One Last Trip up the Rio Chama

Before leaving New Mexico

There had come a Big Change at work: we were kicked out of our office by the owner of the building. I moved our server room computers to a datacenter in Albuquerque and the entire office (four people, including me) began working from home.

There was no longer any reason to live in Santa Fe. After I moved the computers, I could administer them from anywhere. So I began preparing to go home to Colorado at the end of the month, when my rent was due. I’d been gone for more than a year.

But first, I wanted to get a photosphere at the Echo Amphitheater on the Rio Chama.

Photosphere of Echo Amphitheater, near Abiquiu, New Mexico (on Google Maps)

If you’re new to photospheres, you can move your mouse around inside the photo to look left, right, up, down in all directions. You can use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out for a closer or wider view. Note that this probably won’t render on a phone.

Edited after posting: I just checked this on my iPhone, and the photosphere does render there. Apparently Google has found a way to make photospheres work on a mobile device. Or, at least, on an Apple device. I’ve no way to test Android.

And you have to click the link to view it because Substack won’t render photospheres.

I took a few other shots while I was there. First, here’s an extreme-wide view of the amphitheater itself:

Echo Amphitheater, near Abiquiu, New Mexico

Here’s a shot of the left (south) wall of the Amphitheater:

Echo Amphitheater, south wall

And here’s a view of the right (north) wall:

Echo Amphitheater, north wall

The chollas were in bloom. Here’s a closeup of a cholla blossom:

Cholla (Cylindropuntia imbricata) in bloom.

Chollas (pronounced “choy-ya”) have fascinated me ever since I first saw them while traveling across the panhandle of Texas years earlier. They remind me of a chain whose links have been welded together. And those needles, oh my! You really don’t want to back into them, which I did while getting this shot. A literal pain in the butt. The things a photog will endure to get the shot…

From there, I went north up US Hwy 84, and then east on US Hwy 64 across the Brazos Mountains, which are kind of an extension of Colorado’s San Juans, in a loop that would take me back to Santa Fe. Near the Continental Divide on Hwy 64 is this view of the Brazos Mountains and Brazos Cliffs.

The Brazos Cliffs of extreme northern New Mexico.

It was getting late, and the Jeep’s air conditioner was making a horrible screeching noise. I limped back to Santa Fe, hoping I wouldn’t break the fan belt and need a tow in that remote country. It’s the middle of nowhere: I didn’t see anyone else on the road, and there was no cell service there. US 64 is definitely worth exploring if you’re ever in the area.

I would have two more adventures in New Mexico before returning home.