After our trip to Jemez and Gliman Tunnels, I got photos of old adobe houses in Corrales and San Ysidro. The first two are in Corrales and both are doing worse after the major storm that hit Corrales at the end of July. The last photo is of an abandoned adobe house in San Ysidro.
Twenty years ago, when I was training and racing bicycles with Kent Bostick, Kent would say “let’s do the three tunnels ride!” I would remind him that there were only two tunnels, he would say “Whatever!”, and we would ride from Corrales up to the Gilman Tunnels and back — a little over 100 miles. Back then I remember there was virtually no traffic on NM 485, no graffiti and the pavement ended soon after we rode through the second tunnel and then the road became too rocky for us to ride on — which was significant, because we often rode our racing bikes on really rough roads. Last Saturday there was a lot of traffic, a lot of graffiti and the road looked to be in good shape well beyond the tunnels. However, the road might still become really rough as the 43 mile NM 485 to NM 4 loop seems to be a popular mountain bike ride.
The Gilman Tunnels were blasted out of the rock in the 1920’s to give passage to logging trains. I hear the tunnels were used most recently in the remake of The Lone Ranger that was released this summer. We discovered they are now a popular destination for weekend drivers enjoying the scenery, and bathers who like to relax in the many small pools in the Rio Guadalupe. There is even a Virgin de Guadalupe set on the graffitied rocks at the north end of the second tunnel to watch over the people who park, drink, play in the water, drink some more and then drive on to their next destination.
NM 485 becomes a one lane road as it enters Rio Guadalupe Canyon, so we parked on a wide pullout about 1/4 mile from the mouth of the canyon, and walked along the edge of the road into the canyon. After photographing the “Falling Rock” sign, I turned around to find a humming bird moth working the flowers in the brush behind me. The first guardrail along the road was covered with graffiti.
Between Jemez Pueblo and Jemez Springs is the junction of NM 4 and NM 485. New Mexico 485 heads west and then north through Gilman and Port and reconnects with NM 4 north of La Cueva. The old adobe in Gilman has a red mud plaster from the red soils found in the Jemez. The red cliffs and prickly pear cactus are at the mouth of the Rio Guadalupe Canyon.
Continuing on our drive to Jemez, we could see the thunderheads over our destination. The junction of US 550 and State Road 4 is at San Ysidro. The San Ysidro Church has perfect Spanish Colonial/New Mexican style doors and a great little bell tower.
Landscape and view of the Sandias from US 550 on our way to and from the Jemez.
Seeing color in B&W.
These two hawks were hunting from one of the trees on Meadowlark Lane on the way home, which provided quite a distraction for me.
Spam is the scourge of the Internet age. I get one legitimate comment on this blog for every five spam comments, and only about one in 100 emails is legitimate. There are sometimes useful things like grasshopper tobacco cures cancer, miracle weight loss with urban sunflowers, and how to make yourself irresistible to women drivers. On the other hand, I hate Dr. Oz and even if a “Flex Able” hose is the “end all” for garden hoses, I would never buy one. Then there are the emails from DHL telling me there’s a problem with my package. I assume they are euphemistic male enhancement emails. But the spam messages that really get me are the ones notifying me I’ve been inducted, or more like abducted, into the “Who’s Who of Professional Women!” I’m not sure when I became an honorary woman, but I’m told I’m a “Who” among them according to the daily emails. I guess I have no standing as a professional man since I have never received a notice of being a “Who” among men. As much as I mark these spam mails as spam, they just come double or triple — one or more to my in-box and the rest to my spam filter — keeping me lost in spam.
A bee and wasp were foraging on the same plant, which I found interesting. The double-winged damselflies are out, and a tiny crab spider was hanging out on a red rose.
To show Sarah the ghost photo from last week, I searched for “Ghost” in the search field in the upper right-hand corner of the page which brought up “Ghost Under a Full Moon” followed by “Stretch 2004 — 2013 RIP”. Sarah noticed that the ghost in the left-hand edge of the photo looks like the young Stretch in the photo below it from the search. The photo of the ghost was taken near Stretch’s grave.
Off Center & Not Even 