Santa Fe, Taos, Aspen and back

Late last night we returned from a quick five-day, nearly 2,000-mile trip to Aspen, Colorado, by way of Amarillo, Santa Fe, Taos, Buena Vista, the Great Sand Dunes, Capulin Volcano, and Black Mesa. We packed a lot into a short trip. Some notes:

Downtown El Reno has a very nice coffeehouse, Iron Tree Coffee, a handy place to take a break after two hours of driving west from Tulsa. Good coffee, some tables that were the right height for standing (a nice break), clean restroom, Boylan sodas for the non-coffee-drinkers.

The Big Texan Steak Ranch is worth the visit. Although I've seen the billboards along the highway since I was a kid, I'd never been before. The steaks and sides are really good -- we especially liked the green beans -- as are their locally produced beers. If you don't have time for a steak, they've got a coffee bar and gelato, a gift shop, and a shooting gallery. We saw two men have a go at the free 72 oz. steak dinner. One got through most of the steak, but left the side dishes mostly untouched. The other seemed to be pacing himself well, but we left before we could find out if he'd made it.

Quartz Mountain + Great Books + cool air = St. John's College Santa Fe campus. Lovely. Daughter sat in on a math class, we had lunch at the dining hall, had a campus tour, and browsed the campus bookstore, where we found, among other things, a paperback Latin dictionary and a leather bookweight. The clerk at the campus bookstore was playing Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger album (I was given a copy as a teenager by my aunt, and I played it over and over), and he recommended the Tune-Up Cafe for dinner, which we enjoyed.

Taos Pueblo is worth the visit for the aesthetics alone -- the light brown adobe walls against the deep blue sky, and the sharp shadows shifting as the sun traveled across the sky. The tour, conducted by a college student who grew up on the pueblo was good, but we learned more from Priscilla, the 86-year-old grandma selling snow cones on the plaza.

The folks at the Taos Hampton Inn were very nice and very helpful, especially Maria who was managing the evening shift evidently all by herself, but I sort of wish we'd stayed in one of the historic hotels near the Plaza (e.g. La Fonda, Taos Inn).

On the north side of Taos Plaza there is a very good outdoor store (Taos Mountain Outfitters), an old-fashioned five-and-dime with a lunch counter (Taos Trading Co.), a coffeehouse plastered with far-left bumperstickers (World Cup), among other establishments. A second-floor courtroom in the back of the old courthouse, built in 1932, has some impressive WPA-commissioned murals on the theme of justice. The centerpiece, which would have been behind the judge's bench, was of Moses the Lawgiver. (The Spanish title, Moses El Legisladór, seems to reduce the leader of the Israelites to ranking member on an obscure subcommittee.) My favorite of the murals was Superfluous Laws Oppress by Ward Lockwood, which depicts a torrent of lawbooks flowing out of a capitol building, crushing a man and a woman and the allegorical figure of Justice. Beneath the courtroom on the first floor is an old-fashioned iron bar jail cell, with an airlock-type entry that could be used to let one prisoner in or out without opening the door to all of them.

La Cueva is a Mexican café located in what was once a tourist court just southeast of the Taos Plaza, with seating in the office, in the old rooms, and on the patio on what was once the parking lot. Parking was a challenge, and it took a long time to get our food, but the day's special -- chicken molé fajitas -- was delicious, and the cafe offers a wide range of gluten-free dishes.

Wished we'd had time for coffee and a browse at Milagros Coffee House in Alamosa, Colorado, but we were trying to get across Independence Pass before dark, and for our family there is no such thing as a quick browse in a used bookstore. Last year, a "quick potty stop" at Margie's Book Nook in Susanville, California, left us an hour behind schedule and our wallets $100 lighter.

Looking at the map, I was worried about gas availability between Alamosa and Aspen, so we filled up in Alamosa, but Mosca Pit Stop had pay-at-the-pump gas and clean, cutely-painted restrooms, Moffat had a coffee house, and Hooper appears to be getting a new gas station. Hooper is also the nearest town to Colorado Gators Reptile Park (which uses warm natural springs to provide a comfortable environment for the alligators) and the UFO Watchtower.

Buena Vista is an attractive historic town on the Arkansas River and near the Collegiate Peaks. Main Street boasts a creperie (The Midland Station, all batter gluten-free) and gelateria, a roastery, a distillery, and a silver-domed building that used to be the county courthouse. The town was busy on a Saturday afternoon. Brown Dog Coffee is in a newer building on the highway, and we tried to stop there for a last pit stop before the pass on the way north, but they were closed for an employee party. Gave it a miss on the way south.

Early June is after the end of Aspen's ski season, but before summer activities start up. We got a good deal on a very nice room at Tyrolean Lodge. The room was very quiet, had a kitchenette, two queen beds and a twin bed, and was only a few blocks' walk from downtown. The lodge has no elevator, and its first floor is a half-story down from street level, second floor a half-story up, and the third floor (with highest ceilings and largest rooms) was a story and a half up. The room and the stairwells were decorated with maps and vintage ski posters. One stairwell featured a giant mosaic, probably 10 feet high, of USGS quadrangles of the region. Our room had the Raven Maps topographical map of Colorado.

Youngest son and I walked to New York Pizza (open until 2:30 am) to fetch a late dinner for the family.

Downside of our timing: the Aspen Historical Society museum was closed for installation of a new exhibit, and there were no historical tours on offer as the summer interns were in training. When I phoned to ask about self-guided historical opportunities, the man who answered the phone kindly offered to leave us a couple of maps on the front table.

Aspen is the seat of Pitkin County, and its historic courthouse is still in use. Oddly, the silver-colored allegorical statue of Justice above the front door is not blindfolded. The courthouse has hosted notorious trials involving Claudine Longet, mass-murderer Ted Bundy, Hunter S. Thompson, and Charlie Sheen.

Aspen has a memorial garden along the Roaring Fork River dedicated to John Denver, and many of his famous lyrics are carved on stones there. I learned that my children had never heard his music, which was unavoidable during my childhood.

We took a peek in the lobby of the historic Hotel Jerome. Oldest son was fascinated by a book in the lobby, Aspen: The Quiet Years, by Kathleen Krieger Daily and Gaylord T. Guenin, published in the early '90s, a collection of the stories of those who lived in Aspen after the silver boom ended and before the ski boom began. Across the street in an old house is Explore Booksellers, where my youngest son found an autographed copy of one of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson novels.

We had a lovely hike at the Maroon Bells southwest of town. The kids wanted to take it to the next level -- another three miles round trip and another 600 feet in elevation to Crater Lake. We were rewarded with views of majestic purple mountains reflected in placid lakes, the round leaves of the aspens shimmering in the breeze, and sightings of deer, marmots, and chipmunks. We were told by the lady at the tourism kiosk in Aspen that the Maroon Bells and lake were the most photographed landscape in America.

On the way back into town, we spotted the ultimate young Coloradan: A young male with a scruffy beard, riding a bicycle, wearing a stocking cap, and smoking a spliff the size of his thumb.

We followed up the mountain hike with a visit to Ashcroft ghost town, which only has a dozen buildings, but it includes an impressive two-story hotel. We spotted an antler-less moose browsing in the creek beside the road. On the way out of Aspen, we stopped at the Independence ghost town site (just east of mile marker 57), which covers a larger area, has more undisturbed ruins, and at nearly 11,000 feet above sea level is considerably more strenuous to visit. Both sites are maintained by the Aspen Historical Society and have good interpretive signs. We learned that, when heavy snowfall cut Independence off from supplies, the remaining citizens broke apart their homes, made skis, and skied into Aspen, abandoning the town forever.

We spent about the same amount per person at Matsuhisa in Aspen as we did at the Big Texan. At Big Texan that got me a 16-oz. ribeye, two sides, and a beer. At Matsuhisa that got me two pieces of sushi, two shrimp, a tiny portion of vegetables, and a glass of water in a noisy basement. A 10th Mountain Imperial Stout from Aspen Brewing Company, a good chat with the oldest son, and a brisk walk back to the hotel improved my mood considerably.

Sledding the Great Sand Dunes is a lot of work for the thrill. You rent a board or sled off-site. You walk a half-mile through loose sand just to get to the nearest dune, and then for every downhill run, you've got to walk that far up again in loose sand. At the crest of the hill, if the wind picks up, you'll be sandblasted as you attempt to get on the sled for your run. We were warned about bugs and about heat, but on this early June afternoon at 5:45 pm the sand was not hot, and the wind kept the bugs away. If you wipe out, you don't get hurt. We slogged back to the parking lot after an hour, fighting to hold onto our sleds against the wind. We made it back just before the 7 pm deadline to return our sleds to the Great Dunes Oasis just outside the park gate and had dinner in their mediocre cafe. Enough sand had collected in my back pockets that I felt like I was sitting on a roll of dimes as we drove to our hotel for the night.

The Holiday Inn Express in Raton keeps its pool and guest laundry open 24/7. Their lobby is decorated like a mountain lodge with big leather sofas and a fireplace and a stack of board games. A sign by the desk notified evacuees from the fire near Cimarron that the Red Cross had meals available for them. In addition to the usual breakfast items, there were diced green chiles you could add to your eggs or your biscuits and gravy. A cheerful lady named Annie was in charge of the breakfast room. She told the kids to stay in school; she had dropped out after 11th grade to help her family and never finished high school, which limited her career options. She said she had spent her entire life in the Raton area.

Did you know there is a field of volcanoes just across the state line in New Mexico? The most accessible is the long-extinct cinder cone of Capulin Volcano National Monument. You can walk a paved trail down into the vent or take a mile-long hike around the rim, from which you can see dozens of shield and cinder cone volcanoes for miles around. Black Mesa, on which sits Oklahoma's highest point, is thought to have been formed by lava flows from this volcanic field.

Just north of Capulin Volcano is the tiny town of Folsom, New Mexico. In one of the few remaining historic buildings, once a general store, is the Folsom Museum, open daily during the summer, a well-organized and diverse collection of historical artifacts: Gramophones, canned food, a telephone switchboard, kitchen equipment, saddles, law books, a bank vault and safe. They've got drinks, ice cream, and snacks for sale, the only place for miles around. We enjoyed our visit.

Ever wonder why the New Mexico border with Oklahoma is a couple of miles east of the New Mexico border with Texas? I've found two explanations: The first is that the Texas / New Mexico border was badly surveyed in 1859, locating New Mexico's southeast corner some four miles west of where it should have been. The other explanation is that Oklahoma Territory's western border was established at 103 degrees west of the Greenwich Meridian, while the Texas Panhandle's western border was set at 26 degrees west of the Washington Meridian, which is at 77°3'5.194" west of Greenwich. The difference of 3 minutes, 5.194 seconds of longitude at 36.5 degrees north of the equator amounts to about 2.8 statute miles, which is actually a bit more than the distance as measured on the map.

There's even less to Kenton, Oklahoma, but the drive there took us past some interesting canyons and traces of the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail. Kenton has an old mercantile store that was closed on Sunday afternoon, a handsome stone Methodist Church, a handsome white Baptist Church, and signs advertising some B&Bs near by. Black Mesa is visible in the distance. Heading east of town, we encountered a pronghorn antelope walking in the road, and we managed a few good photos of him as he scampered off into the surrounding fields.

The Panhandle is longer than you might realize: 167 miles along the southern border, 166 miles along the northern border, and it takes a long time to get all the way across. Guymon, seat of Texas County, is the Panhandle's metropolis, with a daily paper and a community theater company that performs at the historic American Theater, where the marquee advertised the latest production, Spamalot.

I wish car navigation systems had a button that would route you on the business route or historic route through a town. I was sorry to have missed downtown Woodward. We stopped for dinner west of town on 412, but I missed the turn to take us down Main Street.

I wish car navigation systems gave more detail. Zoom out to get the big picture, and the details go away. Some of the roads we traveled wouldn't show up except at the three highest zoom levels. Would it be that bad to show thin grey lines for minor roads even at lower zoom levels, to give you an idea of where civilization exists? They're stingy with place names, too, and they disappear and reappear inconveniently, failing to provide important information such as the name of the next town on the route. Of all the rental cars I've driven in recent years, only the Ford nav system provided the level of detail I want.