A Southwestern Desert Getaway

The Journey

After a first quarter to the year that was a bit tumultuous, we decided to take a bit of down time and wanted somewhere that would not be cold and would not be far from home. With Kathleen having some nagging issues with her neck after her January accident, we knew we were not going to be doing any long runs on the trip. So we decided to head to Taos, New Mexico where we could get some sun, some running, and some good relaxation. Turned out, that was a good plan.

We started our drive in wet and spitting snow but by the time we hit the turn at Walsenburg, CO, we had some blue skies breaking out - sweet! Those are the Spanish Peaks - East on the left at 12,683' and West on the right at 13,625'.
Mount Mestas showing off some fresh dusting of snow from the morning cloud cover as we start over La Veta Pass.
We are not much for junk food, however, I have had a weakness for Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies from a very young age - they make great "traveling fuel" !!!
We arrived in Taos to blue sky with some fluffy clouds, much better than the snow that was falling at home! This is the view off the porch of the casita we were renting for the week. Miles and miles of sagebrush and mountains - awesome!
After tooling around the plaza for a bit and making a run to Cid's Natural Food Market for supplies, we put our feet up and started planning our activities (or lack of...) for the next few days. We had a fantastic sunset, as we would each evening.

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Sunday's Fun Day

We took a run on Sunday from our base camp on the Taos Mesa, down into the Rio Grande Gorge to the John Dunn Bridge - a local landmark. Kathleen is running high up on the rim above the river, with the Taos mountains in the background.

There it is folks - The John Dunn Bridge, with the Rio Grande River flowing beneath.

Posing for the group photo at the bottom of the Gorge.

Steve starting back up out of the Gorge, with the soothing sounds of the running water to help with the relaxation.

Kathleen makes her way up - notice the switchbacks cut into the western wall of the Gorge.

More great views of the mountains from atop the eastern rim.

Our neighbors for the week - Morningstar Alpaca Ranch. The alpacas were always curious when we went by their pastures and would line up to watch us. We finished with a nice 8 mile run and then kicked back for the afternoon.

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Monday on the West Rim

Monday we headed out to the West Rim Trail, which starts at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge northwest of Taos. The bridge is a 1200' span across the gorge formed by the Rio Grande River and sits 650' up from the waters below. The trail roughly follows the western rim of the gorge and travels through mostly sagebrush desert but has incredible mountain vistas for the entire length of the trail. Kathleen runs here with Taos mountain in the distance.
You can see the mouth of the gorge opening on the left of this photo. It was once again a bluebird day - not a single cloud in the sky. Kathleen peeled off a bit early as she was feeling like keeping the runs short to help with her neck discomfort.
This tree seemed like a good spot to turn around. Hard to beat views like that - makes it difficult to concentrate on the run...
... however, this is not the spot to have a lapse of judgement and step off the trail!!! There is the bridge in all it's glory, with the Rio Grande far below.
Kathleen grabbed Sage and headed back out to meet me as I finished the run. It was a nice 8 miler, with a faster than normal pace as the trail is relatively level around 7100' elevation.

We took a little time to visit our curious neighbors in the afternoon.

The chocolate colored gent in the rear is Logan - Kathleen purchased several skeins of yarn from his coat and is knitting a small bag with it. We'll put up a pic when it is finished. Alpaca yarn is highly prized in the knitting world and makes very durable and warm clothing.
My girls catching the afternoon sun on the deck - Kathleen is knitting, but not yet with Logan's coat!

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What the heck ???

Kathleen has had some issues with chronic bronchitis but has not had it for 15 months - the longest span in many years - until TODAY. Right in the middle of what was supposed to be a relaxing trip. This is crap. But, alas, under protest, it is here to stay.

So I decided to head out from base camp again and do the R2R2R ...

...but not THAT R2R2R. :-0 This was Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim Taos-style. I ran from the east rim of the gorge, down and over the Dunn bridge, and up the switchbacks onto the west rim. The view of the Rio Grande looking south from the third switchback.

On top of the west rim ... in Awe!

Coming back down from the west rim, I had a good view up river to the bridge. Once again it was a fabulous weather day, but I would have preferred to NOT be running alone.

A helpful rock took a photo for me!

Looking down from 3/4 of the way up the eastern wall - you can see the third and fourth switchbacks cut into the western side. It was another great day to run and I got in a nice 10 miler with a couple sharp climbs thrown in.
The girls were basking in the sun when I returned. You can see the start of Logan's wool being crafted into a bag - Kathleen was busy while I was gone! She is hiding the disappointment of not running well - she is not happy with the turn of events for sure!

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Lemonade Anyone???

If you get lemons, you just need to make lemonade, right? We knew that, for the most part, Kathleen would just have to "ride out" the bronchitis. Though she did not sleep much Tuesday night, she felt OK Wednesday, so we decided to do at least a couple more tourist type activities.

We cruised down to Ranchos de Taos to visit San Francisco de Asis Chapel, one of the most photographed churches in the southwest.
The thick adobe walls do stand out nicely against the azure blue desert sky - quite a visual combination. Murphy's Law was at work today - there was work being done on the inside of the chapel, so it was an exterior-only visit.

Had to get a family photo at the Taos sign!

If you are in Taos, you need to go to 5 Star Burgers - no questions asked! They serve antibiotic free Angus Beef burgers and tasty sweet potato fries - mmmmm! I personally recommend the Taos Burger - battered green chile, barbecue sauce, and cheddar - just earn it on your run! We finished off the day with some shopping at the plaza, and a vist to Rooster's Coffee - Java Time!
After a sunset like this it is hard to leave, but we headed out Thursday morning to head back to Colorado. It was not the relaxation we had envisioned, but if you are going to have "forced" down time, there are probably not many better places than this. It was off to the doc for neck checkup and antibiotics for Kathleen - yeehaw... But we're not letting it spoil a good time and good memories from the desert!!!

Hiking on the South Boundary Trail

Awesome day in the desert - again!!! We really hit the weather jackpot on this trip and we took advantage of it. We decided to take a couple days off from running, so today we planned a hike with Sage and some time strolling the Taos Plaza.
Is that the face of a happy Aussie or what?!?! We hiked about 3 miles on the South Boundary Trail, one of the mountain biking favorites in the area. We hiked on the western terminus of the trail which is about 22.5 miles total and, from what we've heard, all sweet singletrack. Most bikers do this one as a shuttle ride - dropping in on the eastern end and finishing where we started.
Sage relaxes on the patio with her favorite stuffed toy after the hike.
We had a relaxing afternoon after our Plaza stroll, soaking in the rays as much as we could, knowing that fall is upon us and not many lazy, sunny days await us in the next several months!

Short Run, Big Climb

We wanted a little shorter run today so that we could do a hike with Sage after we finished. The Devisadero Loop showed 6 miles moderate singletrack so we thought we would have a crack at it. Once again the sun-soaked skies greeted us and painted a beautiful backdrop against the sage and pinyon covered hillsides east of town. We soon found out that moderate can be a highly subjective term. The initial flanks of Devisadero Peak were at times just short of brutal. Loose, technical footing and grades exceeding 20% made for a lung-burning climb for the first 2 miles.
The couple of short reprieves from the incline on the run up to the peak were not nearly enough to flush the lactate-induced fog from the quads!
After three or four false summits, we finally reached the peak at 8304' where a nice "rest area" built of rock slabs awaited us. We stopped for a quick breath in the shade and a photo opp, then headed off to the east to continue the loop.
The gradual descent onto the back side of the peak was quite pleasant and the trail was fantastic as it contoured the mountain, never losing or gaining more than a few hundred feet elevation at a time. Most of this section was shaded during the run and at times we ran through 'tunnels' of scrub oak and pinyon trees.
After rounding the western shoulder of the mountain, we re-joined the trail where we had branched east on the ascent. Time for the tired quads to shed about 500 feet in half a mile of rocky descent - watch your step! This was definitely a 'Quads-O-Steel' route - 5.6 miles with nearly 1700' climbing, a large chunk of that coming in the first 2 miles. Good run and probably a locals' favorite for hill training!

We followed up our workout today by taking Sage for a 2 mile hike along a nice shaded trail. She loves to burn off some energy but she just gets too bored to run with us. She used to tolerate the running, but not any more - she's a Stop and Smell the Roses dog!!!

Classic Desert Singletrack

We headed to the hills southeast of downtown Taos to sample the Talpa Trail. Since the guide book showed this route as mostly singletrack skirting the hillside above town, we wanted to give it a shot. The run started up a steep abandoned jeep road before accessing the Talpa trailhead around .7 mile up. It was another awesome day and we were in for a great run on a roller-coaster trail.
The trail was pretty much normal fare for the desert running we have done: very rocky, in and out of many arroyos - steep down then right back up, and lots of winding through pinyon, juniper, and cactus. The singletrack was mostly narrow and twisty which always keeps you on your toes and not looking too far ahead!
We saw three people the entire time we were out today - 1 hiker and 2 horse riders - nothing like having the trail all to yourselves! All of the trails we sampled in Taos were in great condition and the trail users definitely do not abuse their land, which was very nice to see.
One of the open views to Taos Mountain along the trail.
Here we are powering up the last climb out to the road - almost downhill from here!!! This was a great desert run and another 8 miles of sweet trail running in fine, high-altitude sunshine - good times!!!

Running the West Rim Trail

Sunday we drove west about 7 miles to the trailhead for the West Rim Trail. The trail follows the rim of the gorge formed by the Rio Grande River. The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge is quite the tourist attraction, and after about a mile, the trail was free from traffic. The trail runs about 9 miles south to the Orilla Verde Recreation area, where the trails are at river level.
We had a nice hiker snap a group photo before we started our run.
There was a bench that stuck out into the gorge about .5 mile into the run that looked back to a fantastic view of the bridge and the river far below.
The trail was a combination of single and double track, with a lot of rocks, and was fairly flat most of the way. Of course, at 7000' elevation, 'flat' is always a good profile for the first day of running in the high desert! Just behind Kathleen on the horizon is an all women's mountain bike group ride coming toward us with about 20 riders.

We saw a couple perched on a ledge meditating near this overlook - what an awesome sight to have while clearing the mind.
Fields of sagebrush and the mouth of the gorge in view in the background - pretty much a blueprint of the entire length of the trail that we ran. We went out about 4 miles and turned around for an 8 mile run. The breath-taking views along the way made this a fantastic outing with a little tourist factor thrown in for good measure!
Sunday evening we had a fantastic sunset to cap off a great day!