We spent the first couple of days in New Mexico on a really fantastic adventure, trekking into the Rio Grande Gorge alongside llamas. C-man immediately fell in love with Zeus and claimed him as his very own llama.
I took Apollo, the llama for whom this was his first trip out after winter, and as a result, moaned before every sharp corner. (Seriously, we were kind of a match made in heaven.) All of the llamas are rescues from bad situations, which made me love them all the more.
On our first day, we trekked bout 4 miles downward, from about 7400 feet to 6500 feet. There was a man and his 2 sons from Maine walking with us, which was a real blessing, because C-man had a blast hanging out with them. We stopped periodically to have lunch, catch minnows, learn about local plants, suck down more water than we'd ever injested before, and rest. (C-man's shirt just got dirtier and dirtier every stop.)
After 4 miles, we made it to the "junta", where the Red River and Rio Grande meet. After playing in the water and successfully losing the bottom half of C-man's zip-off hiking pants, we ate a tasty dinner of chicken fajitas, taught C-man how to purify river water, had a great campfire where the boys learned some fun tricks on how to spark fires in cool ways with magnesium and flint, and camped for night.
The llamas just hung out around the campground, occassionally moaning and groaning.
The next day we woke up (did I even sleep?), ate fresh pancakes and sausage, and began our way on what felt like straight up to the very top of the gorge.
It was incredibly gorgeous scenery, and I couldn't stop smiling about it.
As an aside, did you know that llamas tend to sneeze a lot? And since they're walking right behind you, that means it's usually right in your hair. Despite already being beyond filthy, I was still pretty thankful for the bandana I'd brought along to wear on my head!
We were fortunate enough to see a few petroglyphs along the way, and our guide knew loads about them, which was really interesting. This is an elk butcher's block.
C-man seemed to hurt himself just about everywhere along the way. He fell in cactus once and got prickers all over his knee, got his foot pinched between some pretty big rocks once, slid down some rocks he shouldn't have been climbing on once, and ended up with some hand scrapes doing some other stuff I didn't know about.
We probably pushed it a bit much for C-man, considering he's only 6, and it was a pretty hefty 7 mile trek. On the last hour, he was really doubting if he could actually make it, and I would be lying if I wasn't right there with him. But it was a "Let's get to the next turn, and we'll rest" situation over and over again. And then it became, "What flavor of ice cream are you going to get at the Taos Cow when we're done here?" Whatever it takes, I say.
But the little bugger is beyond tough. And once he knew there were only "4 more zags to go", he literally ran them and I couldn't even keep up. Then he was asleep about 20 minutes into the car ride out, more filthy and exhausted than I've ever seen him. But I couldn't have been prouder of the way he handled it all.
And after his nap and some ultra-long showers, we all agreed it was truly a memory-making trip. The weather was fantastic, scenery amazing, llamas were funny, guide was super knowledgeable about everything in the area, not to mention ridiculously patient with C-man, and the food was great.
If you're ever in New Mexico, I'd highly recommend the trip with
Wild Earth Llamas. And in case you need it, I've got close to 500 more pictures to convince you.
