New Mexico

Mining, for a different form of silver...

Lots of bars and restaurants -- apparently the road (NM-14) is popular for weekend motorcycle excursions.

One of the few houses on the main road that hadn't been converted to shops.

Towards the end of my day exploring, I was crossing over railroad tracks when I noticed a train in the distance that didn't look quite like just another freight. Doubling back, I saw it was an Amtrak so I scurried around looking for a place to photograph it. This ended up being the start of what turned out to be multiple sightings (later pictures) of the “Southwest Chief”, here westbound. At this point I was just a couple of miles west of the station it uses for Santa Fe in Lamy, but it was going exceptionally slow and eventually came to a stop.

Amtrak "Southwest Chief" (westbound) in the tiny town of Los Cerrillos, NM.

Amtrak "Southwest Chief" (westbound) in the tiny town of Los Cerrillos, NM.

Had to take a picture of the observation car since the fact that I was there taking pictures meant that I was the object to be observed by many :)

Just a cloud shot..

Quite a bit of history for an almost hidden small town – it’s not visible from the main road. The immediate area of Los Cerrillos was mined for turquoise by Indians until the Spaniards showed up in the 1700’s and began mining for gold, silver, and lead, using the Indians as slaves. Cave-ins though ended up in insurrection and the mines were covered up, laying dormant until Los Cerriollos was rediscovered by prospectors in 1879. Like many mining towns, it rapidly grew and then just as rapidly declined, largely abandoned some time in the early 1900’s. It has been marginally used by tourists and some movies were filmed there, just its current appearance. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Cerrillos,_New_Mexico

Los Cerrillos Opera House. Per the small sign on the wall, it was built in 1881 and used by many traveling shows during Los Cerrillos’s heyday.

Meteorological test -- what's the name for this??? I was in downtown Santa Fe and people were looking up at the sky exclaiming about the meteorological show, which was startling to see. BUT, since we were having light sprinkles of rain, I suspect this was just rain that wasn’t quite falling to the ground. The spectacle was probably simply due to it being very late afternoon and how the sun hit the rain.

I had intended to only use Santa Fe as a base for exploring the general area. Given Santa Fe’s renown as a tourist destination with luxury shops and tourist-focused restaurants, I expected the historic district to be just the sort of area I avoid since I don’t shop, am uncomfortable with crowds of tourists, and prefer restaurants that tell me something about the local people. I was thus somewhat surprised at how pleasant the historic district was, though admittedly I only entered it at times before or after the deluge of tourists.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, built between 1869 and 1886. The statue on the left of a Native American woman is of Tekakwitha, an Algonquin/Mohawk, who lived in the area that is now New York/Canada, converted to Catholicism, and was canonized as Saint Kateri in 2012. Her statue here apparently represents the connection between the indigenous people of the Americas and Catholicism. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kateri_Tekakwitha

New Mexico Rail Runner at Santa Fe Depot. The Rail Runner, named as a play on the state bird (Road Runner) is a 90+ mile commuter rail running from Santa Fe through Albuquerque to Belen, the southern end of Albuquerque metropolitan area. Being a long-time supporter of rail transportation, I was encouraged when I heard that New Mexico had created the system. I wanted to ride it and it was quite affordable, but being designed for commuters, the train's hours didn't fit with my touring the area. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_Rail_Runner_Express

Despite Santa Fe’s historical importance as the state capitol, elevation challenges resulted in transcontinental rail lines not passing through it and passenger service to Santa Fe historically used a spur line and a separate train from the main line. By the time Amtrak took over transcontinental service, the connections to Santa Fe were by bus from a station in Lamy. It is thus not surprising that the train station in Santa Fe is not at all spectacular. Changes in rail capabilities and the creation of the Rail Runner have resulted in quicker access south to Albuquerque, but transcontinental Amtrak connections to Santa Fe continue to be by bus from Lamy.

The Santa Fe Southern Railway is/was a tourist train running historic cars along the historic Santa Fe spur line from the Santa Fe depot to Lamy (see # 0958). The tourist train ran until 2014, was revived at some point, but I couldn’t find whether it continues to operate.

New Mexico Rail Runner at Santa Fe Depot. (See nearby pictures for comment on the depot and on Rail Runner)