Sunday, July 8

Sunday, July 8:  Uptop to Taos and Santa Fe, NM

We left Uptop reluctantly at 10:00, after a huge breakfast and much enjoyable conversation with Sam and Deb, heading down the gravel road to Route 160 and Fort Garland.

From there it was about a 2 hour, 100 mile drive to Taos, through beautiful country with a mountain range on either side. We were in the Carson National Forest, on the broad rift valley between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the east and the San Juan Mountains on the west. Sagebrush and stunted grass covered the plains. Much of it was posted as “open range,” with signs warning motorists to watch for wild horses and elk. We saw two bands of horses, but no elk.

On the Road to Santa Fe

We ate lunch at the Bent Street Café and Deli. Great veggie sandwiches and a lovely woman playing soft guitar music, mostly to an enchanted little girl at the table next to ours. Throngs of tourists. Many awful galleries and schlock shops but two quite nice galleries too.
We found ice cream cones at the Chocolate Shop, and beat our retreat from busy Taos at about 4:00, Joy driving (white-knuckled and unhappy) through gorgeous scenery with the Rio Grande on one side, towering mountains on the other, and angry drivers tailgating her as we swooped around curves and plummeted down steep grades. I relieved her at the wheel, but we were soon down on the level and approaching Santa Fe, through a landscape dominated by Indian casinos.

We threaded our way through the heart of old Santa Fe, following Carmen’s instructions, and arrived at about 6:00 at Nancy Scanlan’s gorgeous house on Wilderness Way, in the hills southeast of the city. 95 miles from Taos. 

Our Home Away from Home