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Results for "Abiquiu, New Mexico"

A Southwest Glossary: Architectural Terms N to V

Apr 20, 2017 | , ,

Last year, my readership asked me to devote several posts to a glossary of terms used in Brainwash and Gadgets. Most are specific to the southwestern region of the  United States. I’ve also added a few terms that will appear in CLON-X as Darcy and Rio will return to New Mexico to resolve some unfinished business.

The glossary gives a description of each term and includes a photo(s) for easy identification. I also plan to do a photo blog series showing the exact locations chosen for certain scenes in the novels—for example, the crime scene in the arroyo on Darcy’s land in Taos (Brainwash). The glossary will be divided into three parts: architectural, geographical, and a flora/fauna/miscellaneous terms.

Nicho
Wall niches (recesses), usually arched or rectangular, used to display artwork, photographs, shrines, or santos (religious artworks). See also santo.

Parapet
A low wall that extends above the roofline in pueblo-style architecture and often masks a slightly pitched flat roof. See also flat roof and cricket in last week’s post.

Portál 
Attached, covered porch supported by posts and corbels, the perfect place to watch the sunrise over Taos Mountain or the sunset over Pedernal Mountain. Or you can simply marvel at the flights of hummingbirds zooming back and forth to your feeders.

Saltillo Tile
Terracotta tiles made in Saltillo, Mexico. Used indoors and outdoors for flooring, patios, and wall applications. If laid outdoors, the tiles should be sealed to protect against the weather. Shown on a bathroom floor and wall at Ghost Ranch, Abiquiú, New Mexico.

Santo
The Spanish word santo means “saint” as a noun and “holy” as an adjective. Santos are various religious symbols such as statues of saints, angels, or the Virgin Mary. Photo is a nicho displaying a santo and the framed in talavera tiles. See also nicho.

Talavera 
Colorful hand-decorated Mexican earthenware tiles used for countertops, trim, and backsplashes. The patterns are also available in sinks as well as drawer knobs and cabinet pulls.

Viga
Round log used as ceiling beams, either shaved or raw (debarked). Can be used indoors or outdoors. Indoors, see latillas in last week’s post A Southwest Glossary: Architectural Terms—A to L

 

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Texas: Caprock Canyons State Park, Part 2

Feb 16, 2023 | , , ,

Prior to planning our trip, I asked friends which state park they preferred: Palo Duro Canyon or Caprock Canyons. The resulting fifty/fifty split didn’t help with decision making, so I decided to put both on my list and make my own determination after seeing them. And as I mentioned in last month’s post, Caprock Canyons State Park was en route from our home to Palo Duro Canyon, so it just made sense to include Caprock in our plans.

As a fan of the stark – some might say barren – landscape of Abiquiu, New Mexico, that’s how I pictured Caprock Canyons and that’s precisely what I wanted to photograph: red, rugged sandstone cliffs, sliced with soft beige striations; chasms splashed with orange and pink; and verdant grasslands cutting across the canyon floors.

Before my visit, I had read that out-of-state travelers and, for that matter, quite a few Texans, myself included, don’t even know about Caprock Canyons. It gets overlooked by visitors focused on its more famous neighbor (Palo Duro Canyon) and the completely unnatural Amarillo attraction of Cadillac Ranch. Presumably, the relatively remote location and under-the-radar status were why we found few visitors during our mid-September visit. The crowds of summer were gone and the beat of the park was low-key and tranquil –  a most welcome surprise.

Learn more: https://jefflynchdev.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/those-spanish-skirts/

 

 

 

 

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Utah 2018: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Jul 6, 2018 | , , ,

Calf Creek Falls, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah

Early the next morning we checked out of the Stone Canyon Inn in Tropic and drove to the Escalante Interagency Visitor Center in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSNEM). The staff was very helpful and suggested the Calf Creek Falls hike. The elevation change is minimal, but the trail is sandy, which can make the going strenuous in some sections. The average hiker can complete the six-mile round-trip trek in about four hours, not accounting for stops to snap photos. The main attraction of this hike? The 126-foot-high waterfall.

Dogs are allowed on the trail as long as they are leashed. There are no restroom facilities on the route, and be sure to carry water. You can fill your bottles at the campground faucet, and if needed there is “emergency water” in jugs along the trail. The parking fee is $5. We asked a fellow hiker if he had change for a ten, but he informed us that we could place our annual park pass on the dashboard in lieu of the parking fee. 

As we wound our way through the Gambel oaks, we could hear, and see, the steady flow of Calf Creek, but we never caught sight of any beavers, not even at the beaver ponds. This lush canyon is also on the migratory route for hummingbirds, ravens, peregrine falcons, and spotted towhees. 

In March the National Park Service closed several climbing routes to protect the nesting sites of peregrine falcons. The sites are monitored until the chicks leave and reopened at that time. The American peregrine falcon was near extinction in the 1970s but was removed from the endangered species list in 1999, after twenty years of recovery efforts. I feel fortunate to have heard and seen these predatory birds soaring high overhead as we walked silently along the path toward the falls.

Halfway down the trail I was wondering the same thing another hiker freely expressed when she stopped for a water break. “I hope there’s a payoff.” We heard similar comments as we continued on past the pictographs painted by the ancient Fremont people who inhabited Utah from AD 700 to AD 1300. They lived adjacent to but were distinctly different from the well-known Anasazi culture. Pictographs are painted images, while petroglyphs are carved into the rock surface.

Right about the time I was again wondering if we would ever see this famous waterfall, I heard it—music to my ears as my feet sank lower in the sandy soil and the sun beamed down on my bare arms, and I was growing hotter as the afternoon wore on.

Was the waterfall worth the hike? Yes. I stood at the pool’s edge and let the cool mist wash over me as I stared up at the cliff walls. From every crack seeped water, the moisture nourishing maidenhair ferns and scarlet monkey flowers as they clung to the cracks in the rock facade.

We took a half-hour break and then retraced our steps to the trailhead, making good time on the return trip. On the hike back, when asked by several hikers heading in whether it was worth it, we replied, “Yes, the waterfall is worth it.” We also bumped into several solo hikers who, days earlier, had asked me to take their photos during our hikes in the amphitheater and Weeping Rock. We greeted each other like old friends and shared a water break together.

By the time we pulled into our lodgings for the night, we were ready to prop up our feet and give them a rest. Like the Stone Canyon Inn, the Capitol Reef Resort also offers several lodging options, but unlike Stone Canyon, it has some unique accommodations—Conestoga wagons and teepees. Not interested in roughing it, we had reserved a cabin with a kitchen. The resort does have a restaurant and they serve three meals, but we ate at our cabin because the weather was perfect, we had a nice back patio, and the view was stunning.

Why is it called Grand Staircase-Escalante? https://www.rubysinn.com/why-its-called-the-grand-staircase-escalante-monument/  But why Escalante? Read more about The Old Spanish Trail in a previous post: https://patkrapf.com//2017/07/13/new-mexico-book-settings-abiquiu/

 

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