My first day in New Mexico, I visited Pecos National Historical Park, Fort Union National Monument, the tourist town of Taos, and Santuario de Chimayó. The photos below are of Pecos National Monument and Fort Union National Monument. Pecos is just about ten miles down the road from Glorieta, my base of operations. It’s the site of old Native American ruins, and the Spanish built a mission church there. The photo of Pecos shows the remains of the church. After I left Pecos, I drove up I-25 north about 70 miles (through Las Vegas- apparently, the real one) to Fort Union National Monument. The monument has the ruins of three old Fort Unions- the second of which is the most interesting. Should you visit either monument, you’ll find the park rangers are incredibly nice… make sure to talk to them. One $3 ticket gets you into both monuments for a week.
I left Fort Union for Taos around 1PM, and even though I nearly ran out of gas in a small pueblo on a back road that took me through the most incredible scenery, I arrived by 3:00. Over the course of the 85 mile journey, I saw a herd of antelope (or some deer-like animals). For me, Taos was a bust. I didn’t manage to see anything worth photographing, one of the suggested sites was closed, and the whole town was really congested.
I departed knowing that I only had a couple hours of daylight left (sunset by 4:45 PM) and rushing 50 miles south to Chimayó, I managed to arrive just before the Santuario de Chimayó closed. This was definitely one of the coolest places I visited in New Mexico. My photos of El Santuario have been added to the flickr group, which has some great shots. Because someone was in the sanctuary praying, I didn’t take any photos inside, but the flickr group has some.
That night I stopped in Santa Fe to walk around a bit, and ended up looking for dinner downtown. I didn’t find anything that looked interesting, so I took some friends up on a hint and grabbed a burger from Bobcat Bite, hidden off I-25 between Santa Fe and Glorieta. Apparently the place is well known… and is the home of New Mexico’s best burger. If you’re in the area, you have to eat there.