We spent last week camping in the Red River, New Mexico area, visiting Cochiti Lake, Taos, Angel Fire, Eagle Lake, Cimarron Canyon, and Mountainair along the way. It was another lovely trip, and the longest outing we've had since the pandemic began. We had way too many pictures to share, but we hope you like these samples from our adventure. 

Sunset at Cochiti Lake

The moon above Cochiti

Ponderosa Pine forest at our campground outside of Red River, NM

The chipmunk for campsite #9 

Mike and his bear in the park in Red River

Colorado Poppy

Primrose

Hiking along the Red River

People fishing the Red River (in town)

Mike hiking along the Red River

Iridescent Green Beetle

Apantesis Moth ?

Mike often loves to draw while we are on our trips. This one is from our Red River Campsite.

Scenes from our visit to Taos, NM

A Marmot in the Taos Ski Valley

A Variety of Flowers in Taos

More Taos street scenes

More Flowers from Taos

Taos Ski Resort

Sights around Angel Fire

And the Cimarron River Canyon

A male Grosbeak 

A female Grosbeak

A White-Breasted Nuthatch

The Shaffer Hotel and restaurant in Mountainair, NM is a study in folk art - all handmade by Pa Shaffer when he built his hotel on the site of his blacksmithing shop that had burned to the ground. 

This is an illustration on a lampshade in the dining room.

And this is a ceiling panel in the dining room.

One more Sunset

And finally, back home to the Organ Mountains.

 Yesterday we drove over to Silver City, NM to visit the Western New Mexico University Museum. They have the world's largest collection of pottery from the Mimbres Culture. And we have become quite interested in their petroglyphs and pottery. So we drove over, talked about them, took pictures, and went to lunch. We planned to join up with a friend who lives near there, but he was unable to join us. We missed visiting with him but still had a great outing for the day. 

Here are some of our finds: Some pieces are fairly modern, but most are 800 to 1200 years old, and are labeled in the photograph. 

A Human Effigy Pot

Jack Rabbit 

Quail bowl among a stack of unsorted pottery

And, okay, this next picture is not an example of Mimbres pottery. 

The museum is in a restored historic landmark building that was constructed in 1904. 

The men's room from 1904 had unique features that deserved to be saved. 

Thus, "Historic Urinal."