Day 12, Saturday, June 13th - Around Taos

Any search plans we had for today were washed out.  Yep, really nice thunderstorms on mountain, mesa & canyon.  However, it didn't ruin our day.  After an American style breakfast at Michael's, we spent some time walking around the Plaza marveling at the Farmers' Market that took 3 sides of it.  Unlike Warrensburg, most of the vendors were selling obviously fresh vegetables of all sorts, with a few soap vendors and almost no other crafters.  Of course, it's a bigger market, even if the quartet of musicians was playing bluegrass.

We then headed off to the Martinez Hacienda, a museum in a restored ca 1800 adobe farmstead of a well-to-do farmer and merchant.  It's an interesting combination of lovingly restored rooms with period furnishings & equipment, supplemented by actual demonstrations of weaving, plus use by a quilt guild.  One of the rooms had a collection of santos & retablos, religious carvings often found in the Hispanic community here.

Kitchen view at the Hacienda

Wire sculpture of a donkey, mascot of the Haciendas

After an excellent lunch at Casa de Valdez (best meal so far) in Ranchos de Taos, we headed north to Questa, keeping a watchful eye on the rain over the mountains to east at west.  Heading north out of Questa, we turned off to the Rio Grande Wild Rivers Rec area.  Storms getting closer, but we pressed on after some photo stops.  Just a little bit further... too far, the rain & pea sized hail swept over us, as we made our way back on a curvy road not far from a 1000 ft drop.  Got out of the hail, but were in and out of rain all the way to the motel. 

Bunny cloud?

After the rain abated, we took a trip across the Taos High Bridge over the Rio Grande Gorge.  Sandra took pictures of the gorge; across the road a flock of Bighorn sheep grazed & lazed, adding something to the scene.

It turned out that the storms were over, at least for the day, so we had supper at the very convenient El Taoseno.  Today ended up about 125 miles.  Tomorrow, depending on weather, we may just take the Enchanted Circle thru Eagle's Nest, Red River & Questa.