Saturday, July 06, 2002
Twin Rivers RV Park, Chama, NM - June 30-July 6
Twin Rivers is an adequate, relatively inexpensive RV park located at the intersection of the two main highways in Chama and along the Chamita River, which like all bodies of water in this area, currently doesn't have much water in it. It was a quiet scenic place to "hide out" for the July 4th Holiday. Chama is located at the southern terminus of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, which unfortunately wasn't running because of the fire danger inherent with a coal-driven engine. Because of this, the town was suffering economically. While not good for the area, it was quite pleasant not to be with crowds of tourists.We took a long, scenic loop drive, over Cumbres Pass to Antonito, CO, south to Tres Piedras, NM, then west to Tierra Amarilla and back north to Chama. The mountains, passes & meadows were all lovely, although there were not as many wildflowers as usual. The fields were still green and the streams had water flowing.
Other days we took scenic drives to areas south of Chama, including the Brazos Cliffs, Heron Lake SP and El Vado Lake SP, the last being the site of our dead-battery adventure and associated flurry of excitement before we could get back to Chama and have a new battery installed. The old one died completely, with absolutely no warning, and we certainly feel fortunate that it didn't happen at a more inconvenient moment! We visited the tiny town of Los Ojos, home of Ganado del Valle, a project to create sustainable rural communities by developing people's skills, and founders of Tierra Wools (a worker owned enterprise that weaves from locally grown wool) which employs a number of local people in all capacities. 
There are almost always weavers at work, and you can talk with them and watch them work, using a stand-up technique at a loom called the Rio Grande Valley style of loom. All the wool is dyed on-site using natural colors. We enjoyed watching & talking with the dyer. Wool of all types & colors is available, as well as many woven items. There is also Pastores General Store, offering handcrafted local items, and Otra Vuelta, which cleans up the environment by weaving discarded tires into floor & vehicle mats & other household items.# posted by Doug and Willie @ 11:20 AM 
