Turquoise Trail

We got a late start this morning but went on a circle drive up to Santa Fe on Hwy 14 -- The Turquoise Trail. We, of course, didn't go directly but made a stop in Bernalillo at a wild bird food/pet supply store and bought a New Mexico bird book. I'll be able to figure out who is eating all of my birdseed.

Our first stop on the Turquoise Trail was the Tinkertown Museum. This is a crazy place to see.  Imagine never ever throwing anything away an maybe doing that for a couple generations and then going out and collecting other peoples' stuff. Then you build a rambling museum out of beer an wine bottles....thousands of bottles...and then you organize and arrange the stuff and charge admission....AND PEOPLE COME AND PAY TO SEE IT.

Much of the museum is miniature scenes that move but there are dolls and toys and coin operated fortune tellers and coin operated music machines.

Much of the stuff dates to the 1950s but some goes back to the early 1900s.

We decided to drive up to the top of Sandia Mountain....up to about 10,600 feet. The temperature dropped to about the 40s and it was clearly fall weather up there. We took some pictures and walked around a little and then drove part of the way back down and stopped at a picnic area and ate some lunch provisions that we took on the trip.

The top of the mountain has a radio antenna forest that I can see from my house at night due to the red lights on the top of the higher towers.

We drove on to the town of  Madrid...once a coal mining town that became a ghost town. It was rediscovered in the hippy era and now is an artist colony. There are lots of shops and galleries. Lots of people to watch. There are a few  bed and breakfasts and a nice coffee shop. We picked up some coffee and then went on a stroll through some shops.


The next stop is Cerillos...a small Hispanic style village. It was pretty much asleep when we got there and we just drove through. There were several movies made there and it looks like  natural movie set.


We drove on to Santa Fe and picked up some long sought after Monks' Ale which we will sample later.

At home we had a nice spaghetti dinner and relaxed and read for  while.

Tinkertown bottle wall