Taos in Summer
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National Geographic Traveler VOLUME I, NUMBER 2 DEPARTMENTS, _ FEATURE ARTICLES, _ 1 Correspondents 6 A Town to Restorethe Spirit- Letters from our readers Taos in Summer 18 SummerHighlighls 9 by Tony Hillerman, photographs by Steve Northup 1 Events of interest in your region and elsewhere around the Like generations of painters, writers, and free spirits, you United States, Canada, and Mexico can glory in Taos's spectacular surroundings, casual life- 11 Northeast 9, Southeast 174, North Central 186, Mountains and Plains 198, style, and invigorating mix of cultures. Travel- Wise 27 Southwest 206, Far West 210, Canada 216, Mexico 220 Cometo the Fair-Des Moines, Iowa 32 TravelingEasy 161 l by Michael Gartner, photographs by Scott Rutherford tt Pat Robbins, MANAGING EDITOR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC WORLD Traveling With Children A wry guide to the Iowa State Fair. Sample the foods, meet old-timers and first-time prizewinners, judge a pie- Bulletin 162 baking contest, and see a really big pig. Travel- Wise 43 Homestays in foreign countries and the United States, vaca- tioning on federal lands, books on cassettes Homageto Buffalo Bill 46 by Dee Brown, photographs by Melinda Berge Museums devoted to the Plains Indians, Western art, and firearms complement the Buffalo Bill Historical Center's Illustration Credits original collection of memorabilia. Travel- Wise 51 Cover: David Cole Coates. Above, clockwise from upper left: Taos-David R Bridge, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVElER; San Juan lslands--© Pat O'Hara; Iowa State FaIr-Scott Rutherford; Amish country-Todd Buchanan; Monti- Gaspe-Quebec'S Wild Peninsula 52 cello-Robert Llewellyn; De'lali~Art Wolfe/Aperture Photobank; Jambo- by Kenneth Brower, photographs by Sandy Felsenthal ree~Joe Viesti. Just. an easy drive out of urbane Quebec City lies an un- COVER: Nauset lighthouse, Cape Cod Natio"al Seashore. spoiled realm of fishing villages and national parks--a North Eastham, Massachusetts. land French Canadians call the Gaspesie. Travel- Wise 64 4 An Educational Travel Rewurce Summer 1984 ThomasJefferson'sCountry 66 Denali-A PeaceableKingdom 102 by K. M. Kostyal, photographs by Robert Llewellyn by Dale M. Brown Visit two shrines to Thomas Jefferson's genius-his su- Inspiration flows from the breathtaking sights in Alaska's 18 perb Monticello and the equally graceful University of Denali National Park-spectacular scenery, wildlife, and Virginia. Travel- Wise 75 majestic Mount McKinley. Travel- Wise 115 TheOutermostLand- 5, you II life- A CapeCodPanorama 76 Washington'sSanJuanIslands 118 'ise 27 Glimpses of the cape's wild beauty. by Mark Miller, photographs by Matthew Neal McVay Discovering Some East Coast Outermost Lands 86 Explore the rocky, rolling beauty of the San Juans, and 32 Life in theSlowLane-A Visit camp along the rugged coast. Travel- Wise 129 to Pennsylvania'sAmishCountry 88 oods, by Shirley Elder and Richard Lyons, SayingIt WithMusic 130 a pie- photographs by Todd Buchanan by Michael Kernan, photographs by Joe Viesti 'ise 43 In historic Lancaster County, the horse-and-buggy pace Gather round for an old-fashioned Fiddlers' Jamboree in of the Amish people evokes a simpler, quieter time. friendly Smithville, Tennessee. Travel- Wise 139 46 Travel- Wise 97 Sydney-Glittering CityDownUnder 140 t. and nter 's by Mary Ann Harrell, photographs by Brian Brake iiee 51 When to go, how to get there, what to see ... Magnificent harbor, endless beaches, strong beer, strange hotels, motels, camping, restaurants, museum animals, a wild and woolly past, the Opera House-Syd- 52 hours ... nearby places of interest. Every arti- ney's pleasures come nonstop. Travel- Wise 153 cle features invaluable information for plan- n un- ning and enjoying the perfect trip. A View of Australia 148 'ks-a Shirley Hazzard sizes up her native land and its people. 'ise 64 S A Townto Restore thE THE LASTTIME' WASin Taos, the Oakland A's were playing the Yankees on the TV. A manager-player dis- Several days earlier Richard Vaug hn, one of.ght the cussion was under way, and the cameraman passed numerous artists of Taos by day, and a warit erbym d me , the time by showing us the moon-yellow as a lem- had talked with me of just such things. He haha~~ad on-over the Bronx. Through my window I could see here from England, and when I asked him W have the same moon. But over Taos, 1,800 miles west of drawn him to this odd, out-of-the-way place, e g Yankee Stadium, it hung in the sky like a scarred white me a thoughtful answer. "And then rock. The moonlight, too, was robbed of color. It "First, it's the beauty," Vaughn said, A well turned the infinity of sage into stark, dark silver. it's an interesting place to be." That sums ud' hat enough What made Taos an artists' colony, an W I 18 SyTony Hillerman etheSpirit- Taos in Summer Photographs by Steve Northup draws an estimated half million visitors a year to a din- Living reminder of a proud past, sunbaked Taos pueblo Vaughn, one of the ky, dusty little town some 130 miles from the nearest sprawls at the base of New Mexico's Sangre de ad a waiter by night, place a jetliner can land and about half that far from the Cristo Mountains. Built between A.D. 1300 and 1450, the rings. He had come nearest interstate highway. It is an interesting place. muliistoried pueblo still provides housing and serves as sked him what had And even after decades of looking at Taos, I still am a cultural and administrative center for about -way place, he gave awed by its beauty. 1,500 Taos Indians. Taos and the neighboring Taos pueblo sit literally in said. "And then in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on That sums up well the Taos plateau. Just to the northeast the mountains s' colony, and what 19 TaosinSummer------------_i of Taos and the Mexican town of the same na~~ .... They looked hopelessly small and forgotten .... They still look hopelessly small and forgotten. Taos pueblo was more than 500 years old when Rem- ington saw it, and the additional century has hardly af- fected it. It still makes the same blue evenmg smoke. Although the tribe recently installed electricity, tele- Phones and a community-wide water and sewer sys- tern on, the reservation,.t here are no modern conveniences within the pueblo walls. There Taos ln- dians still use wood for cooking and heating. 2 The town of Taos has grown abit It smcesi 188 'd toa summer population.0 fper h aps6 ',000 '. and has adde adobe traffic lights and traffic jams. But It remains an t village of crooked buildings.. on narrow crooked stree s. Here the antiquity. .. IS genuIne.. The town wasf founded on its present site in the early 17th century'fa. ter the Taos Indians asked Spanis. h settl ers to move ar- ther from the pueblo. Archaeologists. b eli Ieve the two blo great mud-and-straw structures that form the pue d itself were built. much earlIer-between. A..0 1300anS_ 1450. Yet Taos pueblo ISas. live . I y as I't wa s when , pan ish explorers from the expedition..0 fFranci 'scoVasquezffer de Coronado saw it in 1540. Few places today 0 Quiet Taos Plaza, once the lively heart of the Spanish-built such a giant step backward in time. ur- village, offers an inviting stop for today's visitor. The bl ill allow-« bronze cross honors the men from Taos County who died on I like to visit as early as the pue 0 WI I'ght . ing sunl the Bataan Peninsula during World War II. rently 8 a.m.-because slanting morru bl build- gives a molding of shadow to these remarka e t wn ings. It's a pleasant two-and-a-hal -rru'1en_trip from 0 rise to more than 13,000 feet, and to the west the Rio f ow passage Grande roars through its spectacular gorge. Town and to pueblo. The road leads through a narr h h of pueblo are built in an oasis of lush green meadows. An way between the chalky white wall of the C 'burcman artist couldn't ask for more. San Geronimo and an adobe gateh ouse.A tn Even es if Part of the elemental beauty is a matter of light. will collect fees for parking and photograp~b' d man' Taos is 7,000 feet above sea level. Absent are humidity you've paid the camera fee, it's the worst 0 a onal and those smoggy pollutants that prosperity brings. ners to photograph Pueblo Indians.WI tthout dpersIndi- The air has a brilliant, clear quality to it. The moon is permIssIOn... Youngsters often won"t rmind: . '. 01 er Ibraids whiter, and, when it's down, the night sky is adazzle ans, and especially those wearing the tradltlona with a billion stars that lowlanders never see. Sun pro- and blankets, probably will. which the duces a sharper contrast of light and shadow, the blue The earthen courtyard or plaza into th and of the sky is implausibly dark, and San Antonio Moun- tribe admits its visitors is walled off to the n~~ouse. tain, 50 miles away by road on the Colorado border, west by the massive five-story shape of Nort that looks near enough to touch. Artists have been celebrat- Across the Rio Pueblo de Taos, a clear trout stream h Hous - ing all this for generations. bubbles through the courtyard, stands Sout . ede as Frederic Remington, the famous painter of cow- aI most equal in.. size. Both compI exes w ere deSIgn h msel ves boys and the frontier, rode into Taos in 1882.