Travelogue

We left Santa Fe and drove north on the "High Road to Taos," the most scenic route between the two cities. Our intention was to explore and spend the night in Taos--I say intention because we somehow managed to totally miss Taos, but that comes later. The drive was beautiful, winding through small, isolated mountain towns that seemed little changed since they were first settled by the Spanish centuries ago.

Sanctuario de ChimayoOur first stop was at the Santuario de Chimayo, a small Spanish church that has become known as the "Lourdes of America" because of its legendary healing powers. The story of the church is an interesting one. Back in the early 1800s, a friar approached a light he saw bursting from a hillside and found a crucifix in a hole. He removed the crucifix and brought it to Santa Cruz, but it kept disappearing and reappearing back in its original hole. Thinking that this was a sign of some sort, the crucifix was left in its original hole and a small chapel was built around it. That's when the miraculous healing began. So many people came to the chapel to be cured that in 1816 the small chapel was replaced with a larger adobe mission, which is the current Santuario de Chimayo.

Thinking a little miraculous healing would do us some good, we made a beeline for the small room off the sacristy which contained the hole where the crucifix was originally discovered. Supposedly, the dirt in here is the good stuff that has the power to heal, and no matter how much is removed, it miraculously replenishes itself.

We weren't sure just where to start. We had had a pretty rough start to our summer. Our trip this year almost didn't happen because of Herb's 4-week-long undiagnosable fever. During that time, he was poked and prodded by dozens of doctors unable to discover the source of his problem. One week it was thought to by lymphoma, the next prostate cancer. Then the fever just went away, and so did we. We just loaded up the RV, a month later than planned, and headed west. So now here we were in a Spanish mission in one of the most remote villages in New Mexico, poised in front of a pit of healing dirt--me a breast cancer survivor and Herb with some unknown ailment. Always the analytical ones, we were somewhat skeptical yet willing to give it a go. "How do we do this?" we wondered. What if we aren't actually sick now? Would it still work prophylactically? Do we have to rub the dirt on the site of the ailment? If so, who's going to put dirt on Herb's prostrate? And so on and so on. Finally, I discreetly reached down for some dirt and rubbed it on my chest. Herb still just stood there unsure of what to do. Not wanting to monopolize the healing dirt, I quickly picked up some more dirt and rubbed it on Herb's navel--close enough.

Back on the road to Taos, we continued our scenic drive through forests and small, remote hillside villages. It was really very pretty. As we neared the village of Pilar, we began looking for the road that would lead us up to the Taos Box Canyon West Rim trailhead, a mountain biking trail that sounded really great--7 miles along the very brink of the canyon's rim. Since the directions in the guidebook were pretty confusing, we stopped in a Bureau of Land Management Office where we spoke to a rather unfriendly Native American ranger. He gave us directions, which included mostly dirt roads, but assured us that it was RV friendly.

Naively, we believed him and turned off the High Road to Taos and onto the road he described. At first, the road was quite nice. It was paved and ran along the Rio Grande River past several nice places to camp. Then at the bridge, we turned north onto 567 as the ranger told us, rather than east towards Taos. That's when things got ugly. It had to be absolutely the worst road we have ever been on--dirt, practically straight up, and with turns so tight that Herb would yell, "Lean to the right! or Lean to the Left!" and we would scamper madly across the RV to help keep it from tipping. I admit to having some very uncharitable thoughts about the ranger around this time. To make matters worse, there was no going back--there was no place to turn around and backing down was completely out of the question. Having no choice, we continued the twisting climb out of the canyon. Finally, we reached the rim and the road leveled off. Now what? There was nothing up here--no people, no trees, no signs. After some futile attempts at finding the trailhead (and not really feeling comfortable about leaving the RV here unattended), we decided to forget about the mountain biking. "Let's just go to Taos," I said. Easier said than done. There was no way we were going to go back down the horrible road we just came up, and to get back across the Taos Box Canyon would take us over 50 miles out of our way.

Anyhow, that's how we missed Taos...

Description

The High Road to Taos is the most scenic route between Santa Fe and Taos. Starting from the village of Espanola it travels east on Route 76 to the village of Chimayo before heading north on Route 518. During its 54 miles, it winds through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains through small, isolated mountain towns that seem little changed since they were first settled by the Spanish centuries ago.

Boys at the SanctuarioOne of the most remote mountain villages along the drive is the village of Chimayo, where families still maintain the traditions of crafting hand-woven textiles, as their ancestors have been doing for 7 generations. Just one mile south of the town is the Santuario de Chimayo, an old Spanish chapel that is considered by many to be the "Lourdes of America" because of its legendary healing powers.

The history of the church is an interesting one. Around 1810, a Chimayo friar was performing penance when he noticed a light bursting from a nearby hillside. He followed the light, dug a hole and found a crucifix . He removed the crucifix and brought it to Santa Cruz, but it kept disappearing and reappearing back in its original hole. Thinking that this was a sign, the crucifix was left in its original hole and a small chapel was built around it. That's when the miraculous healing began. So many people came to the chapel to be cured that in 1816 the small chapel was replaced with a larger adobe mission, which is the current Santuario de Chimayo. Today more than 300,000 people a year visit the Santuario to dip their fingers in the healing dirt of the hole where the crucifix was originally found.

The drive continues north on 518 through more forests and remote villages. At the end of the High Road is Ranchos de Taos, where Georgia O'Keefe painted the 18th century mission church, San Francisco de Asis. From here Route 68 continues on into the village of Taos.

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