Chana Day 2 – Scenic Drive #6
Saturday, October 19, 2024
We slept in until nine today and when we got up, we saw why we slept so late. It was very dark outside and was raining pretty hard; it looks like our luck had run out and we were in for a rainy day.
The plan for the day was to drive south of Chama on scenic byway #6 from the book. Despite the heavy rain we decided to go ahead with our plans and after getting ready and a quick breakfast, we were on the road by ten. We had driven the first part of our drive today on previous visits to Chama and as we headed south, we made several side trips to revisit several places we had previously been.
The first was to the village of Los Ojos where Tierra Wools had been located. Tierra Wools is a company formed by local sheep owners and weavers as a way to get their wool and weavings to the public. They made wonderful products that were not only beautiful, but very well made. We bought quite a few things on our previous visits, but they had moved since we last visited so all that was left was the old building.
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| Our drive today (the violet line on the map) is Scenic Drive #6 from the book. A note about the maps: all of the designated scenic drives will be colored lines with the drive numbers from the book beside them. The color has no significance other than to keep them separate. The black lines are roads we drove to get from one place to another that weren't listed in the book, but that doesn't mean they weren't scenic as most of these back roads are. |
After leaving Los Ojos, we got back on the main highway and continued south. We drove through some beautiful country, but unfortunately with the dark skies and heavy rains all we could do was drive through it. We did want to make one stop at a place called Echo Amphitheater that was a large natural amphitheater that time and the elements had hollowed out in a cliff. It got its name because its natural acoustics would make echoes from even small sounds.
Unfortunately, we will never find out whether that’s true or not as the entrance to the area was blocked off. It is a forest service area and campground and for a reason not stated, they had closed the area, so after a brief stop at the barriers, we got back on the highway and continued south. There was another area called Ghost Ranch that was a privately owned area that was used for events and conferences, but we decided it wasn’t worth braving the rain to visit and continued on.
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| We had hoped to visit Echo Amphitheater, but all we found was a locked gate and keep out signs. |
The end of the scenic byway was the small town of Abiquiu that was the home to artist Georgia O’Keefe during the last part of her life. We stopped at Bosshard Gallery and Historic Mercantile that had art from around the world, but mainly from the New Mexico Pueblos. In our younger days Val and I collected many artifacts including rugs and pots from the Navajos and Pueblos, but we are trying to downsize so we controlled ourselves and didn’t buy anything.
We left Agiquiu and started back north towards Chama. It was still raining when we left, but it looked brighter ahead and sure enough, the rain let up and the sun started peeking through in some places. On the way back, we stopped at an area of red rock formations that was reminiscent of Southern Utah. The rain had stopped so we were able to get out and walk around and take some pictures.
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| The morning rain had created a little waterfall. |
After that we drove further north and once again stopped at the Echo Amphitheater and walked a ways past the barrier until we got to a second barrier and decided we probably shouldn’t go any further.
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| The barricade was as far as we got. |
We made one more side trip before getting back to Chama to the small town of Brazos. In one of our previous visits, we had met our friend John there and stayed at a Bed and Breakfast. The town was very small with most of the buildings abandoned and in disrepair, but the B&B was very nice in a very old, but renovated building. Today the town was still mostly deserted, but there were a few more people living there and it looked a little more prosperous. The B&B building was still there and looked very well maintained, but there was no sign that it was still a B&B.
We had one more stop to make before getting back to Chama and lunch, we wanted to stop at the new location of Tierra Wools. It was just south of Chama and in a beautiful location. We talked to the lady there and she told us they had moved about six years ago because the building they were in was in disrepair and the owner wouldn’t make any repairs. One byproduct of moving is they are now on a main highway near Chama, so they get a lot more traffic than they did in the small out of the way village of Los Ojos.
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| They were giving weaving lessons while we were there. |
Also, for various reasons, it is no longer a cooperative and is now owned by one of the former members of the cooperative. They still use local wool, and everything is made by local weavers. It is such an amazing place with all sorts of woolen goods of very high quality. I saw a rug I really would have liked to have, but Val reminded me that we are downsizing, and we just can’t keep adding things to our house. We bought a couple of things for Christmas presents, but other than that, we left empty handed.
It was past two and we had a very small breakfast, so we started looking for a place to eat, but the place we had chosen closed at two and it was nearly three , so we went back to Our Mom and Dad’s Café and had lunch. After that it was back to our motel for a little relaxing.
I downloaded the days pictures and worked on the blog and then we looked at our pictures from the last few days. Tomorrow, we leave Chama and head east driving three more scenic drives from our list. The weather forecast looks more promising for tomorrow so hopefully it is correct.
Scenic Drives Completed: 2 of 35
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| This is an overview map of our travels as we make our way around New Mexico that I'll be showing as we finish an area and move to another. You can tell from the amount of maps i post, that I really like maps. All my life when I've looked at a map and see all the roads and towns, it makes me want to go out and explore them, and I’ve spent a lot of my life doing just that. |
