We headed south/southeast on Hwy 9 to Hwy 50 and landed at a KOA campsite in Pueblo, CO, for the night.
Driving down the open road of Hwy 25 South, the view was mostly brown fields housing antelopes, cows, and horses. I took some pictures but you can’t really make out what I was seeing from the truck window. Any remnants of snow quickly disappeared while the temperature rose. We crossed over the border into New Mexico (I missed the Welcome sign), and within a few hours we had made it to our home in Santa Fe for the next two nights.
Since it was St. Patrick’s Day, I just HAD TO HAVE corn beef and cabbage. We found a pub, Second Street Brewery, that had the food AND entertainment.
The only problem was that they did NOT serve Irish Soda Bread. I made Scott stop at Whole Foods on the way home so that I could purchase a loaf. To close out our evening, we enjoyed my favorite St. Patrick’s Day beverage, a Green Goddess, while we finished off the Irish Soda Bread. Yes, we ate the whole thing.
The following day, we both agreed that we needed to move our bodies. It had been quite some time since we had been on a hike together, and we needed to detox our bodies from yesterday’s festivities. Scott had to work on the truck first to replace the tongue jack, so I did laundry and started this blog. By early afternoon, we took off on an eight-mile round-trip hike with an elevation gain of 1,821’ adjacent to St. John’s College.
St. John’s Santa Fe campus is located at the foot of Monte Sol, on the eastern edge of Santa Fe, at 7,300’. It is known for its distinctive curriculum centered on reading and discussing the Great Books of Western Civilization. I didn’t realize that St. John’s has no religious affiliation, yet it is called St. John’s. We began at St. John’s College Trailhead (see bottom of map) and continued on the Atalaya Trail to the peak.
About an hour into the hike, we came across this option.
We chose the Steeper Route and soon needed to don our micro spikes. Close to the summit, we stopped to take in the view of the Capital City of Santa Fe.
Scott soon identified the “peak” at 9,121’, and I asked him to pose for me.
On the way back down, we decided to take the Easier Route to see what we had missed.
As we neared the end of the our four-hour hike, I wondered if the running water was just from the melting snow.
Our plan was to leave Santa Fe early the following day. Check out time was 12:00 noon. We got the trailer ready to go and left with just the truck to head into the historical part of town. I really wanted to see St. Francis of Assisi Church. We had to wait over an hour since it didn’t open up to the public until 9:30 a.m. It was only 8:30. Someone was impatient.
So, we walked around a little bit and I took some more pictures. Here is the Santa Fe Inn and Spa at Loretto. Too bad that we didn’t go in for a massage. Don’t you love the adobe structure?
Next to the Spa was the Loretto Chapel with the Miraculous Stairway.
On the tree in the background are rosary beads hung on the branches. Here is a closer look.
We still had some time to kill, so we stopped for a coffee at a local coffee shop. It was pretty chilly this morning.
Yes, I got the special, Mexican Mocha…sweet!!
It was almost 9:30 so we headed back to the church. On the way we passed a parking garage. Yes, a beautiful parking garage. I thought it was an apartment. Go figure.
The church was right around the corner from this parking garage. Below you can see the side view of The Cathedral Basillica of St. Francis of Assisi as Scott approaches it ahead of me.
The front of the church was adorned with a statues…
…and a labyrinth. I walked it and counted all 700 stones while we waited earlier this morning. Sorry, no picture available. Scott was walking around somewhere while I was deep into counting.
Inside the church were beautiful columns, stained glass windows, and a very simple yet elegant altar.
The church was on a quiet street, and behind the church to the right was a Stations of the Cross Prayer Garden.
Here are photos from two of the stations. It was quite moving for me. They were a little scary looking but obviously it took a long time for someone to carve these figures with such detail.
Scott caught me deep in thought as I stared at the statue.
We returned to the RV park and hooked up the trailer. It was time to say goodbye to New Mexico for now.
