The juxtaposition of Aspen and Taos is massive. Here in Aspen everything is tidy. Clean. And expensive. No one waves as you pass and gas is near $4.00 a gallon. There is a lot of art in both places and there are Adventure Girls everywhere. The circumstances are just a little different. The natural settings here are astounding. Very early in the morning I rose to hike in Maroon Bells, a park area here, hoping to avoid the crowds but no luck. The Maroon Lake sits at the feet of the Maroon Mountains reflecting everything from deep purlel to turquoise. Wild. Last night I sat in a restaraunt that Hunter Thompson frequented and tried to feel the vibe. Too scattered. Celebrity sitings 0. Went to my first rodeo. I have adopted a weathered cowboy hat since I have been on the road, I fit right in...well, almost. If you come here you must visit Anderson Ranch, similar to Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, an artist "camp", a fantasy of workshops and work space for artists. I want to return and learn to weld and cut and make metal sculpture.

The girls in my journaling and collage workshop stretched themsleves for me, writing about themselves as colors and places- they seemed eager to work and today they showed off their work to their families.
They can all proudly say they have hung at a museum...

Tomorrow I head to Denver and the Tattered Cover Bookstore. I hope to detour through Boulder so I can ooh and ahh about how things have changed since I lived there many years ago.
I am sprinkling the countryside with Adventure girl books, one book at a time, no bookstore or museum store gets passed by.
I am weary of life on the road, getting near six weeks and I will be happy and sad to return to New England. I have made friends. I have bonded with Taos and the desert surroundings and it feels like home as well. I miss the sea. Morning walks on the beach, fish and shellfish, fishermen tcast your nets, this Adventure Girl is tired of beef. Tonight I will stroll downtown Aspen and say goodbye. On to the next.

Bears and bats.


When leaving the traditional campgrounds for a quiet solo spot in the woods remeber that you are just that much closer to nature. Including the bears. In the Jemez mountains of New Mexico we arrived late in the day and after hitting a few of the national park campgrounds which were all full, we headed up into the mountain roads in search of a place to pitch the tent. You know how it gest at the end of the day- you are just looking to complete the task. We found a lovely secluded spot off a side road designated for offsite camping...after setting up camp we took a stroll through the woods, and about 200 yards from the tent came across reasonably fresh bear scat. OK. so they were there at some point....not 3 minutes later there came from behind and to the left a moany, growly, sound that sounded a lot like a bear. OK. To shorten the anticipation, we did not encounter one face to face. We were however kept awake all night by the calls of at least two, maybe three bears. As adventurous as I am, I will admit to heart stopping moments, the debate as to whether to cut and run leaving evrything behind until morning continued all night. The stars were beautiful, but the next morning as we broke camp and headed for Abiquiu Lake and a managed campground, I was grateful to have gone without a face to face encounter. We obeyed all the rules- changing clothes before bed, keeping the food in the car, still they were there, vocal and scary.
Arriving on top of a mesa overlooking the entire Abiquiu Lake and much of Ghost Ranch in Abiquiiu New Mexico, my first thought was for toilets and showers. In the extreme heat of the desert (upwards of 100 degrees) , it doesn't take long to feel grimy and gritty. The views are astounding from this campground, our site had a few trees for shade but for the most part an unobstructed view of lavender, rust and butterscotch colored cliffs, mesas and desert. The lake a sparkling blue at our feet..
As we prepared dinner, late in the day as the sun set over our shoulder, there came an unanticiapted encounter. Bats. Slowly fluttering at first, they eventually swooped the table, flying close enough to my face that I could see the gray underbelly of a large bat as it flew in between our dinner plates. There were hundreds that night, diving the tent and the table, close enough to my hair that I feared entanglment. Yuck. The rest of our time there we saw only few each dusk. Perhaps they were brought in by the storm that had swept through earlier that afternoon. I don't know. I was willing to risk the bats for a hot shower however.
I am now back in a cityscape in Pueblo CO. I promise to learn how to download my pictures as there are many. Next stop Aspen.

Leaving the "big city" of Taos for the desert and camping. The hummingbirds here are buzzing furiously around their feeders and the dogs are seeing me off. I guess my blog will just have to be in a retrospective order as I am still without photos, but I will catch you up.
I am heading out to the Abiquiu area made famous by Georgia O'Keefe. I will hike where she hiked and see what she saw. She was quite an Adventure Girl, often sleeping out in the desert to catch the light at all hours of the day. Painting, painting until she felt she had captured what she could. I will look up into the New Mexico night sky, uncluttereded by light pollution and see the same stars that she saw, along with centuries of Native American adventure girls before her. I wonder what I will bring home from it. Cliff dwellings hidden all over also draw my attention. I love to stand where others stood.
Well, the tent is packed and It's time to hit the farmers market before leaving town, for eggs and the early veggies. Everything tastes better closer to the source and cooked outdoors. I feel the flutter that precedes another adventure, although as adventurous as I am I will admit to some trepidation about snakes. Having already encountered a large one right in Taos, I hope the next time you hear from me I have stories to tell, but not of the serpentine variety. To the desert.

Yes yes, I am woefully behind in blogging but I promise to catch up! Things here in Taos have gone wonderfully. The workshop was a great success, Lucy is a peach, the parade was an experience in Americana I will never forget with 25 butterflies following yours truly, flapping her own wings while people crowded the streets of Arroyo Seco, hooting and cheering. We won a coveted award for our costumes! The press is reluctant here to cover anyone who isn't local, but Adventure Girls have made their presence known.
It has been raining here, much celebrated water for the southwest, but the sun has come through today and I will get out and hike these beautiful mountains. I did find the natural hot tubs by the river -fabulous! I will catch up with photos...I promise- in the next few days.