There’s just something about wide open spaces like deserts and plains. Maybe it’s the comfort of wide open spaces. Here even the plants give each other room to breathe. Maybe it’s that these backdrop provide such a beautiful canvas for each wildflower, animal, rock formation, or man-made structure to stand out. Maybe it’s the vast isolation that quiets the mind or maybe it’s knowing that those that manage to live in thee harsh conditions are the strongest of the strong. I can’t quite put my finger on it but there’s just something about wide open spaces.
Portions of New Mexico are desert, but despite its reputation for being mostly desert, the low, flat, dry landscape often turns to grasslands, broken mesas, and eventually even snow-capped peaks.
As we left the small town of Tucumcari, New Mexico, isolation spread out in front of us for about the next 100 miles. This grassland area has low population density in this area and seemingly harsh living conditions. We only drove about 35 before stopping at a Corps of Engineering campground at Conchas Lake where we were the only campers in the developed campground. It initially felt a little apocalyptical but as we got settled, there was a calm, serenity that set in.
I tried my best to capture the ethereal beauty of the landscapes we drove through the following day, but the pictures simply don’t capture the magical lighting, wispy clouds and the soft colors of the land that melted into the distance horizon. Even the deep blue Sangre de Cristo Mountains seemed reluctant to show themselves and their jagged peaks, instead peeping through the low clouds like shy children behind mother’s legs. The effect was an ever so slight splash of darker blue than the sky.
It wasn’t until we were right on top of Las Vegas, New Mexico that bright blue sky appeared and the horizon and mountains were fully defined.
We stopped for lunch and a tour of the Pecos National Historical Park pueblo and mission church before continuing on our journey to Santa Fe.
We love a good destination, but as Cunard’s 1950’s slogan says, sometimes “Getting there is half the fun!”
