Framedlight

  We were going to fly back to the UK from Denver airport so we planned a slow route from Santa Fé to Denver, through Colorado and the Rockies. But when we got up to leave the Parador on the Friday morning, we found that snow had fallen quite heavily overnight as was evidenced in the car park. We were pleased that we were now in possession of a Ford 4x4 which we felt would do the trick. The route took us back over our well worn path of Highway 84, running north west past Ghost Ranch and the Pedernal  towards a town called Chama. In fact by the time we got up to Abiquiu the snow was disappearing although we could still see it falling on the Pedernal. I stopped to take a picture of the entrance to Gost Ranch as we realised we had not got one Snow was falling on the Padernal - Georgia O'Keeffe's mountain There was lots of colour in the hills as we drove west Chama is only 7 miles from the Colorado border and, according to Wikipedia has a very harsh subarctic continental climate. N

  In the afternoon we walked into central Santa Fé and went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. The museum houses a sizeable collection of her work and it was a good climax to visiting her house in Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. I will just post two pictures from this. A photo of Georgia O'Keeffe and an image from the cloak room! Next we visit the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, built 1714 - 1717 and renovated in 1967. It is a massive Romanesque Revival building built on the site of a previous church destroyed in the Pueblo Rebellion in 1680. I didn't think it was very pretty. We didn't spend any time inside the cathedral as there was a rehearsal in progress. Afterwards we wandered around the city, visited the New Mexico History Museum which was very interesting and later ate in a very popular pasta restaurant near our hotel.

  Alan had seen that there was an Audobon Centre on the outskirts of Santa Fé. This is a place where birds are protected and encouraged and wardens can give you the low down of what and where to see them. It was a very cold morning and we were then only visitors so we had some good attention from the wardens who recounted stories of their bird exploits. I took some pictures of birds near the feeders and then we had a walk around a wooded area which was very pretty but lacking in our feathered friends. Mountain Chickadee House Finch Scrub Jay Scrub Jay House Finch Dark Eyed Junco Mountain Chickadee There was a very unusual and exciting children's play area

  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-