I took another hike, and this is what I found:
The photo below gives you some idea of the area of the so-called “Miranda Canyon Preserve,” actually a giant real estate development literally larger than the town of Taos (!) that may yet come to pass. Imagine all that land chopped up into 150 very pricey chunks for “luxury homes,” an anachronism if I ever heard one. I’m thinking the sinking economy may be the savior of last resort on this, but there’s powerful medicine on the side of the angels, too. I’m not going into the details of this particular land grab greedfest, but they’re pretty sordid. The bad guys have very deep pockets, too, so I guess we have a fight on our hands.
That vapor trail above the mountains sets it all up for me in a man-against-nature kind of way. I don’t know why they keep doing this, or why we have to keep putting out these fires, so to speak, because it seems blindingly obvious that some places are more valuable to the well-being of all if left respectfully alone.
You can’t the see the “hot springs” in this picture, but they’re there, off to the left. I put the term in quotation marks because they’re really only warm, not hot. But they anchor the east side of the vast open bowl that the landscape suggests when you’re up close and peering into it. The spiritual energy of the springs and the surrounding countryside is very powerful. I have a few stories about it, and I know a bunch more that I can’t tell, at least not yet. But that’s the kind of magical, primeval place it is, a thing that ceases to exist when we cut it up, bore holes, bury power lines, and trade groundwater for sewage. It has to stay untouched. There’s no way to compromise on this.
In its natural state, it’s an energy source, a portal. A real man would know this. A real woman would feel it.
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Wow, very cool. Someday I gotta head over there and find this area, and I do hope the developers go away. I just cannot understand why people move here to get away from it all, and then want to turn it into a place just like the one they left.
This particular thing is a looooong-standing dispute involving heirs of the German (?) settler families (Gusdorf, Weimer, etc.) and the Serna Land Grant, which claims the Anglos stole the land from them. At the recent planning commission hearing, they had to call in deputies and state troopers for safety’s sake. The Indians are involved in this too, because of the hot springs.
As for turning a place into what they just left, that crap goes on all the time. There’s nothing like people from Chicago bleating about why can’t Taos be more like the Midwest.
This is one big reason why I maintain that anyone — ANYONE — moving here to “retire” is just goofy unless they have a particular inner quest mapped out and the inherited wealth to fund it.
I’m here now, damn sure not retired (nor can I ever do so), I love it and all, but I STILL don’t know if we’ll be able to hold out into what most would consider old age. It’s a very demanding place!
I am with you there, John. I am not sure if we can make a lifetime run at this place. It certainly has it’s good side, but it also has a lot of negatives as well. It’s a tough, demanding, needy place to live. And if the economy ever makes a rebound and these developers/wealthy retirees/trust fund babies start turning Taos into the mess that Santa Fe has become, guess we will be forced to look for another place earlier than we might have been otherwise.
If you want Taos to be more like Chicago, by all means – please stay in Chicago!
I think the economy is going to “save” us from that, actually. And while it’s a harsh place to live, it’s also terrifically thrilling and inspiring (in between the cursing & the rants). The #1 conscious reason I wanted to come was to live where Nature dominated man, and not the other way around. Got THAT knocked!
This is probably also a good place to be as things collapse, since for most Taos County residents, that won’t make much difference.
I go back and forth on this all the time, as you know, looking at beautiful, solid houses and farms for sale in other parts of the country for a mere fraction of what a dump costs here. But New Mexico is also the 5th largest state, and there are a lot of alternatives close by if Taos gets to be too much. Even then, though, I think I’d feel let down and bored if I lived anyplace else, unless there were a particularly strong primeval Nature aspect to it. I don’t give a damn about “facilities,” I want to be close to Nature. Johnny One-Track Mind, I am.
You might be right about that, at least for a while. And that’s the reason we moved here too – more nature than man, and we had had enough of the latter in California.
And yea, it’s a huge state, mostly unpopulated. If you wanted to get away from it all, it’s a cheap place to live – as long as you don’t want to live in Taos or Santa Fe.
As for facilities, well, that 24 hour Walgreens is getting set to open.
Hope it doesn’t shut down Taos Pharmacy.
of course, the miranda canyon area is such an obvious energy portal that if the developers do end up getting their way any housing development built there would turn into some kind of “Poltergeist” scenario, with all sorts of nature spirit boojum exacting traumatic psychic revenge on anyone stupid enough to move there (and people think building on top of indian burial grounds is the only thing to worry about
)
David: Local businesses are always under assault from national chains, but probably Taos Pharmacy has been around long enough to be offering something unique to its customers. I dunno. I can’t really argue about the Walgreens, though: the one in Española also sells food, junk, booze, you name it. Being able to run down there in the middle of the night isn’t the end of the world!
And I wanted to say something else about Taos that’s important: that we live near a nexus of great spiritual energy is beyond doubt — well, if a person’s like me and digs that stuff (I know some people don’t feel anything) — and it has certain characteristics. It’s female energy, mostly, and also great for physical & emotional healing of all kinds. For some, that can override mud, cold, and all the rest. I shall have to blog about this…
I do hope you are right that they can withstand. Unfortunately, what I see happening is that Walgreens can undercut prices on prescriptions, etc. due to their sheer volume, so a lot of people around here will head over there to get them instead of shopping local. Then, while they are there, they will pick up assorted other items they might have bought elsewhere. It’s the never-ending decline of local shopping, and Taos, as you said, is not immune to it either. After vacationing here years ago and then coming back multiple times to find a place to live when we decided to move, I was saddened to see an Applebees on the main drag. Just another case of “I want it like where I used to live”, to which I say “Why not move back then?”.
I’m very sympathetic to all you say. You’re right about AppleBee’s, too, which I also hated to see go in. I went to one once in AZ, so I won’t be dining there (ahem). And of course the thing about the Walgreen’s effect, true, true…
I’d be happy with none of it. But is there any place that’s been successful in keeping out most of the national chains? Northern Vermont, maybe.
Again, the economy may “save” us!
The project manager for the “Preserve” just called me to “correct the misconceptions and inaccuracies.” I hung up on him.
my feelings——-EXACTLY!
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