Road Tips

The License Plates of New Mexico

As much as I travel by car, I see a lot of license plates from various states around the country.  On long trips around the Midwest to help break up the monotony, I used to play a game - License Plate Bingo - where I would check off all the states license plates I would see on the roadways, especially in the summertime.  I would occasionally see cars sporting plates from Alaska and Hawaii.  (A few years ago, there was a car with Hawaii plates in the Quad Cities for a couple three years.  Turned out it was a student at the Palmer School of Chiropractic who had his car shipped over to the mainland to use while he was in school.)  

But the ones that really stick out to me are the ones that I see from New Mexico - especially my all-time favorite plate that I'll talk about in a bit.  We saw 'em all during our trip to New Mexico earlier this year.  

A lot of states feature drab-colored or classic-style license plates.  The fonts and background colors of Indiana's current plates look so much like the Iowa plates that it's tough to tell the difference.  Some states have so much clutter on their plates that it's difficult to figure out what state they're from.  

Over the past few years the state of Iowa has suddenly figured out that people don't want silos and buildings on their plates and they have issued a "Blackout Plate" consisting of white letters and numbers on a black background.  It looks great on my car and on my wife's car - both are white - and it looks good on black or grey cars.  

The state of Iowa has 29 commemorative plates for various colleges and universities around the state.   A few years ago, a number of license plate "hackers" thought the Dordt University license plates looked pretty nice on black or white cars.  Dordt's uniform colors are predominantly black and white with gold trim and enterprising people would hide the "Dordt University" with a license plate frame and would put black tape over the "Defenders".  Hiding any lettering on a license plate is against the law in Iowa, but the state saw how popular the white on black plates were.  

In 2019, Iowa passed legislation creating the "Blackout Plate".  For a one-time $60 fee, people could get the black and white plates. The first week they were available to all 99 counties, they sold out.   In all, the state has issued nearly 490,000 "Blackout" license plates generating nearly $26 million in voluntary tax revenue for the state.  It appears that other states are starting to catch on to the idea.  Utah has now made a "Blackout" plate available and there is a wait of nearly 6 to 8 weeks to get the tags.  

And that's kind of interesting because Utah's regular issue license plates are one of the more colorful ones I've seen.  It features a picture of Delicate Arch from the Arches National Park on the background of the plate.   North Dakota's, South Dakota's and Nevada's license plates also feature colorful scenic backgrounds.  They definitely stand out color-wise even though it's difficult to make out what the pictures are when you're passing someone at 78 mph on the interstate.  

But the New Mexico plates have always stuck out - and it really doesn't have anything to do with background pictures or the fonts they use.  They're just, well, noticeable.  

Actually, New Mexico has three standard issue plates.  The two that are the most well-known are the red on yellow license plate, and the yellow on turquoise license plates.  Both feature the Zia sun symbol in the middle of the plates.  The Zia sun symbol represents the four main directions, the four seasons of the year, the four periods of each day (morning, noon, evening, and night), and the four seasons of life (childhood, youth, middle age, and old age). The center of the sun symbol stands for life itself.  New Mexico is also the only state that uses the "USA" as a tag after the state name to make sure that people don't mistake the plates for Mexican plates.  

The red on yellow plates were first introduced in 1958 and went through some variations over the years.  Since 1978, the red on yellow plates have been the primary license tags on vehicles in New Mexico.  

The yellow on turquoise plates were introduced in 2010 and were immediately named as the "Best New Plate" by the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association (yes, that is a real organization!).  It was the first time a New Mexico plate had been honored by the club which was founded in 1954.  

Because turquoise is the de facto "state color" of New Mexico, it was a no-brainer to issue plates in that color.  New Mexico's nickname "Land of Enchantment" is featured prominently on both license plates.

It turns out that New Mexico has a number of specialized plates.  New Mexico has SIXTY different plates to either choose from for people who are qualified to have them.  That has to be a nightmare for law enforcement.  But in a state where there are 2.1 million people living, I suppose there are enough different variations that allow that many different types of plates.  

The plate themes are very diverse - there are 10 license plates for 8 colleges and 2 junior colleges in the state.  There are specific license plates for residents of Santa Fe and Las Cruces.   The "Wildlife" plate features a roadrunner on it.  (We didn't see a roadrunner while we were there, much to my dismay.)  There are license plates that commemorate or honor Boy Scouts, bass fishing, Route 66, breast cancer awareness, pollinator protection, and retired fire fighters and state police.  (You can see all 60 vehicle and motorcycle plate styles for New Mexico by clicking here.)  

We saw a couple plates that I thought were somewhat interesting during our trip to New Mexico. There were plates that honored retired veterans from each of the branches of military service.  They also had disabled veteran plates as shown below left.  The veterans plates of gold on navy blue with an eagle on the side really stood out.  

Another plate that we saw from time to time was the Farm & Ranch Heritage tag that showed support for New Mexican farmers and ranchers.  What seemed to be most interesting in all of this - the vehicles that sported these plates were all high dollar SUV's or pick up trucks.  I especially got a kick out of seeing this one (above right) on a Mercedes GLA SUV.  

But the best license plate is also a standard issue plate that New Mexico first introduced in 2017.  This is my all-time favorite license plate - the "Chile Capital of the World" tag.  It features gold lettering on a black background with green and red chiles shown prominently on the side.  This was also awarded the "License Plate of the Year" the year it was issued by the ALPCA.  

I first saw this plate when my wife and I were in Colorado Springs in a hotel parking lot in August of 2018.  The plate just jumped out at me.  It immediately became my favorite license plate.  Each time I see one of the "chile" plates, I smile.  The color combinations of the red, green and gold just pop off the black background.  

I wanted to get a novelty "chile" plate while we were in New Mexico.  And while I don't like to go into the tourist trap places like they had in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos, I did stop to take a quick look around in some of them to see if they had novelty "chile" plates.  All efforts turned up futile, which, quite actually, was fine with me.

However, my wife and I were driving the backroads between Santa Fe and Albuquerque and we stopped into a "trading post/museum" (more of a tourist trap) in the small town of Los Cerillos.  There they had a few antiques and they also had license plates.  They had a "chile" license plate for sale, but they wanted $12 bucks for it.  I thought about it for a moment, had it in my hands, and thought, "No, I'll find a novelty plate somewhere in Albuquerque."  

But my wife was adamant.  "If you want this plate, I'll buy it for you."  I hemmed and hawed for a moment before she finally picked up the plate and took it to the front counter and bought it for me.  

I usually don't buy much of anything as far as trinkets or collectables on vacation, but this car license may be the best thing that I brought home from a vacation.  And I have my wife to thank for that.  

I have it proudly displayed in my office.  And I get a bit of a smile each time I glance at it.  

High Road to Taos Scenic Byway

During our time in Santa Fe we had planned on taking a day trip up to Taos.  It turns out that the road to Taos from Santa Fe is well known as the High Road to Taos Scenic Byway.  We knew it would be at least a two hour drive with stops here and there to take in the scenery and check out some of the small towns along the way.  

After we landed in Albuquerque, we went to a restaurant near the airport and chatted up a lady who was serving us that day.  We told her of our plans to go up to Santa Fe for a few days and take a day trip up to Taos.  She started to tell us about Chimayo, a small village north and east of Santa Fe.  "There are a lot of great restaurants in Chimayo and some neat little shops."  Suddenly, we thought we would take a half day out of the three days we were planning on staying in Santa Fe and go up to Chimayo.  

It turns out that we were oversold on Chimayo.  While there were a couple three interesting places that we visited, there was only one restaurant - and it was closed.  Realizing that there really wasn't much to Chimayo, we decided to turn our half-day trip to the small town into a full day trip continuing on to Taos.  

Going north out of Santa Fe, US Highway 84/285 is a 4-lane road going up toward Española.  There are two ways to get to Chimayo - take US 84/285 up to New Mexico 76 and go east to Chimayo.  Or you can take the way we did by turning right at Pojoauqe on New Mexico 503.  That road takes you through some farms and acreages and slowly climbs as you continue to the north and east.  There's a left turn onto New Mexico 98 that takes you north into Chimayo.

As you go north out of Santa Fe on US 84/285, there's a natural sandstone rock formation on the west side of the highway called Camel Rock.  (see map)  From afar, it resembles a camel lying down with the hump prominently sticking up in the back.  The neck and the head of the "camel" stick up from the ground about 35 to 40 feet.  

 
The camel's nose was much more prominent until sometime in early 2017 when it fell off from natural erosion.  
There is a exit ramp off US 84/285 and a free parking area with a path up to a viewing area outside the fence that surrounds the "camel" to keep out the idiots who would undoubtedly try to climb the rock and further damage the geologic formation.  

The road up to Chimayo has some pretty stark and desolate vistas that are deep examples of what the Southwestern high desert of the U.S. looks like.  Sage bushes along with little bits of green vegetation surround sandstone formations that seemingly stick up out of nowhere.  At 6500 feet above sea level the sky was clear and void of any haze giving it a deep blue color that was just magnificent the whole time we were in New Mexico.   The speed limit along the stretch of road up to Chimayo wasn't more than 50 miles an hour on a curvy high desert road that rose and dipped and featured a handful of turnouts to soak in the view.  

Chimayo (pronounced chuh - MAY - oh) is known for a number of things.  First of all, there's a restaurant there - the only restaurant (not "lots" as we were told) - Rancho de Chimayo, which was closed when we were there.  But we understand that it's worth the drive.  The restaurant was established in 1973 by Arturo and Florence Jaramillo and is considered one of the best restaurants in the area serving Northern New Mexican cuisine.  

Chimayo is also famous for the weavings and the tapestries by the Trujillo and Ortega families.  Both had shops in the small village, but - once again - they were closed while we were there.  We did go to another shop that had similar weavings, as well as jewelry, pottery and other pieces of art for sale.  

Thirdly, Chimayo is the home of the original lowrider car.  Yes, we were told that by a guy who knew the history of the area in and around Santa Fe and he said that while nearby Española is called the "Lowrider Capital of the World" and California is the home of the lowrider culture, a Chimayo man - David Jaramillo - began modifications on this 1969 Ford LTD in the early 70's with hydraulic lifts and customized the paint job.  Jaramillo was tragically killed in a car accident before his "Dave's Dream" was finished, but friends and family finished the modifications and customization of the car.  The car is on display today at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.    

Another thing Chimayo is famous for is their Chimayo peppers.  The sweet, earthy and smoky flavor of the Chimayo pepper is coveted worldwide by chefs looking to put it in soups or salsas, or to used as an enhancement for meat dishes.  The soil and arid conditions around Chimayo give the peppers their distinctive flavor.  And because the peppers are notoriously thin-walled, only about 150 pounds of peppers are harvested and hung to dry before they're crushed into chili powder or chili flakes.  

One place that was open and sells ground Chimayo peppers is the El Potrero Trading Post.  Established in 1921 by Alfonsa Vigil for the residents in what was then known as El Portrero de Chimayó, the store is still in the family today with Alfonsa's grandchildren Raymond Bal and Vikki Tejeda in charge.  True to the heritage of the Vigil family, strands of red Chimayo peppers were hanging from the front of the building drying in the sun.  

We went in to buy some Chimayo chile powder and pulled what I thought were a couple bags of Chimayo chile powder off the shelf.  When I asked the young lady behind the counter if this was the Chimayo chile powder.  "Oh, no.  We keep the Chimayo chile powder back here," she said while pointing to a number of baggies with bright red chili powder on a shelf behind the counter.  I got a 4 ounce bag of Chimayo Heirloom chile powder - it was $11.00 for the bag.   We also picked up some green chile powder made with Hatch peppers and also got some crushed green Hatch chiles in the a 4 ounce bag.  

But what Chimayo is most famous for is the Santurio de Chimayo, a Catholic church that was built in 1816. (see map)  Situated in a valley among the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the adobe shrine is one of the more famous in the southwest for the annual pilgrimages that take place during Holy Week.  Tens of thousands of people walk from Santa Fe, Taos and as far away as Albuquerque to Santurio de Chimayo for blessings and to fulfill religious vows on the Thursday and Friday before Easter.  Annually, 300,000 people visit the shrine which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. 

The interior of the church features long wooden crossbeams across the ceiling.  The colorful wall behind the altar is adorned with Christ of Esquipulas, a statue of Christ on the crucifix, while other pieces of religious paintings from both Spanish settlers and native Pueblo Indians are found on the walls of the sanctuary.  I took the picture above right before I saw the sign - in both English and Spanish - that pictures inside the shrine were prohibited.  

The church sits on 6.5 acres of land bordered by a mountain stream with pastures surrounding the property.  (Potrero in Spanish means pasture or paddock.)  There was a large common area that had stone arches with embedded crucifixes on the perimeter of what is used as a prayer area. 

Behind the church was an outdoor mass chapel.  In warmer weather, mass is held outdoors daily (11 a.m., 12 noon on Sunday) in the circular chapel that is covered with tenting.  They were just getting ready to hold mass outdoors when we were there that day.  

In part of the church are two rooms - the prayer room and a smaller room that is where pilgrims find the holy dirt that has made Santaurio de Chimayo famous for the supposed healing powers the blessed dirt gives people.  The prayer room features an area for prayer candles with pictures of sick people who were supposedly cured by the blessed dirt that is available in a smaller room off to the side.  Crutches, canes and braces that were discarded by people who were "healed" by rubbing the miracle dirt on their extremities hung on the wall opposite the photographs of people.   Notes of thanks for ailment cures were also posted on the wall.  

The blessed dirt is located in a hole in the stone floor of the room next to the prayer room at Santuario de Chimayo.  There were people lined up to get dirt while we were there.  The dirt is taken from nearby hillsides (up to 25 to 30 tons a year), then blessed by the priest and then placed in the hole in the small room.  People scoop the dirt into cups, bags, whatever, and put it on their body to cure ailments or to ward off bad spirits.  My wife was raised Catholic and still has a bit of religion in her, and she filled up two quart-sized sealable plastic bags with the dirt.  I just shrugged my shoulders - to each their own, I guess.  

From Chimayo, New Mexico 76 continues on up into the Sangre de Cristo mountains as the landscape turned from high desert steppes to forested mountainsides like you'd see throughout the mountainous areas of Colorado.  A number of small villages lined the route from Chimayo to Taos, each of them seemed to have their own adobe churches that were the most prominent feature of the town.  We stopped at a couple of them along the way, but they were closed probably because there was no one was available to watch them.  

In all, it took us about an hour and 45 minutes to make the 50 mile trek from Chimayo to Taos.  There were a number of turnouts to take in some of the beautiful vistas along the way.  The High Road to Taos is definitely a leisurely drive.  

We ended up taking the Low Road to Santa Fe along the Rio Grande River (yes, the same Rio Grande River that separates Texas from Mexico) but not before venturing out north and west of Taos to see the Rio Grande Gorge and to cross the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  We were told by a shopkeeper in Chimayo that we needed to see the gorge - "It's our Grand Canyon," the lady told us.  

The bridge spans the Rio Grande 650 feet above the river.  The bridge length is nearly 1300 feet and was dedicated in 1965.  When the bridge was built, the funds were not available for the continuance of the roadway on the west side of the bridge so it was truly a "bridge to nowhere".  On the west side of the span is a parking area with restrooms.  People can walk out onto the bridge to peer down into the Rio Grande below.  I'm not certain I could have done that as I get queasy on stepladders these days.  Still, it was amazing to see the flat steppe with this large fissure that pops out of nowhere.  The stark beauty of the contrasts of flat land and a deep gorge was fascinating to me. 

The Low Road to Santa Fe was much more quick to traverse than the High Road coming up.  It did go along the Rio Grande and that was kind of neat to follow the river which is no more than a couple hundred feet wide at that point in New Mexico.  But the High Road to Taos from Santa Fe was a much better and more memorable drive.  Taos, itself, was a neat little town and it reminded us a lot of Steamboat Springs, CO, one of our favorite places to visit.  We'll get back there for more than a day trip at some point.  But for now, we'll certainly remember our drive along the High Road to Taos as one of the best scenic drives we've done. 

New Mexico

We just came back from a vacation to New Mexico.   We wanted to go somewhere that we had never been to before and we discussed a couple three places before making a decision.  We had talked about New Orleans (even though I had been there over 20 years ago), but at this time of year in Louisiana the heat and humidity is brutal.  We talked about going to Charleston, SC.  When we went to Savannah, GA a few years back, we had planned on going up to Charleston for a couple days.  But we liked Savannah so much that we skipped Charleston.  However, we vowed to get there some day.  We were leaning toward heading to Charleston for this vacation.  

For some reason one evening not long ago, I started looking into going to New Mexico.  I had flown into Albuquerque a number of years ago on a Southwest Airlines flight, but I had never gotten off the plane as I was heading on to Dallas from Las Vegas.  So, technically I had been to New Mexico before, but never experienced the state.    

Picking New Mexico over Charleston turned out to be a good choice - Hurricane Idalia hit the Florida Gulf Coast and veered up across Georgia and into South Carolina passing directly over Charleston as a tropical storm before heading out into the Atlantic.  We would have been in Charleston when Idalia hit had we decided to go there.  And I'm sure everything would have been disrupted for a couple three days as the storm surge and heavy rainfall caused massive flooding throughout the city and power was out to areas in and around Charleston.  

Using flight and hotel points I had saved up with both United and Hilton, we ended up deciding about a week before we were to start our vacation to go to New Mexico, flying in to and out of Albuquerque.  I also got a pretty good rate on a rental car through National using my former company's corporate rate to get a 2023 Toyota Highlander to use for the week.  After landing in Albuquerque, we first headed up to Sante Fe for a few days.  From there, we took a couple road trips including a very scenic day trip up to Taos.  In all we went on 3 scenic byways during our trip to New Mexico.  I'll highlight those trips in the coming days and weeks.   

Weather in New Mexico when we were there was unseasonably warm - temperatures were 10 to 20 degrees above average.  But like the desert Southwest, humidity levels were low making the temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90's somewhat bearable.  The months of July and August are usually the peak of the monsoon season in the Southwest, but most of the monsoon moisture over the past couple years has stayed to the west of New Mexico.  Complaints from the locals about the lack of monsoon season for a couple years now were a vivid topic of conversation pretty much everywhere we went.  

New Mexico is well-known in the arts community for their large number of art museums, galleries and studios which support local artists throughout the state.  The number of places to see art during our travels across the state was almost overwhelming.  And it was all kinds of art - contemporary, Spanish colonial, sculptures, and Native American culture artwork.  

The most famous of the art museums and galleries may be the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe.  20th century modernist artist Georgia O'Keeffe fell in love with New Mexico during visits there in the 1930's, finally buying a ranch in north central New Mexico as a vacation home/inspiration studio.  O'Keeffe became a permanent resident of New Mexico in the late 40's after the death of her husband.  O'Keeffe lived in New Mexico for nearly 40 years before she passed away in Santa Fe in 1986 at the age of 98.  We spent about 90 minutes one day in the O'Keeffe museum looking at some of her famous works as well as some of her more obscure works.  It was worth the price of admission.  

And, of course, there was the food.  "New" Mexican food is different from traditional Mexican food in that they use a lot of potatoes in many of their dishes.  They also use pinto beans as a side rather than black or refried beans.  (I determined that I really liked the pinto beans in their own gravy when I was in New Mexico.)  And, of course, the sauces they use on most of their foods - especially the green chile sauce -  helps enhance the overall taste of the food without overpowering the main dish.  I love the green chile sauce and I have to admit that I was getting sort of burnt out on green chiles by the time we were getting ready to leave.  However, my last meal in New Mexico featured an omelet slathered with the green chile sauce.  We also experienced contemporary New Mexican cuisine in Sante Fe, as well as contemporary Italian food in Albuquerque.  Breakfast is big in New Mexico and we had a number of New Mexican-style breakfasts to start many of our days.  And I had just one burger the whole time we were in New Mexico.  Of course, it was topped with pepper jack cheese and green chiles.

With all the food, I was certain that I had gained 8 to 10 pounds while we were in New Mexico.  With the glaring exception of one meal, nearly every meal we had ranged from very good to great.  When I had my bag weighed at the airport to fly home, it was 11 pounds heavier than when we flew out to New Mexico due to stuff we had picked up during our trip.  I joked to the ticket agent, "I think I'm 11 pounds heavier after eating all this food."  My wife and I made a pact on the plane flight between Albuquerque and Denver that we had to go on severe diets once we got home.

The morning after we got home, I was scared to get on the scale.  I always weigh myself before I go on a trip - either business or pleasure - as I generally lose weight away from home.  This time, however, I was convinced that I was at least 10 pounds heavier.  I jumped up on the scales, afraid to see the damage the great food in New Mexico did to me.  But in one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises that I have had in quite some time, I didn't gain a pound while we were on vacation.  Our scale even goes down to ounces and I weighed the exact same weight - pound and ounce - that I did the morning we left to go to New Mexico.  Even though I was happy with that, my wife and I decided to continue with our plan for our diet and I have to say that I've lost about 4 more pounds since we got back.   

The scenery was spectacular across the New Mexico.  The stark tones of the high desert contrasted with the bright blue skies to make nearly every sight magnificent.  We joined dozens of people on a hillside overlooking Sante Fe for sunsets, we saw pop-up thunderstorms from off in the distance in the afternoons, we explored gorges from the top down and back up again.  And we stopped at a number of churches and sanctuaries that dated back to the 17th century.  It seemed like every small town we drove through had a small adobe-style church that stood majestically in the village.  I'm not a spiritual person, but it was rather neat to see some of the old churches in our travels.  

 

In the days and weeks to come, I'll share with you some of the sights we saw, some of the roads we drove, some of the foods we ate, and some of the cultural highlights from our trip to New Mexico.  I'll even talk a little about the New Mexico license plates which are some of the most colorful and interesting in the United States.  There weren't many disappointments during our visit to the Land of Enchantment.  It was a great vacation getaway.  We didn't have many - if any - regrets when we left.  

Well, except that we never did see a roadrunner while we were there...