Red Hatters of Alamogordo Explore Carrizozo, New Mexico

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society took a road trip to Carrizozo, New Mexico to explore this small town. The town had many unexpected surprises. Carrizzo is known as the town of burros and indeed, sculpted and painted burros of every description are scattered at various locations and in their art galleries as well. The program is known as The Burro Serenade.

On the way to Carrizozo we stopped at Three Rivers Petroglyphs and indulged in a wee bit of shopping, the Red Hat Society's official sport.

Our first stop in Carrizozo was the Emporium where we were hosted by a dear man who filled us in on various must see places in town and the best place to dine for a large group such as ours. The Emporium is stocked with amazing items from the 1800's up to the present time. Again, purchases were made before we moved on to the lovely Malkerson's 408 Gallery where there were a number of painted burros. I purchased a lovely piece of Raku depicting petroglyphs duplicated from Three Rivers, created and titled by noted Taos, New Mexico artist Hollis Hansen, "The Gang's All Here".

The girls were getting hungry so we drove to the now defunct golf course to a beautiful new restaurant and gift shop called The Rustic Antler. It is owned by a charming family and they've been open for business since October of last year. The service and food were excellent and we had a grand time there. I highly recommend that you visit them for an excellent dining experience. While there, we sang and kazoo'd Happy Birthday to Lu Mattson and Gale Swineford. The owner brought out a bouquet of purple balloons to celebrate the occasion.

A lady, JoAnn Butler was having a meeting at another table with two gentlemen and when her meeting was over she asked questions about the Red Hat Society and expressed an interest in starting a chapter in Carrizozo which I plan to follow up on and help her get started.

We drove back downtown and went into the Photography Studio which was exhibiting the award winning photos from the latest New Mexico Magazine among many others. They also had a burro in their front window with an antique motion picture camera.

One last stop was made at a coppersmith shop and he was quite friendly and informative. It seems that the movie starring Denzel Washington, "The Book of Eli" was filmed right there in Carrizozo on 12th Street.

We all agreed that our road trip to Carrizozo was well worth our time and we still didn't see everything.

Indian Joe making a play for Trudy Reese at Three Rivers Petroglyphs Shop

Jan Jennings paying for a beautiful pendant she treated herself to

Lu Mattson, one of our birthday girls

Gail Swineford (our other birthday girl) amused at something

The pendant that Jan purchased

Jan enamoured with Indian Joe

A vinyard burro inside the Malkerson's 408 Gallery

This burro appears to have a middle-eastern decor

The artist just went wild with color on this burro

L to R: Trudy, VQ Donna Williams, Margie Purcella and Alice Johnston-Evan taking a rest break

A close-up of VQ Donna, Margie and Alice with a brightly painted burro

Carla purchased this lovely Petroglyph wall-hanging done in the Raku medium by noted Taos, NM artist Hollis Hansen

L to R: Lu, Trudy, Gail and Margie at The Rustic Antler

L to R: Alice, Jan and VQ Donna

Margie and Alice sharing this scrumptious looking (HUGE) banana split

The movie maker burro at the Photography Studio

There is no doubt that we need to return to Carrizozo sometime in the near future because what we've explored will have changed and there was still much more to see.

Thanks to Doug Kerr for taking my picture before I left for Carrizozo. I always seem to be behind the camera.

This is all I have to say for now.

Addendum: Lu Mattson was busy with her camera that day and I wanted you to see what she captured.

Indian Joe with Alice Johnston-Evan

Indian Joe with Gail Swineford

Indian Joe with Lu Mattson

The ever popular Indian Joe with Queen Ladybird aka Carla Kerr

Indian Joe with Margie Purcella

Indian Joe with VQ Donna Williams

Indian Joe with Jan Jennings

Indian Joe with Trudy Reese

Thanks to Lu Mattson for taking these FUN pictures and to Indian Joe for posing so patiently with us.

This really is all I have to say!

Three Rivers, New Mexico Petroglyph Site Visited by Red Hatters

April 27, 2013

Members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society drove to the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site to explore the amazing rock art created by the Jornada Mogollon people who disappeared about 800 years ago. More than 21,000 glyphs of birds, humans, animals, fish, insects and plants, as well as numerous geometric and abstract designs are scattered over 50 acres of New Mexico's northern Chihuahuan Desert. The art is created by using stone tools to remove the dark patina of the exterior of the rock. A small pueblo ruin is nearby.  On the village site, there are foundations of three types of prehistoric buildings which were partially excavated in 1976. The trail is quite rugged and only three of us ventured up the mountain to see the glyphs. The other members joined us for lunch later at Tulie Cantina in Tularosa, NM where the food was delicious and we had a lovely afternoon visiting.

As I am not an expert in translating these petroglyphs, I'll leave this to your imagination

One of my critters and isn't he cute!

Could be a dwelling or a cake?

I can't figure out if its an animal or an insect

Centipede?

I believe this is a person

Could be a baby all wrapped up

There were many of these and sometimes they were plainer and on a body

This one might be a puma or mountain lion. There's a story there somewhere.

Clearly a foot, but what's the other sign?

This rock had so much on it, I called it the newspaper rock

Bighorn Sheep and I didn't even know we had these in New Mexico

Appears to be quite a voluptuous body blessed with those stars around her head

No doubt, a deer. Interesting body anatomy.

Geometric jargon of some sort?

Beats me!

Another big cat of some sort, rather cartoonish

View from up the mountain

Darla, one of my sister mountain climbers

Jean, communicating with the real world!

Is it time to head back yet?

L to R: Jean, Carla and Darla photographed by a nice gentleman

L to R: Jean, Forest Ranger Art, and Darla

L to R: Alice, Esperanza, Rosa, Darla and Jean at Tulie Cantina

As you can see by the photos, New Mexico truly is the Land of Enchantment. We did not have time to explore the village site and will return to do this another day. Also, I took many more pictures, but how many can one stand at a sitting?? Evidently, I was tired of taking pictures by the time we got to the restaurant because, as you can see, only one is printed here.

This is all I have to say for now.