Taos Pueblo, New Mexico - July 16, 2019
On the way from Rio Grande del Norte to Santa Fe, we stopped to visit Taos Pueblo. Taos Pueblo is a National Historic Landmark and a UNESCO Heritage Site. The pueblos there are considered the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States, more than 1000 years old. Following our visit of Taos Pueblo, we headed for Santa Fe and found it raining when we arrived, so we didn’t spend much time there and headed to our stop for the night, Black Canyon Campground.
The Taos Pueblo land covers 99,000 acres including the Taos Mountain, Blue Lake, and the village of multi-storied adobe buildings in the high desert of New Mexico. The lands are closed to the public, but the public is allowed to visit inside the pueblo walls for a reasonable admission price. Adult admission is $16. You can wander around the village on your own as long as you stay out of the restricted areas and only go into buildings that are clearly shops instead of residences. You can also take a guided tour led by a tribal member for no additional charge. We did both and tipped our guide.
Alfred, our tour guide, was very friendly, informative and open to answering questions. He lives just outside the pueblo walls but still on tribal land. Less than ten percent of the tribe lives in the adobe structures full time, although most of them still own and maintain a home within the pueblo to use during ceremonies and other special occasions. There is no electricity or running water allowed within the old pueblo walls, but those living outside the walls are able to enjoy more modern conveniences, including the internet. The adobe homes require a lot of maintenance which is the responsibility of the family that owns the home; however, there is currently a conservation effort to help with the maintenance, as many homes have fallen into disrepair. The thick mud layer on the outside of the walls needs to be repaired on a continuous basis to prevent damage to the adobe wall interiors. Each home is a couple of rooms, sharing walls with other homes, but there are no doors or windows connecting any home to another. Some of the homes have been converted to shops or cafes that cater to the tourists.
The Red Willow creek runs through the center of the village and is the village’s source of water. The creek is so important to the Taos Indians that they sometimes refer to themselves as the Red Willow People. Most of the over 1900 Taos Indians practice Catholicism alongside their ancient spiritual and religious traditions. The San Geronimo Chapel is open to the public, but the kivas for their traditional ceremonies are not. The tribal elders like to keep their traditions, history, and language within the tribe. The language and history are never written, as they prefer the personal interaction and presence between tribal members to verbally pass on the traditions from one generation to the next. That is a different point of view, as our first instinct to make sure something important is preserved is to record it, either written down or through pictures or audio/video, but they put a higher priority on the personal relationships between members of their tribe.
After our tour, we ate lunch inside the pueblo, at the Adobe Cafe. There are several cafes within the village and we just randomly chose one. OK, not randomly, it was the first one we saw after our tour and we were hungry. We both had the Tina Taco along with lemonade. The Tina Taco was like a tostada, with seasoned beef, lettuce and tomato on top of fry bread, very tasty. We ate our lunch at a table in the small outdoor patio with two well-behaved dogs laying in the shade. According to our tour guide, the tribe does not leash their dogs, but allows them to roam freely. Alfred’s dog sometimes finds him when he is giving a tour and tags along. We’re not sure what the cafe uses to cook the food, as there is no electricity in the village. There are lots of outside adobe ovens called Hornos, but, as we learned on our tour, they are mainly only used for ceremonies because the ovens hold large volumes of food and are too much work for something small.
As we started driving down the road, Left Buddy (LB) spotted Mary, a tribal member, selling pies from a roadside stand near the pueblo entrance. Of course we had to stop. We bought two small plum pies and a few native cookies that were flavored with anise. Somehow we managed to not touch them until after dinner. They were both delicious. Not too sweet, just the way we like our desserts.
When we got to Santa Fe, we struggled to find a parking lot where we could park our van. We stopped in the Capitol Lot across Old Santa Fe Trail from the New Mexico State Capitol. The signs in the lot said there was no public parking 7 am to 5 pm, Monday through Thursday. Since it was Tuesday afternoon, we needed another option. So Right Buddy (RB) went into the Santa Fe Visitor Information Center to ask what the options were to park a camper van, as parking garages and small parking spaces were not an option. They informed RB that about the only option was the Cathedral Basilica Public Parking, but it was expensive. However, they told us that the state offices were not open, so we were welcome to leave our van in the Capitol Lot for free. That sounded great to us! That was also a great choice since we didn’t stay long. We walked over to Santa Fe Plaza next to the Palace of the Governors in the rain, looking for a place to get ice cream. We have been to Santa Fe a few times before and really like the feel of the old town with its shops and art galleries, but we were not in the mood to walk around in the rain. Instead, we headed back to the van and drove over to the Shake Foundation on Cerrillos Road. The Shake Foundation did not have indoor seating, but there was a covered patio. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. I guess we are the only ones that believe ice cream makes a rainy day better.
From there we headed over to Black Canyon Campground, in the Santa Fe National Forest. There are vault toilets and each campsite has a picnic table and fire ring. They had warned us that there was no water for the 2019 season, which is not a problem for us. The campsites were wonderful and looked like they had been renovated recently with the tables and fire rings on level gravel along with a tall pole with two large hooks. This was the first time that we have seen these poles, but have seen them quite a few times since. We’ve seen them used for various things like hanging a lantern, hanging a bike, or hanging clothes, towels or equipment out to dry. The hooks are not high enough off the ground for hanging a bear bag, but it might be high enough to keep rodents out of your food bag if you were tent camping. Despite the close proximity to Santa Fe, there was no cell signal (Verizon or AT&T) due to being in a deep canyon (hence the name of the campground). For some, this would be an advantage, but this time it meant that RB could not make her weekly call to her dad. All in all, it was still a great day.
Check out our related video: Taos Pueblo, New Mexico – July 16, 2019
(RB)