Framedlight

  We left the house in Abiquiu in the morning and drove to Albuquerque to get rid of the odious van. Getting a taxi to the airport we picked up a rather nice and comfortable Ford 4x4 which we thought might be appropriate in the now rather chilly weather. As you can see it was a very bright and clear day so we took the scenic route to Taos through the Sangre de Cristo mountains and passed through the little town of Chimayó. Here we discovered El Sanctuario de Chimayó, a little church which has become a shrine and place of pilgrimage. During Holy Week thousands of pilgrims arrive, some of whom come to be cured, so the place is known as the Lourdes of North America. There is a pilgrim's walk from Santa Fé which many undertake carrying crosses. Native Americans regarded Chimayó as a sacred place and in 1810, before the church was built, a local priest found a crucifix buried in the soil after seeing mysterious lights in the hills. He took the crucifix to Santa Fé but it miraculously di...

  We had lunch by Abiquiu Lake and then on a whim, as we liked the name, decided to drive up the road to a place called Coyote. There was little there apart from a rather nice adobe church which was closed and a small settlement. On the way back to the main Highway 84 we passed yet another cemetery which required an exploration. We found the grave of a lady who had died at the venerable age of 106 years. She had been postmaster of Youngsville for 30 years and also helped as a midwife and sold Avon products. Not all of the graves were grand Finally we headed back to Abiquiu and carried on the search for Georgia O'Keeffe's 'white place' taking a back road which ran closer to it. We unfortunately we still could not really see it but the cottonwoods were lovely and we came across the desiccated body of a bob cat! Then it was back on the road past the river to the house

  We had noticed a rough path up into the hills a little bit east of Ghost Ranch. Most of the land was fenced off so this seemed the best place to explore from. It was not so much a footpath but a track following an arroyo or dry stream. It was pretty rough going but we persisted and really enjoyed the scenery and the solitude. The sun was out and the sky was perfectly blue although in the shade there was still some persistent snow on the ground. We climbed up the stream going through narrow gullies until we reached the top of the hill and the watershed. Here we could gaze across at the view of blue mountains beyond. View from the top to the distant mountains Reflection in the parked van