The Nelsons Go Southwest - Exploring New Mexico

We woke up early (thank you, Mountain Time!) Wednesday morning ready to explore New Mexico a bit! Visiting the state capitol building was first on our agenda for the day. We grabbed breakfast at our hotel, loaded up all our stuff, and headed a few miles down the road to the capitol building.

Driving through Santa Fe was interesting. It was everything we imagined an older town in the southwest United States would be! All the architecture reflected the culture of the area, and that carried right on over into the capitol building. We had never seen a capitol building like New Mexico's!

It was about 8:30am when we arrived at the capitol building, and the sun wasn't in a great spot for photos.

Brenson, Brecklyn, Brooke, and Brianna

We were pretty fascinated by the artwork that decorated the grounds.

Brenson, Brecklyn, Brooke, and Brianna

This is definitely not a great photo in front of the capitol building, but thankfully we got a better one on our way out. 

Once we got inside the building, we were pretty impressed with the beautiful architecture. The outside didn't really indicate that the inside would be so stunning. 

Stained glass ceiling

Overlooking where the state senate meets

Many of the hallways were lined with amazing artwork . . . also a unique feature of this capitol building. It was a pleasant surprise to us!

Brecklyn and Brooke

Not all of the artwork was particularly appealing to us, haha.

We spent just under an hour inside the facility and were pleased to find the sun in a better spot for a photo as we were walking to our vehicle!

After visiting New Mexico's capitol building, we had to unexpectedly run back to the hotel we had stayed in the night before. Brenson had already lost his trip binder we had given all the kids, and he was insistent that it was in our hotel room. I still had my key (because I always forget to leave them), but sadly we had no luck finding his binder. In fact, we never did find the thing! We have no idea what happened to it, but I was pretty disappointed that he lost it at the very beginning of the trip.

From Santa Fe, we traveled north toward the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. This meant that we got to drive along the Rio Grande River for many miles. It was gorgeous and the yellow foliage was abundant. Of course, the photos don't do it justice!

Brooke, Momma, and Brecklyn at the Rio Grande

Look at that fall foliage!

We were so happy when we came upon the Rio Grande Gorge Visitor Center. Of course, we had to stop for a visit, and even though the center was small we learned a lot about the area. The kids were mostly thrilled to buy souvenirs :-).

While we were at the visitor's center, we thought it would be a good time to have lunch. We ate out of our food bin and enjoyed the views.

While in the visitor's center, one of the employees told Chris that we should take a lesser known route to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. This route included a gravel road that climbed out of the gorge/river bottom and some amazing scenery. I felt kind of sorry for our van as we were climbing on gravel switchbacks! But, the view was definitely worth it!

So amazing on a perfect weather day!

This was a different kind of beauty than what we are used to, but we were soaking it all in.

Mountains!

We arrived at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge around 2:00pm. 

The detour to see the bridge was well worth it!

💓

I was a bit surprised at how little traffic there was at the bridge. I guess it was because we were there during the off-season. Many of the tables where vendors set up to sell souvenirs were empty, and the parking lot had only a handful of cars in it. I can't say we minded, though.

Daddy and Bri

Brenson and Brianna

Bren

Chris

Brecklyn and Brooke

Chris and Chelle

Chelley

Incredible view!

After standing on the edge of the gorge soaking up the sights, we made our way to the bridge. As we started to step out onto the bridge, Chris had Brooke on his shoulders, and a park ranger yelled at us that everyone needed to be on their own feet for safety reasons. It was a bit surprising to be hollered at from across the way! 

Being out on the bridge made my knees a little shaky, and Brecklyn was experiencing the same thing. My head doesn't mind heights, but my body feels differently!

Walking back toward the parking lot

Once we were off the bridge, Brooke hitched a ride again!

Our destination for the night was Farmington, so after leaving the bridge we still had over three hours of driving ahead of us. We drove through the Carson National Forest, and I wanted to stop for a photo but all the kids had fallen asleep not long after leaving the bridge. We climbed and wound up and down several mountains through the forest, seeing wildlife and even some snow at the higher elevations. 

Once we exited the forest, we continued to wind our way all the way to Farmington. We were on a two lane road that climbed and twisted and turned and descended, and Chris and I both remember how it felt like it took forever to finally get to Farmington. I drove most of the way between the edge of the national forest and Farmington, and it just felt like the minutes to our destination on our GPS were not ticking down quickly at all!

Once we arrived in Farmington, everyone was tired and hungry. We quickly found a pizza joint and stopped for dinner. It was fairly empty (lots of carry-out happening, though) and seemed to take much longer than we thought it should. However, the food was tasty and even more so since we were all hungry! Once we checked into our hotel for the night, we all went to sleep quickly.