Happy Indigenous Peoples Day. We are camped on a mesa overlooking red rock vistas, piñon-dotted tawny hills, and Abiquiú Lake. The place is intoxicating for its beauty, indigenous heritage, and, as a magnet for creatives. The Mountain Bluebirds are here in flocks, feasting on juniper berries.
Join me as I recall the past week’s adventures on the road.
We left our mesa perch October 6 at Ridgway State Park, saying adios to a pair of friendly ladies at the park’s visitor center. Kelly told us of her search for home that took her to many national parks, until she climbed Mt. Sneffels, the highest peak in the Cimarron/Mt. Sneffels range at 14,158 feet. She’s lived in the area since 2012.
Linda and Kelly at the Ridgway State Park Visitor Center, and its view of the Cimarron Range, made us feel welcome
Next stop: Mesa Verde National Park, where we camped below our favorite mesa at site #381, and excellently located at the base of the restroom trail. Soon after we pulled in, our campground neighbor rode in on her E-bike. She asked where we were from, as I asked her the same question at the same time. When I replied Washington state, she asked, “Are you waiting for Gordy?” Turns out she is Holly Rankin, an adventurous woman who loves water sports and playing pickle ball with our friend Gordy Blair, who lives nearby in Mancos CO. Gordy joined us on the other side of our campsite the next day.
On our first morning there, Bill and I drove to the Mesa Verde Museum, designed by Jesse Nussbaum, an archaeologist and past park superintendent. Mesa Verde National Park is one of the earliest national parks to be created. President Teddy Roosevelt dedicated it in 1906 to honor the ancestral Puebloans, who lived in the area from 550 to 1300 AD, and, Mesa Verde is one of the first national parks to preserve Native American culture. The museum is one of the oldest buildings in the National Park Service, built of adobe between 1922-25. Traditional art, pottery, weavings and basketry from the people who lived in cliff dwellings up until the 1200’s are on display. An excellent documentary–Footprints of our Ancestors–narrated by Pueblo flutist Robert Mirabel–talks of Mesa Verde’s ancestors living nearby, and not ‘disappeared’ as originally thought. During its peak time, Mesa Verde hosted an estimated population of 20,000+.
With the rising heat we decided to walk a 2-plus mile loop along the strenuous 7,000 foot elevation Petroglyph Point trail.
However, I started feeling dizzy about half a mile in. We sat down in the shade of the cliffs while I drank water and ate some protein. Because I felt so strangely, we decided to head back. However soon after climbing a steep set of stairs leading into a rock crevice, I told Bill I felt badly. My heart beat wildly, I was so dizzy I could not see. Bill guided me to sit on the ground, where I felt a loss of consciousness for a few minutes. After resting and drinking water, I felt shaky, but my senses had returned. Warning signs at the trail tell of dehydration, heat exhaustion and altitude sickness. I reasoned, I had become acclimated to high altitude, having hiked at 10,000 feet the past week. Yet it was apparently dehydration and heat that caused my symptoms.
We learned that evening that Holly experienced similar symptoms on her hike up to Park Point, above our camp. She rested often and made it to the mesa overlook, but the experience shook her as it did me. Bill and I rescued a woman walking up the road that afternoon from camp, saying she was suffering from heat exhaustion and would give us $100 if we drove her up to the camp visitors’ center. Her husband was away on a tour. I climbed in the back seat on top of my suitcase and we put her in the front seat, with the A/C on high, and drove her to the camp store. We declined her offer of cash, glad to help. That night we enjoyed tacos with Holly and Gordy, and campfire with their friends Jamie and Terri. Lesson for the day? Hike early, drink plenty of water and eat protein, and salty snacks to replenish lost electrolytes.
The following morning Bill, Gordy and I started out earlier in the day to hike Park Point, the mesa behind our campsite. We took it slow, resting in the shade. When we made it to the top overlook, we were elated. The creme de la creme were a pair of Golden Eagles and hawks circling overhead.
We enjoyed conversation round the fire with our ‘brother’ Gordy. He left that evening as we were headed out early the next morning to reach our Abiquiu Lake campground. Stopping in Durango for breakfast at Durango Natural Foods Co-op, shopping, a swim at the aquatic center and having our watch batteries replaced at Jamie’s Fine Jewelry Shop–Gordy’s friend–we drove along Hwy 160 to Hwy 64 and Hwy 84 to Riana Campground at Abiquiu Dam.
Arriving in the evening of Oct. 10, we said hello to Langley friends Rob Harris and Leslie Boies, who are on their road trip, and Anne Galer, a many-storied woman who we met last year at this campground.
The following morning Rob, Leslie, Bill and I drove to nearby Ghost Ranch, former home of artist Georgia O’Keefe. She was born in 1887 in Wisconsin and lived to nearly 100. Georgia lived in Abiquiu from 1943 until her death in 1986. We climbed the trail below Chimney Rock, enjoying the vistas and camaraderie. We met Anne for lunch later at the center’s cafeteria.
The evening of October 11 is one that will be forever tattooed in our memory. Rob and Leslie invited their Abiquiu friends Chuck Banner and his wife Lauren, a talented jewelry maker and grower of delicious veggies, for a potluck and evening campfire. Chuck is a long-time political activist and film maker, who, today is at Alcatraz Island filming a Sunrise Gathering, commemorating the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island by American Indians who wished to let the world know about the tribes’ long-time history of discrimination, treaty violations and mistreatment. Anne Galer, who among other things, worked with the Foreign Service, has contributed to preservation work of the Moque Morada, collects Navajo rugs, and runs her family’s farm in Iowa.
First, the potluck dinner brought out a bonhomie around the table. Next, we witnessed the sunset vision of a rare comet, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, discovered in 2023, and one which visits Earth’s orbit every 80,000 years.
Sitting around the fire, listening to Rob and Chuck playing their guitars, it was during their rendition of Neil Young’s Cinammon Girl, that Bill pointed to the western horizon, noticing the pinkening sky. We were experiencing an aurora, caused by peaking solar flares. While our eyes could not capture the light, our iPhones did, and we were like little kids, taking photos and enraptured in the awe of the night sky lights.
The following morning, Lauren, Rob and Leslie joined us in the back seat of Beatrix our Toyota, for a journey to the flanks of Cerro Pedernal, along NFS road #100. We stopped at a colorful canyon with gray mushroom-shaped mesas over yellow and pink-tan sandstone. We drove up a ways–with the back seat gang asking when we’d be arriving–to a meadow and grove of aspens. We lunched and stretched out.
That evening we enjoyed another potluck dinner, campfire music, and story telling. We viewed the comet once again. The night sky was lit by stars.
The following morning, Saturday Oct. 12, we said our goodbyes to Rob and Leslie as they left for Santa Fe. Bill and I visited a number of artisans and local performances for the 30th Abiquiu Studio Tour.
We breakfasted at Cafe Sierra Negra, recommended by Lauren and Chuck. The building, staff, food and interior art all added to filling our sensual cup. Ron Milhoan’s art graced the walls. My chili rellaño in red sauce? Spicy and made with love.
We drove south on Hwy 84 to NM 554 and then to Hwy 142 where we spent a good amount of time admiring the art of Jaye Burros at her home studio, Raven in the Sun Gallery.
Then it was time to visit Sharon Garcia, our librarian friend who we see each year at the El Pueblo de Abiquiú Library and Cultural Center. According to the Abiquiu Art tour brochure, the center “…strives to impact lives through the power of community, cultural traditions, imagination, and collaboration. As Abiquiu’s primary source for educational, historical and cultural information, we work to inspire and cultivate learning, advance knowledge, and nurture and strengthen our far reaching community.”
New Mexico’s rural libraries are woefully underfunded. To support them, a New Mexico PBS documentary was made in 2023, Books on the Backroads, and is available for viewing on PBS. In addition to a book sale, we watched a performance of the local Pueblo dancers.
We walked up a dusty road to visit Charles Carrillo’s Santos of New Mexico.
His work is internationally known and beyond our price range. However, Bill found bliss on the front porch, with Boxed Bakery’s homemade peach pies and raisin-apple empanada. Meanwhile, I met with Colleen Valderrana, a retired nurse who moved to her heart’s home in Abiquiu last February. We shared our impressions of the place.
Finally, we visited The Barn, behind Bode’s General Store, and met another couple of artists whose work we oohed and aahed.
That night, we lit another campfire. Anne joined us. After sunset, we were able to view the comet that will not return for 80,000 years. Wonder what the world will be like then?
And, finally, we embrace our campground hosts, Al and Cyndy Warnier. Cyndy is a chaplain, and also plays keyboards for the Valley View United Methodist Church in nearby Español. We attended her community’s service, led by the friendly and talented singer/guitarist Russ Hall. The choir dedicated its song, ‘Jesus Stand By Me,’ to a 47-year-old man who took his life at Abiquiu Lake the past year. Very moving. The church community is dedicated to serving others and collected a whole field of pumpkins as a fundraiser to feed local kids who go without meals on the weekends. They receive federally funded meals at school.
Tomorrow we leave for Taos. Adios, friends and family from Bajada Bill and Cactus Kate