Megan’s Take
Today, we saw some beautiful views en route to El Santuario de Chimayo. El Santuario de Chimayo is a historic Catholic pilgrimage site with a church, chapels,
museum, and el pocito – the well of holy dirt.
You can learn more about the holy dirt here:
https://www.holychimayo.us/blank-6
“Bernardo Abeyta knelt when he discovered the crucifix of Chapel of our Lord of Espuipulas on this very spot on Good Friday, 1810. Since that day, pilgrims have come seeking spiritual, emotional, and physical healing. Many rub the dirt on areas of the body in need of healing; others carry it home to sick loved ones who could not make the journey themselves.”
It seems a little silly to carry this sacred dirt home in a Ziploc bag, but that’s exactly what I’m doing!
The grounds around El Santuario are beautiful and prayerful. It’s less peaceful while wrangling children, although I was touched that Emilia told me at bedtime that her favorite thing today was “going to that Catholic place.” I was thinking how sweet that was. Then shortly after that, she told me that she really enjoyed buying special things at the gift shop.
After a morning communion service, we headed out on a rockhounding adventure near Abiquiu. It was SO FUN – my favorite rockhounding this trip.
We stopped at Walmart to buy some simple hand shovels and then headed out with tools, water packs, and snacks. Future Megan, save these coordinates and go back: 36°14’29.8″N 106°11’27.7″W. The site is an abandoned mining claim called Small Fry prospect where purple fluorite is abundant, and the vein runs all across the arroyo. Phil worked in the rock towards the ridge of the hill,
while the kids and I sifted through dirt and rocks that have come down the side of the hill. There was so much cool stuff at the surface level. We had a lot of fun digging in the dirt, and it was such a bummer when an incoming thunderstorm sent us back to the truck.
Phil’s Take
The highlights of the day for me were the rockhounding and the brief reservoir visit after it started raining.
The rockhounding stuff makes me wish I understood more about how this stuff forms. I spend a significant amount of time up in that area in the picture above and didn’t find much at all. I moved further to the left and found some more wedged in between very hard layers of dirt that were almost rock and difficult to chisel with the tools I had. I found some fluorite there, but not much. It turns out where Megan and the kids were was much more fruitful. It would be much better to find this stuff if I knew what the chemical makeup of it were and what circumstances of dirt composition made it more likely for it to form. However, I also remember how much I hated chemistry in college and don’t think I would survive a geology program.
After it started raining, we headed over to a lake that was about 10 minutes west of where the mine was. This was one of the most scenic areas we’ve seen. We were threatened with rain there too, but not as much as at the mine.
The scenery in this part of New Mexico is definitely much better than down south. I realize people don’t go there for the scenery, but that’s more my jam.
The gallery for today is here:
