By Patricia Lee Sharpe
But, come autumn, all of us who live now on this high desert in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo mountains are immersed in a golden landscape.
The legend about cities of gold (now the name of a local casino) was so strong that impecunious well-connected Spaniards in need of replenishing the family coffers actually anted up to lead expeditions north along the Rio Grande and farther, even penetrating the area now known as Colorado. Later, they paid to be appointed Governor-General of the territory (so little changes in politics). One of the oldest buildings in town—in Santa Fe, I mean—is a rambling squat one story adobe still called El Palacio, a pretty pathetic structure compared to the stone edifices built by Spaniards in Mexico City during the same era. If New Mexico today is one of the poorest states in the U.S., the territory was a backwater of the first water even during the Spanish colonial
But there’s another kind of wealth. Come to Northern New Mexico in late fall. You will discover a dazzlingly golden world. New England has its panoply of reds and oranges and yellows. It famously attracts hordes of visitors who sit for miles and hours with their noses pasted to tour bus windows. In northern New Mexico the locals go loco. They glory in the gold.
On the windy twisty route up to the Santa Fe Ski basin there’s a pull- out called Aspen Vista. Try and get a proper parking spot now. Ha! If you’re lucky, you’ll manage to find a close-in space on the up or down shoulder of the road, under signs that say “No parking,” though there’s an expectation at this time of year that spillover parking probably won’t be ticketed. From Aspen Vista there’s a dirt road that winds up to some communications towers on the top of Tesuque Peak, at nearly 12,000 feet in altitude. Not everyone manages to hike the entire six
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