Day 6 - San Francisco de Asis, Ranchos de Taos and Taos

We started out early on the way to Taos, and about 10:30 a.m., right before Taos is a community called Ranchos de Taos. Carol and I had the church, St. Francisco de Asis, as one of our "have to do" destinations and we'd planned to visit it on our way back to Santa Fe. Suddenly, we passed a little cafe on the right, and the church jumped out at us. Compelled, we turned into the little community complex, and spent most of the day here, embracing the peace on this sacred ground, quietly meditating in the sanctuary, taking photographs, finding treasures in the Two Graces Antiques Shop, and eating a wonderful lunch at the little cafe there. Then we spent some time painting the back of the church, the part of the church seen in many paintings and photographs. I'm not sure an artist can visit the church and not paint it!

TSan Francisco de Asis, Ranchos de Taos, NM

Below are our watercolor sketches of the church today:

St. Francis of Assisi Church by J. Carol Gardner

St. Francis of Assisi Church by Amelia Whaley

After we finally left the church and its little village and went into Taos - spent a little time there and just missed the time deadline to visit Taos Pueblo - we'll see that the next time.

On the way back to Santa Fe we wanted to see the Rio Grande Gorge - another breathtaking view!

Rio Grande Gorge

Driving a little farther, we came to the turn off to Pilar where we threw off the flipflops and put our feet in the great river:

Rio Grande

By the time we returned to Santa Fe, it was getting close to sunset, so we spent about 30 minutes crossing busy intersections, trying to avoid getting run over, all so we could take pictures of a fabulous sky at sunset.

Santa Fe at Sunset Clouds Study