So we fled the scene over the Presidents Day weekend, visiting Santa Fe and Taos.

We took the interstate down, and came back up through Taos.

Saturday morning our first stop was at the Farmer's Market, where we had a really good cinnamon roll and a bowl of atole served as a soup.

We visited one of our fave churches - more than a 'church,' actually - the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi. 

San Miguel chapel was just down the street from our digs. It's the oldest Catholic church built in the United States. Its history goes back at least as far as 1628.

We visited Museum Hill, another of our faves, this time taking in the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. Our last visit saw us in the Museum of International Folk Art, arguably The Squeeze's fave so far. The Spanish Colonial Art museum was closed for a special event, so we missed that one this trip.

No visit to Santa Fe is complete without a bit of face-stuffing. We hit Tomasita's for a late lunch on Saturday, snuffling their most excellent chicken tacos and a veggie burrito. The Squeeze thought the veggie burrito was exceptionally well done, with grilled onion, peppers, squash, and refried beans. A lot of these highly touted eateries are overblown in reputation; Tomasita's always lives up to their billing. They also have a range of excellent margaritas. The building provides a great ambience as well.

Speaking of overblown ... Cafe Pasqual's falls into that category, despite one of the best moles we have ever tasted. Perhaps the best. However ... their carne asada was really bland, though it came with a very good guac. Add to that, that diners are packed in like sardines, and the 'Pasqual experience' comes out lacking a good deal.

The Shed's another hot spot. With a 2.5 hour wait for dinner we passed on that, going instead for a margarita, a rather decent El Cumbre Amber draft, and a bowl of chips and salsa. Excellent ambience with a boistrous dinner crowd, good service, and a fun time ... though the 'Sweet Heat' margarita was a bit on the weak side it was nonetheless quite good, with a jalapeno-salted rim that added a bit of a kick.

Given that The Squeeze is a shameless chocoholic and more than a bit of a chocolate snob, no visit to Santa Fe is complete without a stop at Kakawa Chocolates, where we slurped and snuffled our way through a couple of Jeffersonians. 

And then we stopped by Miriam's Well School of Weaving, where The Squeeze lost her mind completely, albeit understandably given the range of fine yarns in stock.

On the way back, we stopped in Taos for a mid-morning breakfast. We tried Michael's despite it being low on our list of eateries. I've always found their Mexican dishes entirely too bland and lacking in imagination. With a 40 minute wait time, we opted for elseplace, with The Squeeze pointing out a little hole-in-the-wall outfit just south of the square on the main drag. Jalapeno's turned out to be a gem, with a chorizo breakfast burrito that far surpassed anything Michael's ever dreamed of turning out. The Squeeze went for a carne asada, which was also quite good. The green chile sauce on these dishes is perhaps one of the best we have ever snuffled.

With that, we hied for home, up through San Luis and Fort Garland and over La Veta Pass, pushed along by a gale-force tail wind that did wonders for gas mileage.

A good time was had by all.

 Back in October we were at John Martin for a simple overnighter. It was most pleasant. When we were here the first time, back in the early eighties, we had a popup camper and spent quite a few weekends at the Hasty campground. Despite lacking the drama of the mountains, it is really quite a nice little campground.

November 2022

 So we hied off to John Martin for an overnighter, the idea being to lurk in the far corner of the campground and watch the Taurids. Even with a nearly full moon, the Taurids promised to be spectacular. They are known for a high rate of fireballs and bolides. Despite the nearly full moon, we were hoping for a bit of astronomical excitement.

Alas, it was cloudy.

The Taurids kind of drag out for a few weeks so maybe one night this week ...

OTOH, we had a leisurely dinner of grilled Angus burgers, Leece's beans and rice from the Backpacker Chef's recipe, a good selection of fresh veggies, all to the backdrop of geese and ducks having a merry old time over on Hasty Lake. We saw several large flocks of Canada geese and snow geese, but could not get close enough to the ducks for ID.

This morning was brisk but not cold; it was OK for shorts, in fact, at least out in the sun. And there was plenty of sun, for the morning dawned bright and blue.

After an equally leisurely breakfast of iron skillet bacon and  very gently over easy eggs with crunchy edges - very hot bacon fat gives the very best dippy eggs - and iron skillet-baked biscuits, we also very leisurely packed up for home.

There were only eight other campers in the entire Hasty campground. It was most pleasant.

Medano Pass 2021

 We made our annual trek to the Dunes and the Medano Pass Primitive Road a bit later this year.

The aspens were in fine form; we have rarely seen them 'ablaze' like they were this trip. The road was in fairly decent shape till the upper third, where there were some deeply rutted areas due to heavy rains earlier this year. Rangers or other travelers had cut some blowdown aspen logs to fill in the deeper holes, which made getting over them a lot easier.

We lunched just below the crest of the pass, at about 9900 feet MSL. It was cool but a light jacket was all we needed.

The sand down by the dunes was in good shape because of light rains the day before. 

We stopped at the San Luis Lakes SWA on the way back to Fort Garland. The reservoir, like most of the ponds on the eastern plains, was almost dried up. 

The next morning on the way back to The Holy Land, we bypassed the new pass for a trip over the old one. The burned area from the fire a few years ago is recovering nicely, with a lot of young aspens and gambel oak filling in.

At the turnoff from US 160 up to the dunes, for our obligatory shot with Blanca Peak. Sadly, Blanca was covered with clouds.

We lunched here in a dispersed camping site. Most of the dispersed sites were vacant.

Here's an easy stretch of the road, with aspens closing in. Up a bit higher, the aspens had taken on a flaming orange tint.

Leece white-knuckles it a bit, passing over one of the rougher spots.

This is from the San Luis Lakes SWA. Blanca is in the far background. The yellow bushes are rabbit brush.

Mesa Verde and Santa Fe

The first week of September we hied off to Mesa Verde, intending to encamp and explore for several days. Mesa Verde is one of our fave sites, not so much for the cliff dwellings, which are of course fascinating on their own, but for the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum, which has a fine collection of contemporary fiber arts. Sadly, it has been closed through the pandemic, and remains so until further notice.

A winter storm moved in, cutting our visit short. We packed up and headed south for Albuquerque, spending one night there before moving on to Santa Fe, where we slurped high class chocolate, visited Museum Hill, and snuffled some good eats.

The campground is nicely done. Showers are available down the hill at the ranger station.

Smoke from the wildfires obscured a lot. It was not nearly as clear as in visits past.

Cordova Pass and Apishipa SWA

 In June 2020 we took a turn down through La Veta and over Cordova Pass. On the way home, we detoured off CO 10 to visit the Apishipa State Wildlife Area, which is some twenty miles south of the highway on the plains east of Walsenburg.

Leece's most excellent late summer trip

We took a few days off in late August, and went over to the Million Dollar Highway area by way of Wolf Creek Pass, returning via Gunnison and Monarch. We camped north of Durango.

Wolf Creek Pass

A sumptuous breakfast near Andrews Lake, a small, high alpine lake just south of Molas Pass.

We hiked the trail around Andrews Lake. This is Engineer Mountain, from the north side of the lake.

There were still a lot of wildflowers out and about. This is at the top of Coalbank Pass.

On the way to Animas Forks.

The cut through the avalanche area south of Animas Forks. The local folk told us the snow was over 100 feet deep at the end of winter.

Just before Animas Forks.

 Near Red Mountain

Red Mountain

We also stopped briefly at Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP. It had been three or four years since we were last here.