Santa Fe Part 2

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We had some more museums to visit that were part of the Culture Pass we had purchased earlier in our stay. The ones we planned to visit are not in downtown but in a section about 2 miles to the south of town fittingly called Museum Hill. The Museum of International Folk Art and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture are located 500 feet from one another on either side of a plaza. We started at the former arriving shortly after it opens at 10 AM. We knew there was a scheduled docent tour of the folk art museum at 10:30 and figured that was the best way to experience the art as well as learn about the history of the pieces in the museum.

Miniature Stage

Figurines

It turned out that we were the only people looking to do the tour so we knew we would get a nice personal tour. Our docent was quite well versed in the museum and its artwork. Founded in 1953 by Florence Bartlett. The first building displays the wide variety of art she collected from all over the world during her lifetime. It’s an eclectic collection of art with no specific theme other than if she liked something, she bought it and it’s now on display.

Embroidery Work

Ceramic Pot

Detailed Pinata

It turns out there is an even larger collection of art in the lower level archives. There simply is enough space to display everything that she collected over her lifetime. It sort of reminded us of the Shelburne Museum in Vermont that we visited in June of 2024. That museum had an equally large and varied collection of things although admittedly the one up north had larger items like a ship, covered bridge, train and barn as part of it’s collection.

We concentrated on a handful of stops as we wandered the various rooms to get a more in depth explanation of the art and in many cases the meaning of the art. With a group our size, it’s hard to hide in the back when the docent asks us what the piece looks like to us.

Textile Artwork

Paper Mache Mask

Assorted Masks

After a lengthy tour, we wandered around on our own. Hitting portions of the museum that weren’t part of the tour and also going back to some areas that were just to get a better look at some of the art. One area that was novel was an area where visitors are permitted to and even encouraged to create their own art. But instead of chalk, or markers or pens, visitors are provided with a large piece of fabric stretched in a frame and needles and colored thread to sew whatever you want. The one in progress was nearly full and several completed panels were hanging on the wall nearby.

Visitor Sewing Panel

Owl Pottery

One of the things we learned about during the tour was something we have seen elsewhere in our travels in New Mexico but didn’t understand the meaning of the art until now. The art is made from ceramic and had intricate design and painting. There is a large figure - the storyteller - and several smaller figures represent children. The storyteller is passing along the history of their people to the younger generations. Now some of the other ones we saw make sense.

Storyteller

Another Storyteller

It was just after noon, so we grabbed our cooler from the car and found a picnic table in the courtyard to eat lunch. Afterwards, we head into the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

Large Sculpture Outside Indian Arts Museum

The good thing about this museum is that there is a common theme. The art comes from a wide range of tribes in the New Mexico area but the differences in art are too subtle for our eyes to distinguish.

"Apache Crown Dancer"

Vest and Mocossins

Large Pottery Collection

As we were admiring the art in one section of the museum, a docent walked up to us and stared to talk to us about things we were looking at. We hadn’t been looking to get a docent’s perspective, but welcomed her knowledge. We ended up chatting with her about our travels and she gave us some other places we “must” see while we are in the area. Her feedback would actually influence what we would do in the remaining week we have in town.

Dancers

Fishing

There was definitely some beautiful art to be seen here. They have a couple areas with videos playing where a particular artist explains their work and what the inspiration was for a given piece.

Colorful Painting

Intricate Ring

The one unexpected piece of art was a 1974 Triumph TR6. I remember these from my early teenage years and always liked their looks. Turns out the car was donated to the museum back in 2002 and 11 artists transformed it into a moving work of art. The car was raffled off as a fundraiser but the winning bidder generously donated the car back to the museum so it can now be seen by every visitor. We really enjoyed the several hours we spent on museum hill today.

One of a Kind Triumph TR6

One thing I didn’t mention about the campground we are staying at - Santa Fe Skies RV Park. There is a different kind of art all scattered around the campground. This art is mainly old equipment like tractors, bulldozers and similar construction vehicles. To some degree it looked like there was a lot of old scrap left here after the land transitioned from its previous use to the present day campground and they simply didn’t want to deal with removing it so they kept it all as art. We never seemed to have the energy when we got back to camp after a day of hiking or sightseeing to check out the campground but the one night we had a pretty sunset and I had to get a couple pictures.

Sunset at Santa Fe Skies RV Park

Road Grader "Art"

The next day was July 4th and a Saturday, so we knew it might be crowded on the trails but we were hoping to beat the heat by trying a hike in the mountains northeast of Santa Fe. Our goal was a to hike a series of 3 trails that are about halfway up the mountain on the way to the ski resort. We will start out on the Borrego Trail then switch to the Windsor Trail and finish up the loop on the Bear Wallow Trail. AllTrails lists this loop as 4.1 miles and 866 feet of elevation gain. It sounds like a decent hike and since we will be at roughly 8900 feet in elevation, we hope it will be a bit cooler. We make it to the trailhead parking and find the lot already full but there was also some limited parking along the road and we snagged one of the last legal spots before heading out.

Borrego Trailhead

After a half mile of downhill hiking, we come to the beginning of the loop portion of the hike that forms a triangle around a large hill. The trail map suggests going in a clockwise direction but we also have a couple of geocaches to look for and one of them is on top of the hill the trail goes around. There is not a path to the cache so I had studied the topo maps in advance to try to determine the best approach. It made more sense for us to go in the counterclockwise direction to hit our potential ascent earlier in the hike while the legs were still fresh. It’s about a 200 foot climb to get to the top of the hill from this spot but I wasn’t able to know what the vegetation or rock outcroppings might be like so we were going to adjust our plan based on current conditions. As we got to the spot I thought made sense, there was a couple resting on a fallen log during their hike. It didn’t look like they were taking off any time soon, so we opted to tell them why we were going to head off trail into the woods and up the hill. We talked for a long time and explained geocaching. They seemed intrigued and wished us luck.

The woods were very open at this point which made selecting a path up much easier. We were able to zigzag to reduce the slope and not have to deal with fallen trees, branches or even much scrub. Then we noticed some circular burn areas all along the hillside.

Remains of Burned Brush Pile

It turned out that this past winter, the area had been cleaned up and all the deadwood was stacked into small teepee shaped forms and burned over the snowy season. How did we know this? Well when we made it to the top of the hill and walked along the ridge line towards the ammo can to sign the log, we saw that the Santa Fe Hotshot crew had been up several times in January burning the piles and had even spotted the container while working and actually signed the logbook.

Ridge Along Top of Hill

Well Visible Ammo Can

Hotshots Signed the Logbook

The woods were open enough to get some nice views from up here and we easily made it back down the hill to continue the rest of the hike. The trails were in good shape but I kept a close eye on whether there might have been an even easier approach to the cache.

View Near Cache

Bridge

Switchback

Trail intersections were well marked which was good since there are lots of trails throughout this part of the forest so it could be easy to miss a turn and head off our intended route. There were a fair number of wildflowers in bloom.

Marked Trail Intersection

Vibrant Bloom

Primrose

Only one part of the loop had some rock outcropping to climb up and over but for the most part the trail was quite pleasant although a bit steep on some sections. As we finished up the loop, I came to the decision that there was not a better approach for the cache on the hill. In fact some approaches would have been outright impossible and fairly dangerous to even try. All in all a very nice hike. Of course our diversion increased the distance to 4.8 miles and the elevation gained to 1245 feet, but we’ve come to expect any hike that includes geocaching will bump up the figures over the published stats.

Butterfly Feeding

Outcropping Obstacle

Insect Flies in to Delicate Flower

The next-door neighbor to us at camp has stayed seasonally here for many years, so we asked him where was a good place to go to watch the Santa Fe fireworks. He told us we would have a great view right from our campsite. The park where they are shot from is just over 5 miles away but there aren’t many obstacles between us and the park where they are launched from. We liked that answer since it meant we didn’t need to drive and deal with the heavy traffic afterwards. What was interesting was that there seemed to be a fair number of places shooting off fireworks besides the town sponsored ones. So we had lots of them going off all along the skyline.

Overlooking Santa Fe After Sunset

When the main show started in downtown, there were fewer ones going up in the outer neighborhoods. There was also a drone show that was part of the fireworks but from this distance, I couldn’t get any good shots like I had during the Oshkosh Air show last year.

Shooting pictures of fireworks is a bit of a matter of taking lots of pictures and figuring out which ones I like after the fact. As it turns out I shot about 150 frames, picked about 25 that were interesting and narrowed it down to the ones I add to the blog.

The show lasted for about 45 minutes and it was pretty good.

Once the main show was done, the people in the neighborhoods seemed to continue their displays sporadically for another half hour or so but it eventually quieted down and we could get a good nights sleep.

Grand Finale

The following day we switched back from hiking to a culture day, but this time we wouldn’t go to a specific museum but an section of town that is full of art galleries and studios as well as restaurants and other cute shops. Historic Canyon Road has over 74 galleries. The bulk of them are along a 2/3 mile stretch of the road but just about every building along here has some art or craft on display and being a holiday weekend, the place was open and crowded with people like us.

Loads of Blooms

One of Many Galleries

There are some very talented artists displaying their crafts and the variety of art is pretty amazing with almost all of it being unique, unusual or beautiful - or all 3 at once.

Large Bird

Water Fountain

Butterfly on Gator

We walked through almost all the shops that had outdoor art exhibits and selectively picked which ones we entered since it would have been overwhelming to peruse all the shops.

Flower Painting

One of the shops we stopped at and went into had stone benches, chairs and even rocking chairs made of stone. The woman that owned the shop came out to talk me into one of the double rockers I was eyeing. I chuckled and explained how something like this, though while very beautiful, could not fit into our current lifestyle. As we talked, it turned out she has been contemplating selling the business to a family member and starting to travel the country in a small motorhome. She had all sorts of questions and we talked for quite some time to give her some ideas and suggestions that might help her if she makes the leap.

Double Stone Rocker

Building Mural

Another studio had a yard full of various whirligigs and windmills. They were so mesmerizing to watch since there was enough of a breeze to get them going.

Windmills

We spent well over 2 hours taking in just a fraction of what there is to see. If or when we decide to get a “real” house again, we will need to remember Canyon Road to help fill the place with really cool artwork. Of course it might need to be a huge place given how much we found that we liked.

Horse Sculptures

Beautiful Stone Wall