New Mexico the land of Enchantment....yeah right
The family and I recently took a driving trip to New Mexico.
We started at the bottom near Carlsbad and Alamogordo and worked our way north.
We basically stayed at the Hampton inn in each town because we had some free nights coming to us.
The kids got to swim and breakfast was free. Not a bad place.
All these towns are about the same. squat, dusty and pretty boring. Some of the local cuisine is pretty good but unless you are going to a specific attraction there isn't much to do.
Our ultimate goal was Taos because I had driven through about 12 years ago and thought it looked like a cool place to visit for some culture.
Boy was I wrong. The Kit Carson park was full of meth heads, bums and drifters. Dirty squalid little stores and fast food restaurants littered the landscape.
We finally got to the part of Taos that had the touristy shops and art galleries but we were so disgusted by all the pan handlers, and other lowlife hanging out everywhere we decided that this wasn't a place to bring the kids. We kept driving.
I pulled into a parking lot to turn around and was blocked in by a drug deal in progress. This 400 pound dealer kept waving me to drive by him as he and his customer blocked the exit.
We sat far back for a couple minutes, I checked my S&W 642 hoping I wasn't going to have to fight my way out of this hell hole. Finally I saw a place where I could drive through the grass and jump the curb.
I saw several cops in town but they all had people with out of state license plates pulled over. Figured they were too busy making revenue to worry about a park filled with a couple of dozen meth heads waiting for the friday night shipment.
We headed out of Taos rather quickly and stopped for a picnic at the Rio Grand gorge about 30 miles out. It had nice views and a clean set of tables place to sit down.
We drove on to Los Alamos and man was I surpirsed what a nice clean friendly town it was. We stayed there that night and went to the Bradbury museum (not the writer, rather the head of Los Alamos labs after oppenheimer) Pretty cool place with lots of science stuff, Atomic bombs, missiles, geiger counters, plutonium and a film on restoring and rebuilding your 1965 nuclear warhead Lots of fun for the kids.
Granted, the whole place was a government funded nuclear weapon propaganda outfit but hey, I like nukes. Since the whole town is dependent on nuclear research and testing I can't blame them for touting their bread and butter.
Santa Fe was nice with some good food and a 4th of July festival. The fireworks show was also impressive I've never seen that much set off at one time.
Overall, the drive had lots of cool scenery, from sage brush, to buttes, mountains, and lush pine forest.
However, next time I think I'll try camping and fishing instead of stopping in the boring dirty towns.
Labels: Personal interest, Rants
posted by Bill Rowland @ February 16, 2007
30 Comments
30 Comments:
Oh that's so disappointing... I used to adore Taos! Chit....
It's all in how you see things, Hammer.
I've been in Taos and loved the experience. The locals are wonderful folks.
There is a reminder of Taos that I bought there that has been hanging on my rear view mirrors for years.
Why are you always looking for excitement?
It's amazing how towns change and deteriorate or even those that are born again..
Sometimes, it's not whether we enjoyed the experience of where we visit but that we experienced it either way. You know better next time I suppose! Take care! :-)
Thanks for ruining my fantasies about New Mexico. :(
Happy Saturday morning Hammer,
Glad there were some good spots on the trip.
Los Alamos, the Bradbury museum, the Rio Grand gorge and the fireworks in Santa Fe sounds much better than drug laden/overly touristy Taos !
I learned how to ski and fly fish around Taos and Red River. Taos is better during the winter months, all the hippies and druggies are forced inside by the cold. Mom is a real church and Native American art/weaving freak. We've been all over those mountains visiting old missions and looking at indian art and rugs.
The best camping and fishing will probably be the Valle Vidal and Chama area. Chama has a steam locomotive, but Valle Vidal has the best wildlife, by far.
Oh you just needed to know about out of the way places to go. Next trip get online and chat with a local cause guide books and regular research only turn up the same ole tourist trap crap. Almagorda State Park (i think, maybe national forest) has an awesome 2-3 mile hike that leads to
two beautifully tall waterfalls and scenery. There are alot of little towns in the middle of nowhere that are artist-type colonies with the antique shops, old timey soda shops - places that are known by few. Been there; done that.
Well, at least you can say the trip was educational...
We did a program on the pueblo reservation and my crew stayed in taos for about 2 days. One of the crew guys called and wanted to go to Pakistan on one of the oversea's jobs.
It was really bad. I moved them to Valle Escondido. It wasn't much better.
I had to do some research!!! It wasn't Almagorda, it is Bandelier National Park that has waterfalls. The little artisan towns are Espinoza, Chamayo (?), etc. Fabulous old mining type towns with train museums, antique shopping and such.
Great pics there Hammer. My family would have had to have left me at Los Alamos. They would be interested, but I would drive them crazy by spending too much time at each display, read every board, take a squillion pictures, etc.
I hate you had a bad experience at Taos. I've never been to that part of the country, but have always wanted to.
Cool post though. That Fat Boy display is awesome.
Uhm... correct that to Fat Man, not Fat Boy. I must have been thinking of has-been rappers or Harleys for some reason.
How disappointing. But then you have to wonder...who ruined Taos, the tourists or the locals?
i've been through New Mexico a couple of times. Pretty rocks, not anough rest stops.
You could always come to Bridport in Devon, there are meth addicts of course but they are safely coralled in the needle park. there are some dangerous local faunas to be avoided!
You should just take that hop skip and jump right over there to Arizona. Let me tell ya, my little town is tourist central with the lake here, and rainbow bridge, monument valley, Bryce canyon and zion a bit away, and grand canyon very close. I love what I'm surrounded by as of scenery. hehehehe
Well, sometimes it ends up like this.
I do agree with the one who suggested to go on-line and do some reserach first...For the sake of the kids, so they don't get too dissapointed by sitting in the car to much.
It's better to go ONE place and have fun, than to try to reach a lot and end up driving all day.
Good Sunday morning, Hammer ! Mentioned you on my blog today !
JAM, you were close enough, the two A-bombs we used were named Fat Man and Little Boy. I can see where one might get confuseled.
Hammer, the only times I've been to NM, both time were to Philmont Scout Ranch, outside of Cimarron. There's a couple of museums there at the Ranch along the highway, otherwise you'd have to join the Scouts and HIKE to the other sights, like a gold mining camp and Waite Phillips' (one of the Phillips 66 brothers) hunting cabin. The only thing I recall in town was a sign showing where the Maxwell Inn used to be and an ice cream shop. (Ice cream is a great thing after ten days of trail food!)
Ugghhh, take New Mexico off my list of places to visit.
Dang. I used to love Taos, too, but haven't been there in a decade.
Now I need to hit NM again to check it out myself!
I lived in Clovis New Mexico. New Mexico is the Mississippi of the South West, a haven for illiterate hill folk. Wild horses couldn't drag me back to that boil on God's green earth. Best sight in New Mexico - the sign that says "You are now Leaving New Mexico".
We drove through NM on our way to the grand canyon and we weren't too pleased with it. It may have been where we were but there appeared to be a lot of trash everywhere.
isn't Carlsbad in California?
I have family in a tiny town called Luna, NM. Population of about 50 (25 of which are my relatives, they are mormon)
I guess the only thing I had to ask is, how long after your visit did you guys glow in the dark?
Flyinfox_SATX
Well it sounds like you all had a good time nonetheless & you got to spend time together.
If you liked the Los Alamos museum, you'll LOVE the nuclear weapons museum on the US Air Base (I forget the name, but there's only one) in Albuquerque. It has a display of just about every A-bomb the US ever made, including the incredably tiny "Davy Crockett", meant to be launched from Jeeps! The Los Alamos people are of the opinion that it is a massive security leak, so see it while it's still available. Of course security at Los Alamos is extremely weird -- I have friends who work there. For example, they once removed an issue of Optical Engineering from the library because it contained an article (by Chinese scientists!) about a currently secret field -- the separation of U238 and U235 by lasers. It didn't do any good to point out that this action only kept Los Alamos scientists from reading it -- it was available to everyone else in the world.
Another great technology tour in NM is to visit the Very Large Array (square miles of massive radio telescopes) -- It's in the middle of nowhere, but is worth the drive: it is awesome.
bob: I went to that museum when I was 10, it was awesome especially the missile that you placed a polaroid into a slot and the missile supposedly hit that particular target. There was a B52 D in the parking lot too.
rose: Yeah family time was good :)
Flyinfox: they said that was a myth! hmmm...
thepinkangel, I've been through there no wonder everyone looks alike ;)
carrie: the place is a little run down but there are a few bright spots, prolly from radiation ;)
Phosgene: I welcomed that sign too it was beautiful.
Jocyln: Go heavily armed or loaded down with crack, you'll make a fortune. ;)
MadZ it's not all bad...well maybe it is..
mattexian: I got to go on a couple of ghost towns and outings when I was in school there but I didn't remember where they were. Some of those mountain passes were scary as heck.
Kirsten: I didn't do enough research that's for sure.
Burfica: I hit Arizona in 2004 and liked it, especially the grand canyon.
Mutley: all I need is a passport and some penicillin and I'll be set ;)
l>t the rocks are pretty, peeing on the side of the road isn't ;)
kat: lots of people lived on the outskits and made it into a sprawling mess with their check cashing places, bodegas and ratty shanty towns.
Jam: that picture of the valley was accidental I don't even remember taking it. thanks though I made it my PC wall paper.
nomas I've been to a couple of those in the past but they weren't on the tourist stuff I had this time. :(
Ryan: I hear ya, dirty frigging place now :(
annie: there were some great parts too, especially watching movies in the hotel room with the family :)
shooter: thanks for the info, I'll probably head that way again now that I have more info.
yvonne, no prob ;)
Dave: that's for sure, live and learn!
m: Roswell is that way, it's really nice now.
BBC: it always finds me :)
Cheesy: they just need to clean the place up, kick out the bums and it would be fine
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