[Wild Blue]

Day 28:
Taos, New Mexico, Rio Grande Gorge, Enchanted Circle, Angelfire Vietnam Memorial, Tamaya Resort
Total Miles: 3,547

Drove around in a circle today. And even did it on purpose!

I'm finally caught up with posts, so this journal is real-time now, posting every day.





Stayed last night at the Hotel Don Fernando de Taos by Hilton, in Taos, New Mexico.











Nice place! My room was even in its own little detached southwestern-styled building, so no noise from any neighbors.








The old town part of Taos has a great feel to it, very classic and southwestern.





I had to do a double-take on this, as I could have sworn I was looking at Mesa Verde Bank and Trust.





If ya know, ya know...





First stop, the Taos Pueblo. This is an old-school Native American village on the outskirts of Taos. Unfortunately, they were only taking cash for admission, and I was running low, so I had to take a picture from the outside, and move on.





Ugh... it's time for her first bath. She's been getting dirty with all the driving and some rainstorms.





Always gotta remember the BMW trick for accessing the wipers. Ignition off, hold the wiper lever down until the the wipers stop in the vertical position. Lift as desired, just don't forget to put them back before starting the car!





Easy hosing down the 3D SpiderMAX floor mats while spraying the car. I had spilled some soda on the passenger mat, and it hosed off easily. I'll talk more about these mats tomorrow.





She does look better clean. And the Arctic Grey shows dirt a lot more, than the Mineral White on my X7.

But, ugh... wasn't a good car wash. There was no "presoak" fluid in the system, the wash spray was light on the soap and bugs were hard to remove. And apparently the "spotless rinse"... wasn't. Lots of water spots, which also show up easily on the darker Arctic Grey.

Gonna have to go buy a microfiber towl for the road, and re-wash her at another manual car wash.








Just west of Taos is the Rio Grande Gorge and river, with this bridge over it. Not nearly as impressive as the Royal Gorge yesterday, but still very pretty.





Lots of pretty southwestern adobe architecture around the Taos area.





Next, I drove the "Enchanted Circle", a nice, leisurely drive that circles Wheeler Peak and the Taos ski area.

Several activities to do around the Circle, but I didn't do hardly any, choosing to enjoy the beautiful scenery and nice drive.





This is Wheeler Peak, which I'll be circling for the next several hours, climbing and descending mountains, and through plains.








Halfway around the Circle from Taos, you climb the mountain canyons to Red River.

It's possible this is the same Red River referred to in the classic cowboy song "Red River Valley", such as sung by Dana Delaney in the movie Tombstone.

Several "Red River Valleys" around the USA lay claim to the song.





The town of Red River has lots of recreation activities available.




















Lots of pretty views, continuing around the Enchanted Circle to the east. Note that even the pass brings you up to 10,000' altitude.








Which brings me to a very special place, somewhere I've wanted to visit for a long time, but never took the time to travel to the area, which is off the beaten path.

In Angel Fire, New Mexico, is a Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Cemetary. Dr. Victor Westphall built a memorial here for his son, Lt Westphall, and all others that were killed in the Vietnam War.





Bell UH-1 "Huey" helicopter, widely used in Vietnam.














Beautiful, and very sobering. Just driving on to the property, I immediately felt a heavy spirit of the pain that the war caused, in the warriors, civilians, and countries involved and their populations. Such a difficult thing.





After the Enchanted Circle, it was a nice little drive down to my next hotel, the Hyatt Tamaya Resort, between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I really like the scenery in the southwestern USA. Pretty rock formations, red dirt, mountains and bluffs and mesas. Caught this picture view as the sun started to set.

Tomorrow's gonna be a chill day, so I'll include the Hyatt Tamaya resort in tomorrow's journal post.