Jones Travels: Taos, NM to Cortez, CO

We spent the day traveling from NM, to AZ and finally to CO. On the way we went over the Rio Grande where the views were wonderful. We went through Carson National Forest (named for Kit Carson) which was beautiful. The area was green and very scenic- you would never know you were in NM. Since we were so close, we stopped by Four Corners (again) and then made our way to Cortez. Our motel is a very homey, retro place complete with pink and turquoise tile in the bathroom!

We are pretty sure that this particular "Mickey and Mallory" is from one of Cleve's favorite movie- Natural Born Killers. There is a scene from a bridge such as this where Mallory's scarf bows off and away. There are numerous locks on the bridge symbolizing love forever.

Below is a community of homes all built to be sustainable and off the grid. They have a variety of styles and much of it is built underground. Very cool concept-

It is hard to tell from this photo, but this valley is scattered with Earthship homes.

The next few photos show our ride through the Carson National Forest- cool temperatures, we hit a low of 52 degrees! Just a reminderr that all of these are in NW New Mexico-

We traveled through this Apache nation and had lunch at the local supermarket.

This is Shiproack- a huge peak that stands over 7,000 feet tall. It can be seen for miles around.

On to Four Corners- we missed a storm but it was still muddy in the parking lot and surrounding area. The wind coming towards here was fierce. I think we rode sideways for 40-50 miles. Most of the wind was coming from our left, but we had one mighty unexpected gust from the right side that nearly blew us over!! I would have taken more photos but was afraid the wind would knock the camera out my hand!