On a short drive up thru the Carson National Forest on Hwy 111 west of Taos I stopped to examine these rocks. If we'd had any mushrooms, we'd still be there Oooohing. Enjoyed a nice picnic, didn't enjoy seeing the recently fallen snow and were unbothered by the single other vehicle we encountered.
 |
| Cyndi stayed in the truck while I watched the rocks. Later she said "Wow, I wish I'd been there." |
The previous day I found the Rito Horse Trap while wandering in the Caja. The trap was built along the lines George Frison describes as a sheep trap in his classic Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains. If it works, don't fix it. No horses were seen near the trap and the few horse hoof prints I found were leading away from the area. I also found a cow's thigh bone, which I brought home for Cyndi's birthday next week.
 |
| Hmmmm. A trap. Let's Go! |
 |
| The Forest Service has removed the sign actually at the trap. The trap doesn't get much use but how often do you need to trap horses? |
 |
| A blind, I presume. Someone would hide in here, then jump out at the last minute, scaring the horse to turn in the desired direction. |
 |
| A fence flag. Doesn't look like much but I assume these are to keep the horses away from the fence. |
 |
| The business end of the trap. The main fences funnel the horses into this small corral. In prehistory the Indians would then kill and eat the sheep. Now-a-days we kill the horses but are too civilized to eat them. Civilized. |
 |
| This is the one of the reasons I wander out here. A nice view of Bandelier. |
And the day before that I walked down and back up La Bajada along the old Camino Real / Route 66 track. I encountered old timers with stories, a luckless tranantula, Santa Fe's fiber optic feed and a road sign from the 30's.
 |
| 500 years ago a Spanish road engineer said "We need to build a road here" And I'll be damned, somehow they managed it. |
 |
| The road engineer didn't see these as an obstacle. |
 |
| The first part of the ascent wasn't that daunting. |
 |
| But it starts to get worse. |
 |
| I guess they first put in this fiber optic run, then the road on top of that. Someone would like to fix this but they can't figure out how to get to it anymore. This, by the way, is the road. |
 |
| Eeeek. A desert tarantula. Boy, these things are fast. But then, if I had eight long legs, I could scurry right along, too. |
 |
| A billboard, 1930's style. The Santa Fe camp was located approximately where the Georgia O'Keefe museum is today. |
 |
| Amazingly, the lower section of the Santa Fe River has water in it. Flowing water. 15 miles upstream, the river is dry as it passes thru Santa Fe, where (for the most part) it was already drying up in the 1700's. |
Not much happens here but I enjoy what does.