Sky City
What a difference a little bit of altitude makes. In mid April, nothing in Santa Fe has leafed out yet. Trees are still wintry bare, except for the purple plums and a few frost-nipped apricots that are in full flower before their leaves emerge.
I'm waiting and waiting for spring to start. Lots of buds, much promise, real water in the Santa Fe River for the first time, but little green anywhere.
But in Albuquerque, all is green and new and spring like! All over the city it looks like spring. The Rio Grande river banks, meandering through the city, are lush and leafy. Flowering trees are glorious.
Albuquerque is 50 miles to our south and 1,500 feet lower than Santa Fe, and that makes all the difference. They are in another hemisphere I believe.
So it is surprising to realize that Albuquerque is still at high elevation. They are downhill from Santa Fe's elevation of 7,000 feet, but Albuquerque is a mile high, at 5,300 feet. Denver gets all the glory for being exactly a mile high, but Albuquerque is a little bit higher. I always think of it as downslope from us, out there in the desert below the mountains, but it's at the edge of the high western plateau and still very high. Over a mile high.
And so green right now, while we still wait in Santa Fe.
We saw the city in its spring greenery as we motored through on another road trip, this time to Acoma Pueblo, which is a mesa-top community dating back 900 years. It's west of Albuquerque, and situated in a wilderness of sand spires, giant flat top mesas and rock formations. A town of 4,000 people lived at the top of a 367 foot high pillar of stone nearly a thousand years ago. They still do.
Like Taos Pueblo, it's still a living, inhabited community, although like Taos, the modern Acomas mostly live below and stay for short times in their ancient inherited homes for festivals and on special occasions. There is no electricity or running water on the top of the cliff.
But all of the 400+ homes are still privately owned, inherited for centuries and centuries from mother to youngest daughter, all of the property owned and controlled by women, forever. The only area men control or own is the kiva -- a ceremonial room -- and women are rarely allowed in those areas. Men's clubs.
Acoma is famous for their distinctive black and white and red finely striped and painted pottery. Acoma artisans still make this pottery by hand and it is highly collectible, and beautiful.
Acoma is called "Sky City" because it sits so high up on the mesa, well above anything below. Impregnable, only accessed via steep steps and toe holds from the canyon floor, very secure. And yet the Spanish made it up there. Repeatedly, with invitation and without, and the history is one of conflict as so much of European and native encounters were for long centuries in this part of the country.
Now there is a road up to the top so tourists like us can visit. We did the guided tour. We learned a lot about their history, about the matriarchal society, and about the pottery they are famous for. We enjoyed the view out across the horizon from Sky City, although Jim hung back when the tour group went anywhere near the mesa rim edges.
Then we drove back home, past all the fresh green emerging a mile high in Albuquerque, and continued on upslope to our own sky city at 7,000 feet in Santa Fe, too high here for spring to find us yet.
I'm waiting and waiting for spring to start. Lots of buds, much promise, real water in the Santa Fe River for the first time, but little green anywhere.
But in Albuquerque, all is green and new and spring like! All over the city it looks like spring. The Rio Grande river banks, meandering through the city, are lush and leafy. Flowering trees are glorious.
Albuquerque is 50 miles to our south and 1,500 feet lower than Santa Fe, and that makes all the difference. They are in another hemisphere I believe.
So it is surprising to realize that Albuquerque is still at high elevation. They are downhill from Santa Fe's elevation of 7,000 feet, but Albuquerque is a mile high, at 5,300 feet. Denver gets all the glory for being exactly a mile high, but Albuquerque is a little bit higher. I always think of it as downslope from us, out there in the desert below the mountains, but it's at the edge of the high western plateau and still very high. Over a mile high.
And so green right now, while we still wait in Santa Fe.
We saw the city in its spring greenery as we motored through on another road trip, this time to Acoma Pueblo, which is a mesa-top community dating back 900 years. It's west of Albuquerque, and situated in a wilderness of sand spires, giant flat top mesas and rock formations. A town of 4,000 people lived at the top of a 367 foot high pillar of stone nearly a thousand years ago. They still do.
Like Taos Pueblo, it's still a living, inhabited community, although like Taos, the modern Acomas mostly live below and stay for short times in their ancient inherited homes for festivals and on special occasions. There is no electricity or running water on the top of the cliff.
But all of the 400+ homes are still privately owned, inherited for centuries and centuries from mother to youngest daughter, all of the property owned and controlled by women, forever. The only area men control or own is the kiva -- a ceremonial room -- and women are rarely allowed in those areas. Men's clubs.
Acoma is famous for their distinctive black and white and red finely striped and painted pottery. Acoma artisans still make this pottery by hand and it is highly collectible, and beautiful.
Acoma is called "Sky City" because it sits so high up on the mesa, well above anything below. Impregnable, only accessed via steep steps and toe holds from the canyon floor, very secure. And yet the Spanish made it up there. Repeatedly, with invitation and without, and the history is one of conflict as so much of European and native encounters were for long centuries in this part of the country.
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| Acoma Pueblo on the mesa above. Painting by Thomas Moran |
Now there is a road up to the top so tourists like us can visit. We did the guided tour. We learned a lot about their history, about the matriarchal society, and about the pottery they are famous for. We enjoyed the view out across the horizon from Sky City, although Jim hung back when the tour group went anywhere near the mesa rim edges.
Then we drove back home, past all the fresh green emerging a mile high in Albuquerque, and continued on upslope to our own sky city at 7,000 feet in Santa Fe, too high here for spring to find us yet.
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