Last weekend I went to Albuquerque to visit Kaylin, one of my best friends from college in New Mexico. Prior to this trip, I have never been to the Southwest before and knew extremely little. All I knew is that is extremely hot, the chili's are very spicy and everyone lives in an adobe house. All this is swirling in my excited mind as I'm flying into Albuquerque.
When I touched down at the airport, I quickly made my way to the pickup area and was picked up by Kaylin in the sweltering heat of the Southwestern summer. We chatted and caught up in the car ride to her adobe house where I met Dan, her boyfriend, and Noki and Freja, their dog's/ children. I was shocked to learn everyone in New Mexico actually does live in an Adobe house, confirmation bias! We then migrated over to the local brewery to settle into the weekend, scheme and drink anything cold.
The next day, we walked around town for a bit, hiked through the base of mountains and drank more cold beer. We hoped around to multiple breweries in Albuquerque and enjoyed any amount of shade we could find. I was blown away by the dry heat. I've only experienced humid heat until this point in my life, so I had no idea what to expect. Its absolutely fucking delightful. It's hot, NOT humid, it's colder in the shade, when it's windy its actually colder. Big Fan.
Side Note: I ran about 4 miles in the 100 degree heat at 6,000 ft and felt pretty good in New Mexico. I ran yesterday in SF at sea level and felt like a god damn Olympian after blood doping. It was v easy.
The big plan for the weekend was to travel to Taos for camping, the pictures from above are from our drive on our way to Taos. We really got to see the extensive, foreign beauty of the Southwest. Big rolling patches of desert spruced with shrubs and lush greenery with a back drop of towering mountain ranges. It was absolute mind blowing.
We stopped at a lookout point just outside of Taos to take in the gorgeous views of the Rio Grande River and gorge (get it? gorgeous? hehe). We got out of the car streched our legs, got the dogs out and immediately malaised over to the edge to take in all of the natural splendor and then went on a short hike in the boiling sun.
After our quick rest stop and gorgeous view (PUNS), we sped fifteen minutes down the road to our campsite. Our campsite was very, very removed from society. Let me paint the picture. We turned off of the main road onto an uneven dirt road lined with makeshift barbed wire fence surrounded by nothing but open desert. We drove for about twenty minutes down this road passing mediocre junk yard after mediocre junk yard. It's like they intentionally only collect shitty, rusty cars with no engines and make their "Stay Out, No Trespassing" signs drunk in the dark.
By this point we are out in literally the middle of fucking nowhere. There is nothing around us but make shift houses made out of driftwood, school buses, metal geometric material; and open land. We camped here overnight and it was one of the best times I've ever had camping. From waking up at 3am to see a sea of stars illuminate the sky to making dinner out of a makeshift stone oven to wandering around the open desert and accompanying shrubs to seeing a magnificent sunset. It was an adventure and exactly what I needed.
I spend so much time in a city, in an office and around so many people it has become normal for me. To be so far removed from offices (and enclosed structures in general), other people and civilization was initially jarring but then became revitalizing. My racing, analyzing, and hungry mind quickly became centered, settled and satiated. I felt like I was able to get back to an older, care free version of myself. Being able to satiate my mind, center it and be present is one of the best gifts I have ever been able to give myself. I let go of analyzing, see what beauty is in front of me and enjoy purely what I am experiencing. The silence in this place was unbelievable, the silence was actually deafening. The closest person was about a mile away, and closest building that passed code about twenty miles away, there was absolutely nothing around us. I feel asleep to the sounds of wind whirling against the outside of my tent, coyotes howling and the most deafening silence I had ever heard. I have always loved the desert and thought of it of a mystical and magical place, this time was surely no different.
The next day we woke up early to make our way to an Indian reservation to see one of the oldest settlements in North America. People still live in this pueblo with no running water or electricity. It was eye opening to see this ancient village at the base of the stunning mountains. This was the perfect way to wrap up this trip. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with everyone in New Mexico and cannot wait to come back again.
