The High Road

    After spending week 1 in Santa Fe, we were headed to Taos for week 2, house 2. We were all excited to move to a new home and see new sights, and it was especially exciting that we were taking the scenic route, called the High Road to Taos, a journey that exposed us to so much more culture and environment than the interstate. The first stop was the Santuario de Chimayo, an old, sacred church in the mountains. The catholic church was built in 1816 in the small village of Chimayo, and is known widely as a pilgrimage destination. A dirt path led us past an old horse, whose fence was filled with crosses made of various materials, then up to a courtyard. The adobe and wooden church, with its mountain backdrop, was beautiful. The village and the church itself had such a distinct feel; this is how I described it at the time, and I'm still not sure that I can pinpoint what that feeling was. It was peaceful, but really it just felt so spiritual, sacred, and full of history. Quietly sitting in the church, I sort of understood the claims of its power. We each gathered a small bit of sacred dirt from the crucifix hole, which is said to be miraculous. After a delicious lunch of green chile tamales at Leonita's de Chimayo, we got back on the road.
    Next stop was Truchas. Truchas is a small town with a spectacular view of the mountains, and is a point of focus in the novel Understories, by Jake Kosek (which I recommend). The town was just how I pictured it while reading the book: huge piles of chopped wood sat outside humble houses, all overlooking the National Forest. Being Monday, there were few people around, but some roadside workers looked up to watch as we passed. A small weaving studio displayed incredible blankets, and there were a couple other small artist studios, but other than that there was a single bar next to an old general store. Truchas is also the setting of the film "The Milagro Beanfield War". I found the town intriguing, perhaps because it showed a somewhat different aspect of northern New Mexican culture than we'd previously seen. 
    A few miles down the road, we stopped in Las Trampas, another little town with an old church at the center. Here we walked down the road to see the last wooden canoa, the part of an acequia that carries the water across a ravine. It's sad to think of plastic piping replacing this traditional structure, which looked so natural and right in the landscape. Anyways, the rest of the High Road was a windy road through the forest, which eventually opened up to Taos, a sunny town completely surrounded by mountains, in which we'd spend the following seven days.
    -Emily Deitchler