To Taos and Back: Day One
In real life, my boys and I were actually home for about a week between these two road trips, but I’m a little behind on my blogging, so I’m gonna go ahead and start telling y’all about this trip!
We left bright and shiny early on Monday morning, headed for Taos, New Mexico after packing our bag and our camping gear once again. We once again grabbed breakfast at McDonald’s and Lotaburger, and hit the road.
I-25 Northbound to Las Vegas is a really pretty drive, through our deserts and mountains. You get to see a little bit of everything our state has to offer: cityscapes, landscapes, mountains, deserts, vineyards, and pueblos. It’s also a really nice, well-kept road.
Anyway, our first detour was to the town square in Las Vegas. This is the same town square where Netflix filmed ‘Longmire’- a show I love, and the boys have been watching with me. The building featured as the Absaroka County Sheriff’s Office in the show is an actual storefront on the plaza, and is still labeled with the Sheriff’s Department stickers! We didn’t actually get out and wander the square (it was barely 8:30 a.m.!), but Christopher was really excited to see it from the car. Secretly, I was too!
After a quick pit stop for drinks and sunflower seeds, I made the last-minute decision to continue up I-25 to see Fort Union National Monument, rather than continue on our designated route to our campsite. This was probably one of the best last-minute choices I’ve made, because the monument is beautiful! It is so full of New Mexico and American history! They’ve worked hard to preserve the remains of the adobe buildings that made up Fort Union- a major supply station along the Santa Fe Trail, and a small town in and of itself. As far as National Parks and Monuments go, it’s one of the smallest ones, but it is well worth the visit! Be prepared to walk around, though!
When we finished our visit to Fort Union, we jumped back in the car for the drive over to Mora, New Mexico. We ended up on one the small highways through the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, and it was a fantastic drive! It felt as if time had almost stopped on some of the small farms and ranches along the road. We reached Mora, New Mexico, and made a quick right turn to head up another state highway toward the Coyote Creek Campground, where I had originally planned to stay. I have to say, if I’d had another adult with me, we would have stayed there! It was gorgeous! But, it just didn’t feel quite safe enough for me and the boys by ourselves, so we moved on.
We actually ended up at the Taos Valley RV Park in Taos, and after encountering a Red Ant Nest and breaking two tent poles and putting a hole in our rain fly causing us to buy a new tent, we got camp set up for the night. It was still early enough that we were able to take a drive out to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge- one of the highest bridges in the country! And, it was beautiful! We didn’t hang out long, though, because it was getting dark and cold. We made it back to camp and turned in for the night after that.
Tune in next week to find out what we did the following day!