Bear paw print from Maverick campground

This paw print is the talk of the campground this morning.  A bear attempted to find himself a nice beverage in someone’s cooler.  He was bummed to discover they only left him bottled water, and not Evian either.  The night before last the rangers had taken a bear away up into the mountains.

Scott made a delicious breakfast of bacon and sour cream scrambled eggs.  Brooke ate cereal.  Cody was back to his excavation operation armed with Scott’s super shovel.

We set some lofty goals today: Angel Fire Ski Area for Scott to bike down, Taos Pueblo, San Fracisco de Asi’s Church, and the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  If there was time we wanted to stop at McDonald’s to upload some posts and Wal-Mart to stock up.  We never thought we would get it all accomplished with two cuties in tow, but we did.

Angel Fire Ski Resort.  Scott only went down once for $12.  He is still engineering a plan so he can do it again tomorrow.

View from Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, north of Taos

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  At 650 feet above the river it is the second tallest suspension bridge in the United States.

Taos Pueblo

Taos Pueblo - built originally around AD 1450.  It is the first living world heritage site and has been continuously inhabited since 1450.  Scott found out about this place from his Lonely Planet book.  As you can tell from the second picture the afternoon storm rolled in mid-tour.  It was a great relief to have the cooler weather roll in. We started our tour at the San Geronimo Church built in 1850.  It was built to replace the fallen church that was taken down twice during conflict.  The church is still a functioning Catholic church with a public service at 7am on Sundays. Every building is built entirely of adobe.  You could see the bits of straw sticking out of the sun-dried earth bricks.  The structures here and the church below all need continual upkeep as the guide stated, “The earth will once again return to the earth with rain and snow.”  They do not allow any electricity or running water in the village.  There were ladders everywhere, as the original structures did not have doors or windows for protection against enemies.  The villagers would pull up the ladders when intruders encroached and enter their homes through the roofs.

San Fracisco de Asi’s Church

    San Fracisco de Asi’s Church.  The afternoon storm was taking a little longer than usual to pass today, so it looks like the church is under water.  This church is famous for its curvy adobe walls and angels.  It opened in 1815.  Images of this church can be found in Geogia O’Kieffe’s paintings and Ansel Adams photographs.  Scott and I took turns visiting the church since Cody took a short nap en route.  There was a strong peace inside the church.  I would have liked to stay longer, but the family was waiting.

Scott thought these pillows might help with the kids’ comfort when falling asleep in the van.  Brooke knows they go around her neck, but she thought this might be a fun fashion statement.

We decided to come back to the Maverick Campground for one more night.  It is definitely my favorite campground thus far.  It is hard coming back without our previous neighbor, he needed to go back to Texas today.  Our new neighbors are a young college couple.  Thankfully Braelee was here for Cody and Brooke to bike with.  I am going to wrap this up so I can go hiking one more time in this most magnificent landscape.