We visited the countryside of the Rio Grande River in New Mexico these past few days, and specifically enjoyed exploring Santa Fe and Taos on October 9-10.
On Sunday, our stroll around the main square in the old town area of Santa Fe was enchanting. We thoroughly enjoyed dining at one of the best restaurants of our trip, Cafe Pasqual’s, which is located one block away from old town. It was a 45 minute wait, but well worth it as Sue’s chile relleno and Ted’s cheese omelette, were really, really good.
We visited a couple of churches in town, including being able to peak-in on a mass in progress at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and lingered to hear an amazing choir singing very modern choral music. Ted enjoyed the complexity of notes in the chords and the beauty of the voices.
The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe had a “miracle” wooden spiral staircase which was created without nails. The railing was added decades later.
We finished the day with a one-hour drive north to Bandelier National Monument to see the cliff dwellings from the 1400’s. Visitors are shuttled by bus from the visitor’s center in town down into the canyon. 
After a briefing by a ranger, we enjoyed a 90-minute hike to a dozen sites of interest on the one-mile trail. Here’s a pic of our second staircase of the day, leading to a pueblo room used over 500 years ago!
Monday was a day set aside to drive 75 minutes north to the charming city of Taos. It was very different than our previous image of it. Instead of existing in a narrow valley near the Rio Grande River (we thought that it might resemble Sedona in Arizona), the town was located in a hugely-wide valley, and seven miles from the Rio Grande!
The three things we enjoyed most about Taos include:
1) Restaurant La Cueva is a hole-in-the-wall joint that had some of the most delicious Mexican food we’ve ever tasted.
2) The Rio Grande Gorge is very impressive as it is so deep and narrow. To build a bridge over it was cool, but God’s gorge was the amazing thing!
3) The oldest church in Taos, San Francisco de Asis Church, built in 1813, used traditional adobe materials. It is simple, yet gorgeous inside. We so enjoyed talking to a church member who was cleaning the alter area, and learning more about her life, her faith, and her church. We finished the day driving some of the Enchanted Circle Highway near Taos, as well as the picturesque “low” road back to Santa Fe.
It was a fine weekend in the countryside of the Rio Grande river, and one that we will long remember.
We hiked a few miles of trails at the Petroglyph National Monument on Wednesday and enjoyed finding dozens of real petroglyphs (like this one pictured above). The hike through New Mexico open space land was just as good. A fun day.
