Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for new mexico
A Feast for the Eyes in Santa Fe
By Linda Tancs
This weekend marks the 96th annual Santa Fe Indian Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Begun in 1922, the market is the largest and most prestigious juried Native American arts show in the world. It attracts over 100,000 visitors from around the world who buy art directly from roughly 900 artists from over 200 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. and Canada. Items include pottery, sculpture, textiles, paintings, wooden carvings, bead work, baskets, drums and bows and arrows. The event is preceded by Indian Market Week, a series of events in Native film, literature, music, fashion and visual art.
Share this:
A Gathering of Nations
By Linda Tancs
North America’s largest powwow is the Gathering of Nations event in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The festival kicks off on April 27 with the Miss Indian World talent presentations, followed by two days of colorful Native American powwow dancing and singing. Over 2,500 indigenous dancers and singers representing more than 500 tribes from Canada and the United States come to the Gathering of Nations annually to participate socially and competitively. The family friendly event also includes an arts and crafts bazaar and musical entertainment across genres. The fun takes place at Tingley Coliseum/Expo.
Share this:
A Nut in New Mexico
By Linda Tancs
Travelers along U.S. 54 between Alamogordo and Tularosa in New Mexico have an oddity to tickle their fancy. That’s where you’ll find the world’s largest pistachio. Appropriately enough, the giant-sized attraction is located at PistachioLand, a family farm featuring every take on the nut imaginable, like habanero lemon, BBQ, bacon ranch and garlic. The motorized tour of their orchards will show you how pistachios (and grapes in the vineyard) grow in their desert climate. The pistachio is one of the oldest edible nuts on the planet and is very nutritious. They’ll have some grafts for sale at the farm next February.
Share this:
A Humpback in New Mexico
By Linda Tancs
Ask anyone in northern New Mexico to name their most unusual geological oddity and they’ll likely say it’s Camel Rock. As the name implies, it’s a rock that looks like a camel—sitting down. Located in Pojoaque, this inanimate nod to an ancient mammal is a quirky attraction opposite a casino (called Camel Rock, of course) owned by Tesuque Pueblo. The big question is (no, not ‘guess what day it is’)—one hump, or two? You decide.
Share this:
A Different Kind of Boneyard
By Linda Tancs
It’s an alien world in Roswell, New Mexico—in more ways than one. Famously cited as the area of a UFO landing decades ago, these days it’s the alien feel of an aircraft boneyard that garners the attention of aircraft enthusiasts. That’s because Roswell International Air Center is where old planes go to die. One of a number of such sites (the largest in the world being Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona), its otherworldly connection gives it a leg up on the competition.
Share this:
The White Sands of New Mexico
By Linda Tancs
Rising from the heart of New Mexico’s Tularosa Basin 14 miles west of Alamogordo is a sea of glistening white sands dating to the end of the last Ice Age, a prized gypsum dunefield known as White Sands National Monument. Although many dunefields exist around the world, most comprise typical brown quartz and other minerals. Only a handful of gypsum dunefields exist, White Sands being the world’s largest at 275 square miles. Even some of the animals living there are as white as their surroundings. In fact, three species of lizards, one pocket mouse and numerous species of insects have evolved a white coloration for survival in the white sands. Like every animal in the white sands, they make tracks on the varied dunes (four different types) during their nocturnal movements. Even the dunes themselves move as much as 30 feet per year. Park hours vary by season due to missile testing at the nearby range or inclement weather.
Share this:
The Winged Rock
By Linda Tancs
Resembling the mythic Bali Hai (shark-toothed Mount Mouarua in Moorea), New Mexico’s Shiprock is likewise fanciful in its own, geologic sort of way. The landform, known as Tse Bitai (“the winged rock”) in Navajo, is a volcanic neck owing its shape to the erosion of surrounding rocks from an eruption occurring over 30 million years ago. It’s located in the Four Corners region of the Navajo Nation.
Share this:
Batting It Out of the Park
By Linda Tancs
Carlsbad Caverns is a national park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico, an underground wonderland of limestone caves (more than 119 of them documented) discovered by Native Americans centuries ago. The terrain yields fascinating stories about the Ice Age: a stone scraper discovered within view of the entrance goes back to Ice Age Indian hunters, and bones from Ice Age animals like jaguars, camels, lions and giant sloths have been found in the entrance areas of some caves. During summer, another thing you’ll find in the caves is a Mexican free-tailed bat community nearly 400,000 strong. The evening bat flight program takes place from Memorial Day weekend through late October, after which the winged mammals migrate to Mexico for the winter. Preceded by an informative lecture by a park ranger, the seasonal spectacle highlights the mass exodus of the bats in search of an evening meal. Their pre-dawn return to the caves is likewise impressive. During July and August, the herd is increased by newborn bats and migrating bats from northern climes. Photography or other filming at bat flight may be done under a special use permit obtained from the park at least two weeks in advance.
Share this:
The Great Divide
By Linda Tancs
The Continental Divide is an epic hydrological divide separating the watersheds draining into the Atlantic Ocean from those draining into the Pacific Ocean. In the United States, its route is over 3,000 miles long, extending from the Canadian border with Montana to the Mexican boundary in southwest New Mexico. Following this course you’ll find the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, part of a series of national trails established by Congress in recognition of their natural beauty. The Continental Divide trail in particular passes through 25 national forests, 21 wilderness areas and three national parks, providing access to spectacular vistas in some of the most scenic places left in the world. The highest point is in Colorado at Grays Peak (14,270 feet) and the lowest is along Waterton Lake in Glacier National Park in Montana (4,200 feet). The long winter season along the Divide (September through May) is now over. Why not plan a hiking or camping trip! From backpacking to family day trips, there’s something for everyone.
Share this:
The River of Many Names
By Linda Tancs
It’s been called “the big river,” the “River of May,” the “river of our lady” and “the turbulent river.” But it’s popularly known as the Rio Grande (Great River). Discovered at its mouth by Spanish conquistadores in 1519, it’s among the world’s longest rivers and the fourth or fifth longest in North America, somewhere between 1,800 and 1,900 miles long. It starts near the Continental Divide in the San Juan Mountains and empties into the Gulf of Mexico. In northern New Mexico the watercourse of the Great River follows a tectonic chasm. An amazing site bridging the depths of the resulting gorge is the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge northwest of Taos. The steel deck arch bridge stands at 565 feet above the river, the seventh highest bridge in the United States. Enjoy the spectacular vista of the gorge from the bridge’s overlook.
Travelrific® Travel Journal 