Framedlight

  The High Road to Santa Fé from Taos takes you past the Sangre de Cristo Mountains through several tiny communities. It is 105 miles between the centres of the two towns. We were not in so much of a hurry, driving back to Santa Fé, as when we had set out for Taos so we made more stops on the return journey. From the outset the scenery is pretty fantastic. Our first stop was Peñasco, a small farming community, with its Catholic Church of San Antonio and it's right wing views. There is certainly a lot of money behind the anti-abortion rhetoric in the US which is operating a viscous vendetta against women. The next stop was Las Trampas. Here the church of San José de Gracia was much older, built between 1760 and 1776. Unfortunately it was shut as it contains wall paintings in the nave which would have been worth seeing. The village once had defensive walls around it to protect the Spanish fromNative American raids but now it all looks a little run down. Our last stop was a large lay-