Rio Grande

Walking to the Rio Grande through the Cottonwood bosque.

The Rio Grand to the north.

The Rio Grand to the south.

Straight across the Rio Grande.

Straight down at the river's edge.  The water was muddy.

Yesterday we had an educational afternoon.  We drove to Albuquerque.  The first thing we did was tour the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.  We learned a lot there.  Later we walked around Old Towne square.  Native people had jewelry and pottery for sale.  They were set up on the sidewalks.  Later we toured the New Mexico Art History museum.  I was impressed by the Andy Warhol originals.  We skipped the rattle snake museum.  I can't appreciate more than one or two museums in a day.  This morning we toured the Rio Grande Nature Center in Albuquerque.  There we saw white crowned sparrows, robins, goldfinches, house finches, sandhill cranes, juncos, pigeons, downy woodpecker, roufus sided towhee, wood ducks, mallards, Mexican mallards, scaup, hooded mergansers and Canadian geese.  It's strange to see so many wood ducks in the same place.  The nature center had a feeder and the ducks clustered around the food.  The wood ducks here are not wary.  They are fed and don't have to worry about being hunted here.  Such long looks at the elusive wood ducks was very luxurious.  We walked through the cottonwood bosque (forest) down to the river.  After lunch we took the scenic route to Santa Fe.  The road is called the Turquoise Trail and was supposed to have some ghost towns on it.  We didn't see any ghosts or ghost towns but the scenery was beautiful.  We stopped for lunch and toured the Georgia O'Keefe museum.  We walked around the town square looking at the arts and crafts offered on the sidewalks by the native artisans.  They looked cold sitting outside all day.  We drove the scenic route to Taos.  The road is called the King's Road and it follows the Rio Grande up through the mountains.  The scenery was breathtaking.  The mountains came right down to the edge of the road. The road curved and squiggled through the valley and was so steep I had to downshift a few times.  I love driving on roads like the King's Road.  We saw where the river turned off.  I said, "Bye!  Its been real grand."