Week 8: the one with all the doors!
Santa Fe, NM, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Taos Pueblo, Cimarron Campground and the Valle Vidal
Hi, hello, and greetings from New Mexico! Wednesday marked 2 months since we sold our house in Austin, TX to travel full time in our converted camper van - and I’m still pinching myself that it’s not all a dream.
This week’s recap is pretty loooooonnng — there was so much to see and do! So grab a cuppa and settle in to see what we’ve been up to.
Monday: Way too much shopping in Santa Fe!
What a day!
We woke up in Red Cloud Campground in Cibola National Forest, said goodbye to our forest home, and headed to Santa Fe.
First stop, Trader Joe’s! I got my sister a New Mexico tote — we’ve been sending each other TJ’s bags from different places for years, but this is the first one I’m sending her from the road. We loaded up on all kinds of goodies, yum! And we pondered why TJ’s parking lots are all so small! Anyone know?!
Next up was Whole Foods, where got some odds and ends and picked up packages at the Amazon counter.
Then we had to find a UPS store to do some Amazon returns — don’t know why we couldn’t return them at the counter!
After that it was on to REI near the Santa Fe Railyard — the coolest REI we’ve been to yet! I scored some SmartWool socks and a National Parks tee woo hoo!
Then we hit Target to get a few of their store brand tees — we both kind of have a love/hate relationship with them because they’re so cheap and we wonder about their labor practices. But on the other hand they’re the best plain tees we’ve found. Why are plain tees so hard to find, y’all?! I’d love any recommendations — with the only caveat being that we have to be able to easily find them on the road.
Last but not least we went to Walmart to get a cheap tent we could use to try to save our spot when we’re dispersed camping. We didn’t want to use our backpacking tent because we figured someone would steal it for sure!
Our original plan was to spend the night at Black Rock campground in Santa Fe National Forest, but it was completely full when we got there except for one spot that was on such a steep slope that we feared we’d roll out of bed and down the mountain lol!
So we headed up the road to Big Tesuque Campground where we slept in the parking lot. I can’t tell ya how cool it is to be able to pull in at 10 pm and not have to worry about setting up a tent!
Tuesday: Georgia O’ Keeffe Museum
Since we arrived at camp in the dark, it was so cool to wake up and see where we were — I call it poofing in — it’s like we teleported here lol! There were two beautiful waterfalls right next to the parking lot and they sang us to sleep last night.
We couldn’t resist going for a quick hike — it was so beautiful and the tent spots were amazing!
Everything sparkled from last night’s rain and dew as the morning sun filtered through the aspens. I couldn’t stop taking photos.
While we were hiking I got a text from an Austin friend who just happened to be in Santa Fe and asked if we wanted to meet up. The funniest thing is that he was hiking along the same Tesuque River about 7 miles downhill from where we were — how funny is that?
After a quick stop at Sprout’s to pick up a few things we didn’t find yesterday it was on to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum!
But first, a little backstory: when I was going to college at Youngstown State University (YSU) I used to visit the Butler Institute of American Art as often as I could. It’s located right off campus. (In fact, once when the toilet stopped working in my dorm apartment I visited it even more, probably TMI, but I thought it was funny!) My favorite paintings at the Butler were Robert Vonnoh’s In Flanders Field-where Soldiers Sleep And Poppies Grow and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Cottonwood III. I used to imagine I was walking through the landscapes in the paintings, and the stress of exams and work schedules would just drop away.
To go back even farther, my senior year in high school I was at YSU for a journalism conference (I was on the school paper) and the program was pretty much the same as the year before — and I was totally bored. So I skipped out of the conference and went to the museum instead. Somehow the principal found out and I was given my first and only detention. HA!
Then after college I got a macro lens and was experimenting taking pictures of Lindheimer’s morning glory — a blue morning glory — and a coworker saw some of my 4x6 snapshots and paid me the ultimate compliment — he said they reminded him of Georgia O’ and to get them enlarged! So I did. We had one of the prints hanging in our living room for a long time.
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Fast forward to this year and I was so excited to go to the museum!
I don’t feel right posting photos of her finished work — plus my photos wouldn’t do them justice anyhow! — but I thought I’d share some things that made big impressions on me.
Alcalde Sand Hill, Destroyed by the Artist, November, 1952
I absolutely loved seeing this!
The placard reads:
O’Keeffe was often the harshest judge of her own work, and even went so far as to destroy paintings that did not meet her standards. In some cases this was because a work had been damaged — including damage that she considered to have been done by careless conservators. For one reason or another, this painting evidently suffered such a fate.
Jason and I had a laugh about all the times he fished my art out of the trash! :)
Georgia’s Magic Wands
It was so cool to see some of Georgia’s well-loved paintbrushes. And to learn that she added extra pigments to her paints to modify the colors/enhance them.
Last but not least, I had to share one of her unfinished paintings — it’s just lovely and it was so interesting to see how she started building up her layers. I love the soft colors and how the cottonwoods seem to glow. I’ve tried painting cottonwoods many many times and can never quite capture the light.
My mind is still buzzing with ideas from this visit — I now can’t wait to paint some cottonwoods!
After the museum we met up with our friend Matt — hi Matt! Afterward, we went to an art supply store (Artisan, awesome store!) where I picked up a pencil sharpener that would fit my watercolor pencils, went to Annapurna’s for lunch (thanks again to reader Catrina Mia for the recommendation — so good!), and did laundry.
Laundry is never my favorite thing, but this time it was actually pretty fun because our van caused quite a commotion in the parking lot — one guy thought we were YouTubers — and told us we should start a channel! (We both laughed at that!) Another guy stopped to ask how we liked it and gave us pointers on some places to visit, and a sweet lady had never seen a van in person and wanted to know all about it.
After dropping off a few old tees at Goodwill we headed to Las Vegas…New Mexico that is!
Las Vegas, New Mexico
Do you recognize this famous door?
Here’s a hint: the top reads “Absaroka County / Durant, Wyoming” and then underneath, “Sheriff’s Department”.
If you recognized it as the door in the TV show Longmire, you’re right!
Here’s a random fact: we named our van Walter after the sheriff and main character because the books and show really helped get us through the van build for some reason.
Mmmm hmmm yes, it is so.
Storrie Lake State Park, NM
By this time we were both pretty beat from the past few days and all we wanted to do was find a campsite. J’s original plan was to head to Cimarron Campground in Carson National Forest, but when I spied the sun setting over a lake I said “hey, how about we stop here”? And we did!
Just look at our view from camp!
Wednesday: Taos Pueblo and Rio Grande Gorge
Taos Pueblo is a living Native American community that has been continuously inhabited for over 1,000 years.
I had to really let that sink in.
It is a National Historic Landmark as well as a UNESCO World Heritage site at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Our tour guide shared so much interesting history. To this day there is no electricity or running water inside the pueblo walls. Our guide said it was like camping — we can relate to that! It makes the van feel like a palace.
I couldn’t get over all the doors — especially since we learned that the original homes didn’t have doors or windows — they were introduced by the Spanish.
I’ve decided that our next house will have a turquoise blue door!
I felt humbled to be able to visit this special place.
We got the next to the last loaf of bread baked in the outdoor ovens — it was so good! And Jason got me a beautiful bracelet that I’ll treasure forever.
I really admire how the Pueblo people are protecting their culture and keeping their traditions after all that they’ve had to endure.
All too soon it was time to get back on the road — I was sad to leave.
Rio Grande River Gorge Bridge Rest Stop
We’ve visited the Rio Grande River many times at Big Bend National Park so of course we had to stop at and see the Gorge!
Crossing the bridge was super scary — it was a loooooong way down with just a fence between us and the abyss, cars going over the bridge were shaking it, and there was such a strong wind that my glasses were bouncing around on my nose! Eeek! We had to hang on to our hats!
I got vertigo about halfway across and had to force myself to put one foot in front of the other.
But the view was totally worth it.
Then it was finally on to Cimarron Campground in Carson National Forest.
Thursday: Camp Day (The Best Kinda Day)
On our way into camp last night, after a beautiful drive along the Rio Costilla, we saw about 30 elk — the most we’ve seen in one day! Cimarron Campground was nice and quiet and we slept in — felt so good.
Then we decided to go for an easy hike to see the area. There’s a trailhead right next to our site that goes through the forest and then opens up to a beautiful meadow and a series of ponds called the Shuree Ponds.
It started to rain right after I took this photo so we turned back, but then I stopped in my tracks when I saw this amazing flower — we ID’d it to a Gunnison's Mariposa Lily!
Friday: Rainy Day == Another Camp Day!
It rained off and on most of the day today — and some of the storms were severe and the thunder echoed around the mountains. So we mainly stayed in the van — I call it cozy cabin mode. We spent most of the day reading, getting caught up on emails/computer stuff, and we even took a nap.
Needed that.
I always feel guilty if I’m not out doing things while the sun is shining — are you like that?
Saturday: Hiking in the Valle Vidal
Today dawned fresh and clean after yesterday’s storms so we decided to go for a hike in the Valle Vidal — or Valley of Life — such a fitting name for it.
We started down the same trail as Wednesday, but continued on to the valley below.
We followed a mix of trails, old roads and just going cross country — it still boggles my mind that we can do that out here — I’m used to having to stick to trails!
We saw so many cute chipmonks, western tanagers (so beautiful!), robins, butterflies, cool grasshoppers and neat plants, including fringed gentian and fringed sagebrush — gimme all the fringe!
It’s super hard to show the scale of the landscape out here — check out the photo below with a Scout troop on a backpacking trip to get a better sense of these wide open valleys and surrounding mountains.
The best part? Getting to hike next to this beautiful mountain stream.
It looked like a storm was blowing in and we heard thunder off in the distance so we figured we better head back to camp — and we made it back right before the rain came! Whew.
What an awesome 6 mile hike.
For dinner I tried something new — I busted out The Stuffler waffle maker and made pizza waffles with pizza dough from Trader Joe’s in Santa Fe and filled with a mix of bell peppers, red onions, fire roasted corn, kale, nutritional yeast and sauce.
Just form two layers of dough for the top and bottom, put one down, add the fillings, put the other one on top, close the waffle maker, flip over and cook for 10 minutes — and voila!
It was so good y’all — like a Chicago deep dish style pizza. And the van smelled so good, too!
Really hit the spot for this hungry hiker! YUM.
Sunday: A cool, windy end to the week
I can’t believe how fast this week went by and everything we did: from shopping in Santa Fe, to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum, Taos Pueblo, and more.
It all seemed to go by way too fast.
I’m so glad I have this space to record my thoughts to remember them later — and thanks to YOU for following along on our adventures!
I didn’t get to do nearly enough art this week, but I thought I’d share a little tree video I posted on Instagram:
I started practicing trees earlier this summer and I think I’m finally getting the hang of them! Yeah!
Final thought for this week: don’t give up on your dreams — just keep working towards them, one step at a time — and most of all, enjoy the journey.
We plan to slow down next week, and get ready for my time as Artist in Residence at Valles Caldera National Preserve that starts August 6th — cannot wait for that.
Hope you have a great week! — Lisa and Jason
I so love this travel journal. Makes me want to load up our horses, pack my bags, sell my house and head out too! Your work also inspires me to try new things and just get out there. Yes, when the sun is shining, I need to be doing something too!
This is becoming something I look forward to reading each week. So inspiring!