Did you ever ask yourself "Why did I choose to come to this place?" Well, I asked myself that a few times over 4th of July weekend in Taos, New Mexico. Don't get me wrong, I like Taos and it was nice to get a chance to spend some time there.
My first visit was 3 years ago when I drove through on the way to White Sands in southern New Mexico. We were delivering Heather to Roswell for her first year of college and since all her gear required 2 vehicles I took off early and made a side trip to White Sands for a little photography time. Since I had no time crunch I decided to detour through Taos and see if it was worthy of more time. I spent an hour walking around Taos Pueblo before driving through town and on to Santa Fe and points south.
The next visit was a year ago. We picked Heather up in Roswell after the school year ended, dropped her off at the airport in Albuquerque for a visit to Erin's house in Phoenix, and drove to Taos to spend the night. We took the High Road from Santa Fe to Taos and spent some time photographing old mission churches at Chimayo, Las Trampas, and Picturis. It was a grand day and I got some of my favorite images. We had a nice supper in Taos and I was up at sunrise to photograph San Francisco De Asis church in Rancho de Taos. It's easy to see why this building attracted such artistic notables as Georgia Okeefe and Ansel Adams and why it is now the most photographed church in America. After breakfast we spent a couple of hours going through the shops on the Plaza before heading home, vowing to return when we could spend some more time.
So why ask myself "why?" Well, it sounds funny but this had some of the same characteristics of our Alaska Cruise in 2005. On that trip, by the time we got to Skagway we'd seen the same tourist trinkets and baubles in the same kind of stores twice before. In Taos, going through the shops on the Plaza, I got the same impression. Same stuff, different day. So why did we elect to spend 3 days here? An excellent question.
Maybe it was the food. I had Pasta Bolognese at The Trading Post Grill on Friday night and it was really good. And the breakfasts whipped up by Charles at American Artists Gallery Bed and Breakfast were amazing. Veggie breakfast burritos one morning, scrambled eggs with peppers and onions accompanied by turkey sausage the next, blue corn pancakes with blueberries the final morning. Good stuff. And of course the Beef Tenderloin tournados at Lamberts on Saturday night. The service sucked...it was over an hour between the time we ordered and our food arrived but when it got there all was forgiven. It was marvelous. And don't forget Saturday's lunch at Taos Diner. Really good pulled pork bbq sandwich. Yeah, maybe the food had something to do with it.
Probably, though, it is the history and the architecture. I'm a big fan of the historical period of the early to mid 19th century in the West and I'd read about Taos being a very popular spot for trappers and mountain men to winter. Kit Carson and Charles Bent were two of the most prominent citizens of Taos during that period. And I mentioned the church architechture before. Just look at the images contained here.
So while it may be same old, same old as far as the merchandise in the shops, there are a lot of other things to bring me back. And I will be back. Just not sure when.
Bill: This is some of your best work, my friend. Powerful. That last image, with the faint shadow of a cross on the adobe wall - WOW! That's what photography and art is all about. If I may, I'd like to recommend that you consider printing that one on canvas. I think the texture would enhance what is already a stellar image.
ReplyDeleteOh...really nice read, too! Sorry, I was just so moved by the images that I almost forgot to mention that I enjoyed the post. Ha!