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This weekend, I felt the need to get out of town. After seeing some photography online of an old church in the town of Golden, NM, I made a plan to take a day trip up the Turquoise Trail. I had never been to this area of New Mexico; I imagine that is because I have never gone skiing. All the rain and storms we have had have made the drive up to Albuquerque look so green and beautiful. Every creek was running along the highway, and there were wildflowers everywhere, as well as fat, healthy cows with their babies.
When we finally stopped in Golden, we saw the Henderson store, which acknowledges that it has been family-owned since 1918. Golden was the first gold-rush town west of the Mississippi. There are ruins of old buildings along the road that you can see, but I didn’t feel up to investigating those. The San Francisco church is very beautiful, and you can tell it was recently remodeled. At this point, we were hungry, so we did not spend as much time exploring the area.
We continued our trek to the main event, the town of Madrid, where I had already perused their menu for Refinery 14 online. They also had a live band on the patio. We lucked out because the weather was beautiful, but it seems we weren’t the only ones who wanted to spend the day there. The town itself was packed with people, and parking was an issue; we did manage to find a paid parking spot where we were able to walk down to the restaurant.
Madrid is known for being dog-friendly. In fact, their informal mayor was a dog named Mayor Fuzz in the 1970s. For this reason, we brought our dogs with us: my three-legged Rottweiler mix and my cousin’s pug. The walk down to the restaurant was interesting as the dogs had way too many things to smell, and what would have been a short walk became ten times longer. It was worth it, though, because the restaurant itself had a whole menu just for dogs. I ordered a Southwest salad with ahi tuna, and the pups got their own doggy bowls with rice, chicken and vegetables. While the dogs snacked on pup cups for dessert, I had a glass of sangria that was spiced with cinnamon.
Due to having the dogs with us, there were limited places we could go. I did notice signs for “Wild Hogs” everywhere, pointing out that the movie with Tim Allen was at least partially filmed there. I will have to make another drive sometime to check out their selection of museums.
The rest of our drive was primarily spent on sightseeing. We tried to stay off the interstate and did a big loop through Clines Corners and back into San Antonio.
The whole trip really highlighted how amazing New Mexico is. You can go from one area that is primarily a forest to another area that just looks like flat plains, and you will also pass a mesa or two. The area that really caught my attention was the Salt Flats. These large salt deposits were so important to early Spanish/Native American trade. Salt was a valuable form of currency, as it was used not only for seasoning but also for preserving food. We need salt to survive, and these dried-up saltwater lakes provided it not only for New Mexico but also for other areas in the southwest when it was transported by pack animals.
These flats along the Salt Missions Trail were so important that Franciscan friars built their missions around them while they were attempting to convert the native population. Wars were even fought over this resource when American settlers attempted to monopolize it. They tried to levy fees for salt gathering as well as to keep some of the areas as their private property. These actions ended up causing conflicts, such as the Magoffin Salt War. It is so crazy to think that something we buy from the store for a dollar, and use on our food willy-nilly, to the point that most people are supposed to eat less salt, was a cause of contention between people that resulted in war or death.
At this point, the sun was starting to go down. We pulled over in a little camping area to get some photos during the “magic hour.” We also spent some time on the side of the road while I tried to get up close to some pronghorn antelope, of which there seemed to be thousands. If you haven’t taken a trip up the Turquoise Trail or the Salt Missions Trail, it is worth a look, provided it isn’t raining or snowing. We had the good fortune of blue skies and perfect weather for our trip around an area of New Mexico I had not yet explored.
