Taos & Durango

The previous night we had decided the SW was still a little warm and hadn’t found enough to captivate our interest enough to stay another night.  Our original itinerary had us exploring Taos and staying in that area.  That plan was scrapped and we decided we would push on, perhaps as far as Moab or further. 

The drive from Santa Fe to Taos was gorgeous!  We took the “High Road to Taos”.   In our opinion, it was a much prettier drive than the Turquoise Trail.   Laura had been to Taos previously many years ago.  Her eagerness to get there was met with some disappointment.  The Taos she remembered was much more quaint than the touristy bustle that the town seemed to be these days.  We did a drive-by to the old pueblo then headed out of town towards Durango.  Not too far out of town we stopped at the impressive bridge over the Rio Grande.  The view of the canyon was amazing!  Chewy and I wandered to the middle of the bridge to check out the vista as Laura stayed behind to check out the crafts being peddled by the locals at the foot of the bridge.  Between the wind and big trucks crossing the bridge, there was enough movement of the bridge when standing in the middle to make it a bit unsettling.  It was a long fall to the river at the bottom of the canyon.  After a few minutes Chewy was looking at me with a face that said “we need to get off here”!  As we headed to find Laura, we stopped to investigate a local who was selling elk and deer antlers.  Chewy was captivated like a kid in a candy store.  She loves gnawing on antlers.  We picked out a beat up old elk antler and negotiated a fair price.  

By the time we made it to Durango, we were ready to call it a day.  Laura had done some research as we drove…Durango appeared to be a good place to hang out for an evening.  There was a pretty good storm pouring down as we dropped the trailer at the campsite and headed into town.   By the time we made it back to town, the storm had passed and the sun popped out.  Our original hopes of finding somewhere with an outdoor patio to sit with Chewy and have dinner were squashed.  Having some difficulty trying to find a place to eat, we opted for a burger and fries to go…then headed to Durango’s five acre dog park.  It was a great place for all of us to stretch our legs after being in the car all day.  As darkness approached we headed back to camp.  That night there was a massive thunderstorm.  Our campground was in a box canyon to the west of town that had a decent size creek about 30 yards from our campsite.  I kept hoping that the rain was not going to have us floating down the canyon.  It sure seemed like it was a possibility.  By morning there was only one tent remaining in the campground.  Enough of Colorado…