Catch Up Post: Abiquiu

Used our strong wifi connection last night (here in Las Vegas, NM) to download a bunch of podcasts--we're two weeks behind, given our out-of-network internet status of late. So, this morning? Time to catch up with the photos of last week.

From Abiquiu area: The reason we went to this area was to meet a "blog buddy," Kate. I have had a link to her blog on my blog for some time now, but if you'd like to see really good NM photography, check out Kate's blog.

Last Tuesday, when we left Albuquerque with our new tires, we had intended to go to Santa Fe and poke around. Well, we just weren't feeling the city vibe after our week in Albuquerque, so we kept going to Abiquiu. We knew that the Corps of Engineers campground at Abiquiu Lake/Dam was closed for the winter, but that campers were welcome to stay for free in one loop. We had hoped that there might be some bare bones services available because we hadn't properly prepared for boondocking (our waste tanks weren't empty but our fresh water was empty!), but when they say closed, they mean closed. So, we really conserved everything that night. The pay off was so worth it. We were the only ones in the campground (a little eerie) but the views were just delicious.

Our campsite:


The sunrise, with full moon overhead:


Here's sunset (the view out our back window), on an evening with a controlled burn off in the distance:


We then spent Wednesday and Thursday at Ghost Ranch, currently (and for the last 50 years) a Presbyterian retreat and conference center and once the home of Georgia O'Keeffe. When we were checking in at the front office, I inadvertently mentioned the "Dam campground" where we were staying, which caused much chuckling amongst the Presbyterians....

We had lunch with Kate and her husband, who have been volunteering as campground hosts since May, and they graciously allowed us to use their campground's facilities so we could continue to boondock. (Pets aren't allowed at Ghost Ranch or we would've stayed there.) Here are some scenes of Ghost Ranch:



A rockfall off of the Kitchen Mesa that we happened to witness:


The labyrinth (modeled on Chartres'), which we walked:


Scenes from the "Georgia O'Keeffe Landscape Tour" we took. A neat tour, where we were driven out onto the ranch and saw both her paintings and the actual views:




The lovely burros (there's a free roaming herd of 5) on the porch of a cabin used in the movie set for "City Slickers." (Many films have been made on Ghost Ranch. Gotta get a list of those together to watch.) Love how they found a different shady spot every afternoon.





While we were in the area, we toodled up north about 40 miles to Los Osos, a true hamlet, and ordered some really neat floor mats for the RV made out of recycled tires. (Thanks for the tip, Kate!)



This was a two-storefront kinda town. The other was a grower-dyer-weaver owned woolen store that was, unfortunately, closed, but it looked really neat.

For our third night in the area, we moved to a US Forest Service campground at Echo Amphitheater. This was a tiny, unstaffed campground about 4 miles north of Ghost Ranch that was set right next to this natural rock amphitheater. A paved trail led up and into that space where, surprise, it really does echo. Since we were the only folks camping here, we had fun with this. Poor Nick, though....






We will continue the catch up later; time to get moving to Santa Fe and another Roadfood lunch (also recommended by folks we met at Ojo Caliente).