Day 26, 25, and 24: Vallecito, Co, Taos, and Red River, New Mexico

Day 26:  Thurs, 7/7:  Red River, NM

In the morning, Sarah wasn’t feeling well, so we let her sleep in and Sam and Andrea walked into town.  We saw a coyote in predation mode hunting prairie dogs in a meadow about 50 yards from us.  We loved watching him for about 15 minutes as he’d stalk, stand super still and then multiple times jump using all 4 legs high in the air to pounce on the critters.  Then we went back to the campsite and got the kids ready to ride our bikes back into town.  We rode along a small paved path along the pretty Red River to the Red River Ski Area.  We all had fun riding inner tubes down a small track, where you spin around as you go.  It was great—especially when the sprinklers would spray us.  Then Sam, Sarah, and Ryan did the ropes course, which was pretty challenging, but lots of fun.  It ends with a zipline and then a repel after stepping off the drop tower.  Sam and Ryan then rode the Pioneer Express, which was like a zipline where you are sitting.  After a late lunch, we then had a blast riding go-carts.  Sarah was really excited because she got to drive hers all by herself, and they were fast!  Finally, we went to Frye’s Old Town Trading Post to see an old-west shoot-out.  It was SOOOO bad.  Cheesy, bad plot, and kind of painful.  But it was part of the fun experience being here so we liked it anyway ;).  We all had a fun day and were tired out by the time we biked back about 2 miles back to our campground.

Andrea on tube with sprinkler spraying her :).

Sam on Advanced ropes course

Sarah and Ryan about to tube!

Sarah on advanced ropes course.

Cute Red River is described as a combination of "German Peasant architecture meets the old west."  Ski area in background.  We forgot to take a picture of the town itself--oops.

Cheesy old west shootout in downtown Red River, NM near Taos, NM

Day 25:  Wed, 7/6:  Taos and Red River, NM

We woke up and drove along the Enchanted Loop, which is a scenic drive between Red River and Taos.  It is a nice ponderosa pine forest with good views.  As soon as we were in the vicinity of Taos, we started noticing adobe-style structures everywhere.  It was really neat.  Houses, banks, and even McDonalds all had that classic adobe style.  We first visited San Francisco of Asis church, which was built in 1815.  It is really beautiful, with the adobe-style on the outside and Hispanic Catholic decorations inside.  Definitely worth visiting.  We had lunch at Orlando’s which had really good New Mexico specialties, and we enjoyed trying several different dishes.  We then went to Taos Pueblo, which is a historic town in which Native Pueblo people still live and perform ceremonies dating back to before 1450.  It is the longest, continual habituated structure in North America.  We took a tour and really enjoyed learning about the traditions of the native people as well as how they live today.  Then we went to Taos Plaza, where we went into shops looking for souvenirs, enjoyed the adobe architecture, and had some ice cream.  Back at Red River in the evening, we picked up the bikes that we had left at the bike shop for some servicing, and we were surprised to find that they charged us only for the parts plus $5 worth of labor.  We’ve never been charged $5 for labor in California, so Sam told the guy to keep the $5 change from a $20 bill--the guy was really appreciative.  Things are different in small towns!  Back at our campground, the kids rode their bikes and saw 8 deer in our campground.  We really like it here! 

Taos Pueblo--the longest, continuously inhabited structure in North America (pre-1450)

San Francisco de Asis Church, Taos, NM

Taos Pueblo y familia 

We loved the ladders, chills and painted doors all over NM.

  

Orno, kiva, ladders and adobe multi-story buildings in Taos Pueblo, NM

Storefront in Taos Plaza, NM

Even the McDonalds had this adobe-style architecture in Taos :)!

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Day 24:  Tues, 7/5:  Drive from Vallecito, through Pagosa Springs, CO to Red River near Taos, New Mexico

Today was a leisurely morning.  After breakfast, we took out our 5-man inflatable boat and our motor and rode about 1/3 across the beautiful lake.  We had fun telling jokes and being silly and trading off being “captain” piloting the boat.  It was very scenic and relaxing.  We then packed up the motorhome and started our 5 hour drive to Red River, New Mexico—about 40 minutes Northwest of Taos, NM.  Once we crossed into New Mexico, the kids were excited that they have now been to 14 US states:  CA, NV, OR, WA, ID, MT, WY, UT, CO, AZ, SD, NE, HI, and now NM.  About 4 miles past Chama, NM, we got a flat tire on the rear driver side.  So we drove the RV back to tiny Chama (about 15-20 MPH), and limped into a Chevron to change the tire.  While they were changing it, Andrea went to the grocery store and replenished our food supply while Sam, Sarah, and Ryan took out the volleyball and played “Horse” at a local basketball hoop.  After it was fixed, we drove through beautiful northern New Mexico at over 10,500 feet for a while.  We crossed the bridge over the spectacular Rio Grande Gorge with phenomenal views of the river and sheer 300+ ft. canyon walls.  We then arrived at the cute, fun ski town of Red River near Taos, NM.  We are backed up against the small Red River in a large, pretty RV park called Road Runner RV Resort.  It is pretty.  We arrived at 8:30 pm due to the flat tire and grilled the huge trout Ryan caught the day before.  It tasted so good and we all ate well.  We didn’t go to bed until around 11:30.  We are very fortunate the flat tire occurred very near a town with a tire repair shop.  Whew!

Vallecito--this was our favorite part of the river we would kayak and stand-up paddleboard.  Beautiful.