Hi, everybody! Daisy Jones-Klein here, and I just gotta tell
you all about my Terrier-ific Summer 2015 Road Trip!
It’s great when me and my Peeps can get out and about
and do stuff. After all, New Mexico’s a big and beautiful state, with lots of
amazing things to see. FUN FACT: Did you know we’re
the fifth biggest state? Me neither; but Wikipedia knows this stuff. But with
only a couple of million people, it’s pretty uncrowded. And this summer’s been
comfortably cool here, with enough rain to finally get us out of drought and make
everything green. Thanks, El Niño!!!
Not all getaway destinations are, shall we say, canine-friendly.
For sure, that’s their loss. But it has been good for Yours Truly, since it
means I sometimes get to go to Camp Barkaway, where me and the other doggies can nap and
yap and bark our brains out all day long, and never get shushed even
once.
But the more my Peeps thought about it, the more they thought “If there’s not a
doggie along for the ride, is it really a Road Trip?” Certainement pas!! So we planned a big Road Trip together,
with excellent destinations for both Peeps and finer critters alike. Four days and
three nights!
We started our trip by driving to a place smack in the
middle of New Mexico, south of the little town of Mountainair, called
Deer Canyon Preserve. And since chasing deer is one of my passions (Note to PETA: I'm strictly a catch-and-release enthusiast), I already
knew that this was going to be a fun trip.
Deer Canyon Preserve is a special and unusual place. It’s 12,000+ acres near the Manzano mountain
range, with great views of the mountains and skies. Most of the land is
protected under conservation easements, and with property lots on 20-acre
spacing, it ain’t crowded. It’s a great place for hiking, horseback riding, and
(my personal favorite) taking it easy.
We stayed at David and Sheila’s house. They were in
Nantucket at the time, but I’m guessing that my Peeps pre-arranged our stay with them. (If not, then
David and Sheila should STOP READING THIS RIGHT NOW!) They’ve got this house high on
a hill, looking out on the Manzanos and way beyond.
And there’s plenty of wildlife there, with lots of deer, coyotes, and especially bunnies. Mmmmm …. bunnies! And they also have a few Longhorns wandering about, sometimes really close! Now I enjoy chasing wildlife as much as the next Alpha Dog, but there was something about those long pointy things on their heads that made me think about shish kabobs, not as a yummy dinner, but as a cautionary tale for curious doggies.
And on our third day there we struck out for points south.
Yep, a road trip within a road trip; how cool is that?! Our friends Jeff and
Lanette joined us, and the five of us took off exploring.
Our first stop was Gran Quivera, part of the Salinas Pueblo
Missions National Monument. Prior to Spanish contact in the late 1500s, Gran
Quivira was a vast city with multiple pueblos and kivas. In the 1600s, the
Spanish came into the area and made it part of their mission system. That didn’t
go so well, especially for the Natives, and by 1672 a combination of disease, drought, famine, and Apache
raiding led to the abandonment of Gran Quivira. Today, remnants of the pueblos,
kivas, and churches are all that remain.
Continuing south, we stopped in Alamogordo for lunch and a quick stop at McGinn's
Pistachio Tree Ranch. Did you know that it’s the Home of the World's Largest
Pistachio? Me neither! But it’s YOOOOOUUUUGE!!!
From there we drove down to White Sands National Monument,
in the southern part of the state. It’s a strange and beautifully otherworldly place. Giant dunes
of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert in the Tularosa Basin,
creating the world's largest gypsum dunefield. Imagine Antarctica, but
much, much hotter.
The National Park Service also lets you go sledding on the dunes. It’s a lot like snow
sledding, but much drier and warmer. Dad let me take a couple of rides with
him. It was a little slower than I would’ve guessed. Maybe the sand isn’t as
slippery as snow. Or, maybe it just seemed slow because Dad was packing a little extra ballast, if you
know what I mean.
But here’s another FUN FACT: If you Google "dogsledding in New Mexico",
in quotes, there are only two other hits in the whole wide Internets. So I
guess that makes me the third N.M. dogsledder ever! Now I think that’s pretty special,
though maybe not quite as special as me being the Internet’s favorite dogblogger (Still True! Look it up here!), or as rare as an "unlovable Jack Russell T______"
(never, ever before written on the Internets, so don’t you be the first!).
And we finished the long drive back to Deer Canyon right
around sunset. We went to a picnic area overlooking Goat Canyon, and watched as
the sun went down behind the Manzanos, making for a sweet end to a fun-filled day.
Whew! That was a lot! I think we all slept like tired
puppies that night. In fact, h
Then, the next day me and the Peeps took the long slow way
back home. New Mexico State Road 14 leads north up to Santa Fe and comprises
most of The Turquoise Trail, a National Scenic Byway. Turquoise has been mined
there by the Pueblo people for over a thousand years. That, together with gold, coal,
and other minerals, has long attracted Spanish explorers, miners, and pioneers.
Midway along the Turquoise Trail, we stopped in Madrid (that’s
pronounced MAD-rid for you outsiders),
a funky town with a neat backstory. Way back in the late 1800s, Madrid became
a major coal mining town, complete with hospital, paved streets and unlimited
electricity in their homes.
Here's a Madrid FUN FACT: In the 1920s, Madrid’s annual Christmas
lighting display drew thousands of folks from miles around, a rare bright night spot in an
otherwise dark region. On the north end of town in the ballpark, the miners installed Toyland, with over 100,000 lights, a miniature train, and huge figures from nursery rhymes and animated cartoons. Airplanes would detour from their flight paths to see the glow of the town. Walt Disney, having heard of the Madrid Christmas
spectacle, paid a visit in 1930. It's claimed that he
was so delighted with all he saw in Madrid that he envisioned plans for a place that in the 1950s opened up as Disneyland.
After WWII, when the coal market collapsed, Madrid
became a ghost town. In 1954, an ad in the Wall Street Journal listed the entire town for sale for $250,000, but there were no takers. Then, in the 1960’s
and 70’s, hippies and artists rediscovered Madrid, and today the town is a
gloriously dilapidated destination for visitors. We lunched at the Mine Shaft
Tavern (Mmmmm ….. nachos!) and
wandered in and out of the funky shops and galleries.
But as good as road trips are, it’s good to be back in Santa Fe, safely back in our Forever Home, where the sunflowers are blooming, the sunsets sublime, and the beds are familiar. Hope your
summer’s been good, too!
Daisy Jones-Klein, now off the road
Santa Fe, New Mexico
August 2015
