Our friends enjoy travel as much as we do and when we started planning, one of them decided she’d like to meet us in New Mexico. Our friend Emily had been to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta a few years back and had been looking forward to returning. On our way to pick up our bus guest, we stopped at Four Corners Monument Navajo Tribal Park. This park is the only place where four states meet, making it a very unique visit. Our stop was especially unique in that another visitor recorded himself eating a burrito in four states at once (why that was a bucket-list item, we have no idea)! Surrounding the monument, Native artisans have booths; the native crafts range from carved, painted beads to knives with intricate scrollwork. There are centuries-old symbols embossed in leather beside beautifully inlaid stone crafts. It was a lovely experience chatting with the artists about their work and the meaning behind it all.
Once our guest had arrived and we puzzled in the luggage, we started our “Bus Life Crash Course.” We thought that an ideal starting place would be Cracker Barrel - a pretty gentle intro into urban boondocking. After a perfectly unremarkable evening, we made our way to Alamogordo for pistachios and sand dunes. It turns out that pistachios thrive in the desert! One enterprising nut grower devised a clever way to lure visitors to his ranch - he made an absurdly large pistachio sculpture. McGinn’s Pistachioland is a roadside oddity that backs up its oddness with a bevy of pistachio and chile products. There are flavored roasted nuts of every conceivable flavor, shelled and unshelled and spicy brittles. They even have ice cream and wine - but they don’t all contain pistachios.
After going a little nuts we dropped off the dogs at a hotel and headed to White Sands National Park to check out the dunes and do some sledding. Unfortunately we arrived after the gift shop had closed, so we weren’t able to get a sled. We decided to explore the park, but ended up experiencing a little rain. While we were waiting out the rain, the weather decided to take a turn for the worse - developing into a torrential downpour with frequent lightning. Lightning is dangerous everywhere, but especially in deserts where there aren’t a lot of options for conductors. Humans make a pretty compelling target for errant electrical discharges when there aren’t any trees or tall buildings to attract them. We decided to call off our sledding plans and wait for the clear weather the following day.
The next day with clear skies we were free to explore the park and do some warm weather sledding. Emily primarily uses a wheelchair and, fortunately, the park included one accessible trail to view the dunes. We were able to go out onto this pier-like walk and observe the shifting landscape and the mountains in the distance. After that, we found a turnout to try our hand at sand sledding. Turns out, it’s not as easy as it seems! In order to really get moving you need a more substantial slope than we had expected. After waxing up the disc and making a few runs to pack down the sled run, we were able to get moving! It’s an oddly fun sensation to sled down snow white sand and not feel the sting of cold wind on your exposed skin.
From the top of one of the dunes we noticed another short Skoolie approaching - it’s always a thrill seeing Skoolies in the wild! We decided to press the pause button on our sledding endeavors and chat with some fellow bus-dwellers. It turned out that we even had a common acquaintance in the bus world. We toured each other’s rigs and I even offered up some advice for a plumbing issue that they’d been dealing with. After parting ways with our new friends, it was time to return our sleds. We even got koozies for bringing them back! Afterwards we decided to find a good dune to watch the sunset. As luck would have it, we found an abandoned sled where we parked so we were able to get in a few more runs before sundown. We watched a beautiful sunset over the mountains and the dunes. We even managed to get a good photo of us with our handsome, but camera-shy, fur-babies.
We then made our way to Carlsbad Caverns to watch the emergence of the bat colony at sundown! As someone who has a love for many unloved creatures - opossums, raccoons and bats - it was quite a thrill to see such a thriving community! Many bat populations have been stressed by White-Nose Syndrome, which makes it hard for them to continue the important pest-control work that they do. Seeing a rising, funnel-shaped cloud of bats emerge and flit off into the night to eat literal tons of moths, flies and insects was a breathtaking experience. After forty-five minutes or an hour, there were still bats emerging (though with a colony of around 500,000 bats, it’s understandable). The next morning we decided to view the caverns, themselves, and see all of the outstanding geological formations inside. Fortunately the majority of the cavern paths were traversible by wheelchair, so Emily was able to get nearly the whole experience. It was a nice surprise that both of the National Parks we visited in the area had some level of accessibility. On our way out of Carlsbad we decided to check out their river walk. The river walk included beautiful paved paths on either side of the river and even a floating bridge, allowing us to explore both banks. From there, we set off for the legendary Roswell!
Roswell was a surprising little town - one clearly supported by UFOlogists and other extraterrestrial enthusiasts. Aside from a few shiny tourist destinations, the city seemed depressed and rundown. The International UFO Museum and Research Center was one such shiny destination. The pet-friendly (!!!) museum offers testimony and evidence supporting claims of alien contact and conspiracies. The museum, however, quickly transitions to including alien movie paraphernalia and posters. It was a very interesting visit, to say the least. We decided to show our guest another treat of bus life: boondocking on dispersed BLM lands.
The Emilies made vegan sloppy joes while I tackled a silly bus project - finally securing our headboard so we'd stop losing things into the abyss of our garage. After a delicious dinner, we sat by the fire. This was, surprisingly, our first time using our SoloStove, but it was a great experience. After cutting some firewood down to size, since our model is extremely compact, we enjoyed a hot, smokeless fire! (NOT SPONSORED, BUT NOT OPPOSED ;)
The next morning we fulfilled the dreams of Jack Kelly and found Santa Fe! Santa Fe was an exceedingly charming old town, full of beautiful architecture and landscaping, with fountains and wrought iron and courtyards and bold colors contrasting with the ubiquitous earth tones and whites. The covered sidewalks and arcades are a lovely piece of functional architecture, shading pedestrians from the intense Southwest sun. We even found a great little restaurant to try out some of the famous New Mexico cuisine!
We spent another night boondocking in the Santa Fe National Forest before checking out the River Walk along the Santa Fe River. This trail was a little underwhelming when we visited, due to the water level being extremely low. It appeared that the water may have been diverted or a dam was not let out in order to allow for repairs to be made to walls along the river bank. The sidewalks were nice and flat, though, and made for a really nice easy walk. There was even a Little Free Library near a bridge, in case anyone was looking to exchange some reading material before entering the park.
After our morning walk, it was time to meet another friend for brunch! We decided to take another stab at New Mexican Cuisine - we tried sopapilla, blue corn pancakes, piñon and some red and green chile. We all left with full bellies and happy mouths!
I have a bit of crowd anxiety and, for whatever reason, that seems to be greatly exacerbated by places that create sensory overload. Meow Wolf is an interactive art experience that I could tell would be too much for me, so I bowed out and met the ladies afterwards, in Albuquerque. Getting to Albuquerque early allowed me to mess around with the bus to try to diagnose and potentially solve an issue we were having. (Spoiler alert: I didn’t fix it in that small window). Now I’m going to turn the microphone over to my wife so she can describe more about Meow Wolf.
I didn’t know what to really expect when we first stepped foot into the giant immersive experience that is Meow Wolf. And honestly, I think it’s best enjoyed that way, so I’ll keep this relatively short. Just when you think you’ve understood the place, you turn a corner into a new and fantastical world that simply stuns you in an entirely new way. There was a bit of a mystery to solve, and I think focusing on that made the exhibit feel connected and related in a way that enhanced our tour. As mentioned, Emily is a wheelchair user, so there were some challenges here as the exhibit spans two floors. However, with a little help, she’s able to occasionally navigate stairs, so we did do a little planning to make this an easier experience. I thought this would be just a fun afternoon out with my girlfriends, but I also ended up having an extremely fun time and was blown away by how expansive, gorgeous, and fun this experience was.
After Meow Wolf we decided to relax back at the hotel and get ready for an early morning at the Balloon Fiesta. If you weren’t aware, the Balloon Fiesta is the cornerstone of the entire city (Always in Albuquerque, Always in October). It turns out that the unique geography and geological formations of the area create some unique and ideal conditions for ballooning. Albuquerque is located adjacent to the Sandia mountain range, which creates a wind buffer that helps keep weather more mild and safe for ballooning. It is a unique experience to see so many balloons inflating and ascending together; especially to meander between the crews and see things up close. Since you can meander around the fields, you can get up close to these giant balloons as they rise around you. It's incredible to get up close as the balloons inflate and take off in waves into the morning sky. The Fiesta is divided up into two sessions - a morning and evening session. The morning session includes the mass ascension of balloons and in the evening the burners are lit to make a glow. My wife and I actually participated in breaking down a balloon that opted not to launch! We had been chatting with a balloon crew and, when they decided not to ascend they asked if we were feeling strong. We helped roll and pack the envelope, dismount the burner and even pack the gondola into their trailer.
Attending the Fiesta is definitely a unique experience, but not necessarily for everyone. It’s a pretty crowded place, frustratingly organized and you have to arrive early and/or stay late. Ultimately it isn’t something I’d return to, but would consider attending a smaller ballooning event. I really enjoyed assisting the balloon crew and would absolutely consider joining a chase team, who are responsible for the safe return of the balloon and its pilot. The Emilies both really enjoyed picking out their favorite balloons and pointing out the delightful use of color and patterns to make so many of the balloons unique and expressive. Plus, seeing this swarm of balloons rise over the city was pretty impressive!
A particularly charming area of Albuquerque is the Old Town neighborhood. Old Town comprises the original settlement, founded in 1706. The beautiful old architecture made for a charming stroll. The buildings along the town square housed many cute shops and museums. On the afternoon of our visit, a Spanish-language concert was being held on the town square. Walking around, the architectural feature I first noticed in Old Town and absolutely fell in love with was integrated benches. Many corners included stucco ledges where you could relax against a cool, shady wall.
After the Fiesta, we felt it was time to check out some Petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are created when etchings are made into stones covered with desert varnish. This dark, hard coating is scratched away to reveal the lighter colored stone below. One of the most interesting things about petroglyphs is that their meaning may be entirely unknown, though some symbols can be easily discerned. Petroglyph National Monument provided an opportunity to view the symbols up close. The park is broken up into a few different sections, of which we explored Boca Negra and Piedras Marcadas. Boca Negra featured a small asphalt path that wound between and over rocks containing petroglyphs. Piedras Marcadas is located within a residential neighborhood and features sandy paths that were easily traversed. Neither area had much shade and there was no access to water at Piedras Marcadas.
Another beautiful natural area of Albuquerque was The Paseo Del Bosque, which runs along the Rio Grande. The trail is long and gentle, with many parking areas along its sixteen mile expanse. The trail includes both paved areas for walking, running and biking and unpaved areas, which can be used by horses. The bosque is a forest of cottonwood trees, which share their Spanish name with The Alamo. The Paseo Del Bosque provided an excellent place for my wife to continue her running. On our final day in Albuquerque the trail even offered a landing area for a balloonist - though Reese didn’t feel up to assisting the chase crew.
New Mexico was a beautiful state with lush forests, mountains and deserts. It offered a scenic and inviting landscape that we can’t wait to return to. But the thing we REALLY can’t wait to get back to is the New Mexican cuisine! As a couple, Emily and I are on opposite sides of the red or green chile debate; I’m squarely in the red chile camp, while Emily is a green chile girl (though she sees the value in Christmas). We do agree that piñon is a delightful flavor - in both coffee and blue corn pancakes. Speaking of, we were absolutely blown away by how delicious the blue corn flavor was in pancakes! A definite favorite from our eating tour. Frito Pie, which I’d heard of as bag tacos, are also a New Mexican delicacy. We managed to find a restaurant that served a vegetarian version that was really good! Navajo Fry Bread and Sopapilla were both fried dough treats that I can’t wait to try again. Rounding out the delicious treats we sampled in New Mexico were pistachios and prickly pear. We ate pistachio brittle and a variety of flavors of roasted nuts. Prickly pear was an interesting one because the fruit itself was pretty underwhelming - I found it basically flavorless. We did try a prickly pear margarita and some prickly pear candies, however, that were really nice. Overall, eating our way through New Mexico was a very fun adventure!
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