Santa-Fe - Cochitti Lake - Farmington - Holbrook- Tucson, AZ

June 9 - 15, 2025

June 9: We head out in the morning for the Tesuque Casino outside of Santa Fe, NM where we will spend two free nights.  The drive became a bit of an adventure when the address we programed into the GPS unit routed us via a crazy route through a residential area of Santa Fe which ended up at a gated entrance to a ranch.  Luckily, we were able to make the tight turn around without unhooking the Jeep.  Twinkles had been following the route on her cell phone which was not in agreement.  Using the cell phone we then found our way easily to the Casino which was only about a mile away.  

The Tesuque Casino is fairly new and after checking in we unhooked the Jeep, parked the RV and then headed to downtown Santa Fe for a few hours.  There was a rain shower in mid afternoon which disrupted our afternoon somewhat, but we ducked into the Museum of Contemporary Arts for a while to escape the weather. 

https://www.tesuquepueblo.org

The painted columns in front of the Arts Center

It was almost all indigenous art work

This was unique, having a thumb drive built in

Kind of liked the painted tin cans 

Back at the Casino, we go inside to check it out, it has just opened up, some of the slot machines are not connected yet, we stick to the slots as usual and actually come out ahead by $50 ! 

June 10: We start today by going to the Santa Fe farmers market, not much farm produce yet, it’s too early.  However there were arts and craft items and an excellent bakery that we thoroughly enjoyed.  The Farmers Market is held at the Railyard complex which originally was the old rail yard but is now a very popular restaurant, brewery and  entertainment complex.  The original Santa Fe railroad station remains in use by the current New Mexico Rail Runner Train system that operates a state run passenger rail system in New Mexico.

https://railyardsantafe.com

Santa Fe Railyard complex

New Mexico Rail Runner Train system

Santa Fe train station

After that, we go to the New Mexico Capital building a short distance away that has to be one of the most unique Capital Buildings in the US.  It is three story round building with a rotunda and the interior walls are mostly plain painted surfaces covered with New Mexico art from all areas of the state.  The art, mostly paintings are hung along virtually every interior surface.   It’s one of the best art galleries I have ever seen ! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_State_Capitol

New Mexico State Capital from entrance

The rotunda looking up from the entrance

All the art is done by New Mexico artists

Another view of the rotunda from a higher floor

We then go back to downtown Santa Fe to explore the streets taking in all the great architecture, art work and shops.  We did a lot of looking, much walking, had a good lunch meal, but hardly any buying. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe,_New_Mexico

The Lensic Performing Arts Center next to Burro Street

Sneaking a peak inside the Arts Center 

An alley way of cow's heads

Quite taken with the beautiful rugs draped over the balcony

New Mexico Museum of Art

Lots of colorful Mexican pots here

We then take a drive on route 25 to the Poeh Cultural Center which houses a collection of ancient Tewa Pottery that has recently been returned to the tribe from the Smithsonian Museum.  They also have a gallery exhibit displaying the “Continuous Path” of the Tewa people from their emergence to the present.  The Cultural Center has a separate impressive tower that houses a collection of pottery from an amazing tribal artist, Roxanne Swentzell who has become quite world renown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poeh_Museum

Many Pueblo's in this area

A few of the returned pottery pieces

Exhibit showing the path of the Tewa people, the good

And the bad

Impressive tower with Roxanne Swentzell art display

I was supper impressed with this agave stalk

The art work is a little weird but also compelling

A nice display

Thought provoking stuff

Lastly, back to the Tesuque Casino where we lose all our winnings from the previous day, that sucks !

June 11: We set off today to travel about 35 miles to Cochiti Lake Campground which sits above a huge reservoir created by a dam on the Rio Grande River.  We held hope that we could get into the nearby Tent Rocks National Monument there even though it seemed doubtful.  They now have a reservation system, a very confusing one, that limits the number of daily visitors.  Basically everything went wrong, on arrival at 10 AM our reserved site at the campground was not vacated yet so we unhooked the jeep and drove to the lake, to the viewpoint over the lake and generally rode around to kill time until we could get into our campsite. On rechecking the Tent Rocks web site we found that they are fully booked for the entire month, no chance to get in.  We finally were able to get into our campsite at about 3 PM, then took a drive to the Town of Cochiti Lake, mostly a middle class anglo town and then to the totally opposite ancient Cochiti Pueblo, where the real locals live.  Please read the link below to see how the US screwed the Cochiti Pueblo tribe concerning the Dam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochiti_Dam

 

Beautiful mural of the Cochiti Library

On our return to the campground dark rain clouds develop and they let loose with brief rain shower in late afternoon.  We had visited this Campground and the amazing Tent Rocks many years ago, so no huge loss to miss Tent Rocks, but sort of a wasted trip, but I have lots of old photos.

June 12: Today was a log 200 mile drive from Cochiti, NM to Farmington, NM, but it was a very pretty drive mostly on route 550. We made a rest stop in Cuba, NM, which has seen better days with many closed buildings on the main street. There was a True Value hardware store, it looked rough on the outside but was fine inside and I found the allen wrench ( spell check doesn't know what an allen wrench is) I needed to tighten my outside mirror on the RV.  

Nearby was a nice appearing restaurant, El Bruno's with a couple of good murals.  Normally traveling solo, I would have gone in for lunch but today I'm sort of thinking more about a hearty meal latter in Farmington.   

Mystery building, but looks like it was once something special 

Nice mural

El Bruno's Restaurante Cantina door

Mural on side of restaurant

We arrived in Farmington and found our way to the San Juan County Fairgrounds.  The Fairgrounds consist of a casino, a 500 + site campground, many exhibit halls, livestock buildings, horse stalls, a Convention Center and more, it’s huge.  We checked into the campground for two nights. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmington,_New_Mexico 

We then went downtown to look around and ended up buying a few items in a thrift shop, especially for me a very cool art deco picture frame.  Farmington has a healthy looking downtown, a couple of great old movie theaters, several good shops, several murals, many thrift shops and two quilt shops shops.  Farmington is centered within a huge oil field and as you ride around town oil related businesses are everywhere. it's drill baby drill mentality.  It also has a large farming base due to the three rivers running through town and and irrigation.

 

Museum of Navajo Art and Culture

Indian sculpture at fifth generation Indian Trading Co 

Amazing old lumber yard turned into a coffee shop and art gallery

The Allen Theater

Beautiful old theater sign

Latter in the day we returned to the downtown for dinner.  As we walked down Main Street we saw that it was closed ahead for a parade, which to our surprise was a “Pride” parade, we sure didn’t expect anything like that here ! The parade was short, but the participants were enthusiastic there was nothing overtly political, no demonstrators and it was generally upbeat and motivational.

There is a serious issue on the reservation with missing persons

We then had dinner at the Three Rivers Restaurant and Brewery which has a historic feel to it with many old photos and signs.  I was also impressed with what appears to be an original wooden floor with brass metal patch panels secured with screws, really cool. 

Side walk view

Interior view

 June 13: I went out at about 7 AM for a breakfast sandwich and chanced upon several hot air balloons landing in the fairgrounds parking lot.  The most interesting thing was seeing a distracted driver watching the balloons land who drove his pickup truck into a metal guard for a fire Hydrant.

 

A few balloons took off and landed each morning 

It was a near crash landing for this ballon

While out for breakfast, I saw a sign for the Animas River Whitewater Park and thought it would be a good thing to check out.  It turned out to be a short drive to the parking lot where we found a beautiful trail through groves of towering Cottonwood trees along the river.  The Animas River was flowing fast and is open to whitewater river enthusiasts, we actually saw a raft go by.  There are several bridges across the river with trails on both sides with interpretive signs and and a very impressive tribute to military veterans of all wars. There are three river that come together within Farmington with the Animas and the LaPlata flowing into the San Juan River.

 

The Animas River

Several bridges to cross over the river

Very impressive monument 

We were very surprised to see a Turkey

Impressive Lizard

  We talked to an elderly man with his dog, the dog was an great swimmer, he would throw a tennis ball far into the river and the dog would swim into the fast flowing current, chase the ball down, bring it back and then they would repeat it.    

It was then back to downtown Farmington for lunch at TJ's Diner which had a hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes, gravy and peas on the menu, have't had that in a long, long time, so good !  We then did an antique shop and Twinkles visited a quilting shop, she is quite impressed that there are two shops in town. 

After returning to the campground, we visited the livestock arena at the fairgrounds where all breeds of hogs were being displayed, some sort of a competition I guess, not exactly our kind of thing, but it was interesting.  Next to the livestock building is the impressive SunRay Casino which sucked us right in.  We started out with $40 and walked out with about $150, a really big win for us.

Beautiful arena

I would find it hard to love a pig ?

Impressive Casino with a horse racing track out front

June 14: We pulled out of the fairgrounds and headed on route 64 deep into Navajo territory to Shiprock, NM where we passed several Navajo markets that I so wanted to stop at and explore, but it would have been really hard with the RV.  We then turned onto route 491 towards Gallup, a long wide open uninhabited stretch of road with occasional side roads to remote Navajo towns.  This is real Tony Hillerman country, very appropriate since I am currently reading Lost Birds by Anne Hillerman.  

At Gallup we take I-40 west into Arizona and to Holbrook, AZ to overnight at the OK RV Park.  We then take the Jeep into Petrified Forest National Park for a brief visit at the Rainbow Forest Museum and the Crystal Forest viewpoint.  I've now been to both Holbrook and the Petrified Forest four times, maybe more, but I never tire of it.

On the way back we stopped at the Jim Gray's Petrified Wood Company, like we always do and marveled at the quantity and quality of the petrified wood and we have many pieces at home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holbrook,_Arizona

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrified_Forest_National_Park

Mind boggling how the planet has changed

It's an amazing landscape

The multi colored layers are beautiful

Back at Holbrook we complete setting up the RV and settle in for the night. Actually that's what Twinkles did, instead I toured around downtown for a while, nothing has changed, and then went for a beer at the Empty Pockets Saloon.  The crowd there was kind of rough looking, big hulking manly man types.  This big man with a biker shirt and his heavily tattooed wife sat next to me and struck up a conversation.  He was originally from Buffalo, NY and they are long haul truckers. He spoke well and we had a good conversation, you just never know in these kinds of places. As I went outside, I saw their rig, it was a huge impressive monster sized tractor trailer.

 

A couple of 30's vehicles probably slated for hot rod heaven

Street Eagle always has some kind of vehicle in the works

Always a popular attraction in Holbrook

I threw my shadow into this picture

June15: We decided to take the scenic routes Rt 77/60 south back to Tucson to avoid the heavy traffic and congestion of Phoenix. 

We then pass through a more prosperous looking area,  the historic towns of Snowflake and Taylor with their lush green fields, beautiful clean downtown areas, big Mormon churches, everything clean and orderly, almost too perfect.

We then start climbing in elevation, into the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest and then down into the Salt River Canyon passing through beautiful rocky mountainous terrain with incredible views. At the same time it's but a bit of a struggle to maintain speed and braking, trying to keep up to the traffic flow, amidst the beauty of the surroundings where you just wish you could pull over to absorb all the splendor, but you can’t, very frustrating !   

In retrospect, it was probably a more stressful drive due to the long mountainous uphills, the fast downhills, the single lanes and the tight curves.  It was a most scenic route however, just wish there were more pulloffs or shoulders to stop and enjoy the scenery. As a result, I didn’t get any photos, which to me is a wasted trip. 

The closer we get to Tucson, the longer the travel day seems, although we made good time arriving home at about 3 PM under the burning hot 110 degree sun.  Everywhere we went when people would ask us where we were from, their reply would be; I've been to Tucson and I liked it, but it’s just too hot there.  I would have to agree !

Overall, the RV worked well, no breakdowns, the AC and the refrigerator had a real workout.  We put 1,432 miles on it during this two week trip without a scratch, all good.

Happy Trails !