Another side-trip was to the gorge; here the Rio Grande meanders through an area where it sometimes lies 1000 feet below the surrounding terrain. We arrived late, and I took this snap as we made our way down the switchback road to the campsite.
Took a walk at sunrise, down in the gorge...
We were going to stay a second night, but the caretaker at the site warned us that a snowstorm (same one that left the snow in earlier photos) was expected, with high winds and possibly a lot of snow. So we broke camp, and just as we headed out, all hell broke loose, with high winds and large hail. Clouds were rolling in, blanketing parts of the rim.
We braved the pelting hail to take a short hike along the rim of the gorge to examine some interesting "shield" carvings, like this one... the caretaker was nice enough to draw a little map showing their location, and she'd figured we'd like to have a look at them.
On the last afternoon in Taos, we took another trip to a different part of the gorge, farther north. This is a view from the foot trail that switches back and forth all the way down to the river, after a fun drive over a few miles of wild dirt trails. My old Tracker actually did pretty well on this little "off-road" jaunt (then took us back to the East coast!). All the way down the trail there are carved mementos in the rocks: graffiti from the 1970s, 1850s, and some much older marks were spotted. We even shared the trail briefly with a big tarantula (glad Peg didn't see it before I did!)
Our goal: a hot spring right on the edge of the river, which was so cold that even Peg wouldn't go in. But the springs were nice- not very hot, but I'll bet it'd be a nice thing to do in the wintertime. I didn't take any pics down there, as there were a few naked people, and it seemed rude to be taking pictures, despite the fact that they didn't mind being
seen naked by strangers...
But there was one young lady in particular... have some very high-res
mental pictures stored...
That's about it. The trip back was just as long and dull as the ride out, and the next weekend, I spent almost two days under the car changing that damn seal (in the parking lot; front differential has to come off; all accesories stripped off the engine; all on jack stands... ugh!). What a mess- everything was coated with a thick coat of fithy oil, mixed with that stubborn New Mexico dust.
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