Ten years since my last visit to Santa Fe, I found some new RV parks to consider. One called HIPICO Santa Fe caught my attention for a couple reasons. One, it was on the SW side of town, where I wanted to be. Second, it is primarily an equestrian event center that just happens to include parking for RVs, a requirement if you expect people to bring their horses to shows.
HIPICO is a huge facility with stables and paddocks for hundreds of horses, indoor and outdoor arenas for jumping, dressage, etc, and a polo field. I was a little disappointed at first, the place clearly had not fully recovered from a winter of non-use. During the week, however, much progress was made in cleaning up, organizing, irrigating, etc, so it began to look presentable in time for some events at the end of my week long stay. I was therefore happy with my choice.
I came to Santa Fe with a plan to do several things not done on previous visits. There was no intention to re-do the typical tourist activities, since I did most of them years ago. The first night here was the night before the super moon, so I went out to get a photo of the almost totally full moon and , hopefully, a sunset. The moon was nice, although shrouded a bit in wispy clouds, and the sunset was pretty good.
The following night, the full moon rising over the mountains really did look super.
My first day trip was to the town of Pecos and the National Historic Park located there. It is much like the ruins in Salinas visited only days before, but still something I found interesting. The Pecos Pueblo was active from 1350 until 1838. It was prosperous and very powerful. When the Spanish arrived, things changed dramatically, as the natives were subjected to harsh treatment and forced to accept a new religion. A mission church was built through slave labor. By 1680, the Pueblo joined with others in a revolt that drove the Spanish out, at least temporarily. By then, however, attacks by Apaches, Navajo and Comanches were too much to endure. In 1838, the last remaining members of the pueblo moved in with the Jemez Pueblo for better security.
I also took the time to drive the road that follows the Pecos River to its source in the mountains.. It was a beautiful drive, but produced no photos. The Pecos is such a popular trout fishing stream, there are many attractive B&Bs, lodges, dude ranches and other accommodations. So much private property prevented good views of the river itself.
Meanwhile, my time around the RV park was enjoyable due to the many birds that are naturally attracted to such a place.
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| Western Meadowlark |
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| Horned Lark (Female) |
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| American Pipit |
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| Brewer's Blackbird (Female) |
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| Brewer's Blackbird (Male) |
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