High Road North Audio CD Road Trip

The road from Santa Fe to Taos through the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains is one of the richest local byways in terms of history, culture, and landscape. Locals call it the High Road to Taos as opposed to the Low Road, the faster route, which follows the Rio Grande between Española and the city named after the nearby pueblo.

Due to its length and richness in historic and cultural legacy, the High Road requires two CDs traveling in one direction. The beginning of the trip north passes two northern pueblos (Tesuque and Pojoaque). Our historian illustrates the growing tension between the early incursion of the Spanish conquistadores and the increasing disillusionment of the passive Pueblos that eventually led to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

This Road Trip reveals the planning and unfolding of the Pueblo Revolt and its impact on the first wave of Spanish intruders. As the trip turns east and heads toward the foothills, you learn about the second wave of Spanish settlers. At the insistence of the Spanish king, this second, hand-selected group of colonists who had learned from their pre-Revolt mistakes, initiated and nurtured a different kind of relationship with the Natives—the little-known New Mexico legacy that still thrives.

Discover why most Indian settlements lie along the river, and the High Road winds through a string of centuries-old Hispanic villages in the foothills of the Sangres. As the trip winds through these villages, the guides uncover their history, traditions, and culture. They explain the initiation and purpose of plaza construction and the importance of the ancient acequia (ditch) system that sustains life four hundred years later. Your guides unveil what life is like in one of these traditional mountain villages; a life changed little through the centuries.

The guides examine the rapidly changing landscape, and you experience it from both a scientific explanation as well as the guides' personal perspectives.

As the road approaches Taos, history shifts again, and Anglo culture begins to appear. First, frontiersmen such as Kit Carson laid down their footprint. In the twentieth century, artists, particularly the Taos seven, were drawn to the area's visual magic and unintentionally created an allure that attracted artistic adventurers and eccentric personalities, such characters as Mabel Dodge Luhan, D. H. Lawrence, and Millicent Rogers.

Buy at Amazon.com