Southwest Road Trip (there's a little fishing)

[ness]

With us fully-vaccinated and things opening up, we quickly put together a trip to the southwest part of the country last month. 

We had tickets for the Symphony in the Flint Hills Saturday the 12th and decided to leave from there. Pretty cool event with the Kansas City Symphony out in the prairie. Classical music for the most part but everyone would know a few like the theme from Magnificent Seven, Hoedown (from the beef commercials) and Home on the Range at sunset. This year's event was a south of Council Grove, KS:

Spent the night in Manhattan, KS then headed out, roughly following the Santa Fe Trail southwest on Highway 56 toward Taos, NM. Pretty dull drive for most of its length, but when we got into the Sangre De Cristo mountains the scenery improved dramatically, especially as we drove through the Cimarron Canyon in NE New Mexico.

Taos is a pretty cool town but very economically depressed outside the main historic/tourist district. We had really wanted to see the Taos Pueblo, which has been inhabited by the Puebloen people since the early 1000s, but it was currently closed to the public. We learned many of the native-American sites, stores, etc. were closed as they had been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. This guy was very informative and an extremely talented artist with a gallery in the plaza:

(sorry about the boobs @Phil Lilley  )

We spent the day there then headed south to Santa Fe.

So, we all know about the Santa Fe Trail but I didn't really appreciate the history of Santa Fe until this trip. The area has been occupied by native Americans for millennia, but the Spanish arrived in the late 1500s looking for gold. Santa Fe was founded in 1610, ten years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. The Santa Fe Trail came 210 years later in 1821 for trade between Mexico and the US. 

Very cool town that is centered on the historic Santa Fe Plaza. We hired a lady to give us a walking tour of the historic district focused on the history and architecture of the town. It was worth every penny. In the early 1900s, city leaders enacted strict preservation rules so the city would retain its unique architecture and culture. Everything is adobe or something pretty close. The highest building in the city is a church, and nothing can be over a few stories tall. The state capital is there, but there's no dome -- just a series of buildings that are largely hidden by trees.

We went to Bandelier National Monument one afternoon. Very cool place that was occupied by Puebloan people for millennia:

If you made it this far, here comes the fishing part. We hired a guide who took us to a string of lakes east of Santa Fe where he said there was an excellent damsel fly hatch each morning. Kathy's pretty new to fly fishing, so I thought this sounded perfect: no trees or current to deal with. Just figure out a fish's trajectory and drop a fly in its path. Or not. It was crazy -- fish rising everywhere, with many of them exploding out of the water. We each caught several with my best around 18 inches. She caught a really nice one that was around that I think:

So, you know how sometimes things don't go as planned, even on a carefully planned trip? Well, after we got this all set up my daughter tells me she has scheduled a party for her engagement. She got engaged in November, but had postponed doing anything due to some pretty major health issues. So, I flew out of Albuquerque Friday morning, went to the party in KC Friday evening, and flew back to ABQ on Saturday morning. Kathy checked out of the B&B, picked me up and we drove to the Grand Canyon. 

More to come...

 

 

 

[BilletHead]

7 minutes ago, ness said:

With us fully-vaccinated and things opening up, we quickly put together a trip to the southwest part of the country last month. 

We had tickets for the Symphony in the Flint Hills Saturday the 12th and decided to leave from there. Pretty cool event with the Kansas City Symphony out in the prairie. Classical music for the most part but everyone would know a few like the theme from Magnificent Seven, Hoedown (from the beef commercials) and Home on the Range at sunset. This year's event was a south of Council Grove, KS:

Spent the night in Manhattan, KS then headed out, roughly following the Santa Fe Trail southwest on Highway 56 toward Taos, NM. Pretty dull drive for most of its length, but when we got into the Sangre De Cristo mountains the scenery improved dramatically, especially as we drove through the Cimarron Canyon in NE New Mexico.

Taos is a pretty cool town but very economically depressed outside the main historic/tourist district. We had really wanted to see the Taos Pueblo, which has been inhabited by the Puebloen people since the early 1000s, but it was currently closed to the public. We learned many of the native-American sites, stores, etc. were closed as they had been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. This guy was very informative and an extremely talented artist with a gallery in the plaza:

(sorry about the boobs @Phil Lilley  )

We spent the day there then headed south to Santa Fe.

So, we all know about the Santa Fe Trail but I didn't really appreciate the history of Santa Fe until this trip. The area has been occupied by native Americans for millennia, but the Spanish arrived in the late 1500s looking for gold. Santa Fe was founded in 1610, ten years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. The Santa Fe Trail came 210 years later in 1821 for trade between Mexico and the US. 

Very cool town that is centered on the historic Santa Fe Plaza. We hired a lady to give us a walking tour of the historic district focused on the history and architecture of the town. It was worth every penny. In the early 1900s, city leaders enacted strict preservation rules so the city would retain its unique architecture and culture. Everything is adobe or something pretty close. The highest building in the city is a church, and nothing can be over a few stories tall. The state capital is there, but there's no dome -- just a series of buildings that are largely hidden by trees.

We went to Bandelier National Monument one afternoon. Very cool place that was occupied by Puebloan people for millennia:

If you made it this far, here comes the fishing part. We hired a guide who took us to a string of alpine lakes east of Santa Fe where he said there was an excellent damsel fly hatch each morning. Kathy's pretty new to fly fishing, so I thought this sounded perfect: no trees or current to deal with. Just figure out a fish's trajectory and drop a fly in its path. Or not. It was crazy -- fish rising everywhere, with many of them exploding out of the water. We each caught several with my best around 18 inches. She caught a really nice one that was around that I think:

So, you know how sometimes things don't go as planned, even on a carefully planned trip? Well, after we got this all set up my daughter tells me she has scheduled a party for her engagement. She got engaged in November, but had postponed doing anything due to some pretty major health issues. So, I flew out of Albuquerque Friday morning, went to the party in KC Friday evening, and flew back to ABQ on Saturday morning. Kathy checked out of the B&B, picked me up and we drove to the Grand Canyon. 

More to come...

 

 

 

  Oh boy nice trip report with details. The kind I like and more to come. Thanks friend.

[ness]

The Canyon is awe-inspiring, but unless you're planning to hike or ride down into it, it's not somewhere you want to spend several days. We looked into doing the mule rides, but apparently you've got to book those more than a few weeks in advance . A few sunrise/sunset photos from the Canyon:

We managed to worm our way into the El Tovar Hotel for lunch the last day. Cool place that was built in 1905 on the South Rim. It was a Harvey House hotel that you got to by railroad in those days. 

After a couple days there, it was off to CO

 

[Johnsfolly]

Sounds like a great trip so far @ness. Can't wait to hear more!

[ness]

We did a drive up to Monument Valley on the AZ/UT border on our way to the last stop in CO. We had seen that Monument Valley was closed, but I figured you could see stuff because it's so huge. Wrong. As close as we could get to The Mittens:

For such a beautiful place, this was far, far too common:

But, if you pick your spot, you can still get a good shot:

Where Forrest got tired:

[ness]

We wanted to go to Estes Park/RMNP as our last stop -- not just because it's one of our favorite places on the planet but because a good friend and former work colleague lives there now. I was particularly interested to see the fire damage. But, as we got to doing the math it was just going to be too long of a drive so we opted for Snowmass. It's a ski town not far from Aspen and we were able to find a nice, reasonably-priced ski condo in the village. We had been in hotel and B&Bs, so we'd been eating out a LOT. We were both tired of that, and so we cooked simple meals there. 

We did some hikes around that area. I popped for a license and carried my fly rod, but no fishing to speak of. We took a shuttle bus up to see Maroon Bells. Spectacular!

We didn't have much else planned for there, so when we heard there was a rodeo that night we decided to go. We learned they do them every Wednesday night there, and it's not a really competitive rodeo but more of a family fun night. Mutton busting, about 200 kids chasing a handful of calves with ribbons on their tails, burro races, etc. Then regular guys doing calf roping. It would be the local dentist, some teenager, whoever. Not a single calf was tackled, and only a couple were even roped. They had some barrel racing, a couple guys ride bucking broncs, and a few ride the bull too. Not the prime livestock either -- one of the bulls did a face plant. 

She took this turn a tad wide -- note lack of barrel:

I was pretty tired of driving, and not looking forward to a 12-hour drive home, so we scheduled a stop in beautiful Hays, KS.

 

[ness]

Since we had a shorter drive, we decided to make a couple stops along the way. Way out in western KS south of Quinter is Castle Rock. We pheasant hunted out of Quinter for many years, but I hadn't been back to see Castle Rock in more than 10. It's about 10 miles south of I-70. You can flake off pieces with your fingernail, so I'm kinda surprised it's lasted this long. I did read that the tallest portion broke off in 2001:

Just east of Hays, in Victoria, is what's known as the Cathedral of the Plains. It's a beautiful Catholic church just off the highway. If you're buzzing down I-70, take a few minutes and check it out. The doors are always unlocked:

And, a shot I just like from near there:

The end.

 

 

 

[BilletHead]

21 minutes ago, ness said:

Since we had a shorter drive, we decided to make a couple stops along the way. Way out in western KS south of Quinter is Castle Rock. We pheasant hunted out of Quinter for many years, but I hadn't been back to see Castle Rock in more than 10. It's about 10 miles south of I-70. You can flake off pieces with your fingernail, so I'm kinda surprised it's lasted this long. I did read that the tallest portion broke off in 2001:

Just east of Hays, in Victoria, is what's known as the Cathedral of the Plains. It's a beautiful Catholic church just off the highway. If you're buzzing down I-70, take a few minutes and check it out. The doors are always unlocked:

And, a shot I just like from near there:

The end.

 

 

 

                        Great pictures!

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, ness said:

 

For such a beautiful place, this was far, far too common:

Wondered if you drove through the closed road signs and then had a beer with Rusty😅

[Mitch f]

I have to check out that Catholic Church ⛪️. Great pics