time playing in the pool and on the merry-go-round.

We then went to the movies to see “Night at the Museum 2.” Here are Genevieve and Sebastian in the movie theater parking lot:

I enjoyed the movie, especially listening to Sebastian’s loud laughter in the darkness. The movie allowed my mind to go to a different space than our travels, and I came out of the movie theater feeling refreshed.

Genevieve and Sebastian each made friends with other children at the playground after dinner. Genevieve even arranged to have a playdate with her new friend, meeting at the playground at 8:00 tomorrow morning.

<< Day 12: Bandelier National Monument to Santa Fe | Day 14: White Sands National Monument >>

Back to Index Page

Back to Home Page