My wife Kathy and myself live in the village of Embudo, on the banks of the Rio Grande, about 20 miles west of Taos, NM. My usual 2-3 hour photographic jaunt starts with driving upstream along Hwy 68, which parallels the Racecourse section of the river. At Pilar, I turn left onto Hwy 570, which carries me through the Orilla Verde section of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, again alongside the river. When I reach Taos Junction Bridge, I can either turn around or cross the bridge and drive the dirt road to the rim, and then turn around. It was on this road last week that I encountered a herd of Bighorn sheep, who entertained me for a number of minutes:
https://believesteve.org/2016/12/07/bighorn-sheep-put-on-a-show-rio-grande-gorge-nm/
Along the Racecourse run, another bald eagle has shown up, and is keeping company with the one already arrived. Perhaps they are a mated pair?
This bald eagle pair is on a favorite perch, where they seem to enjoy watching the considerable traffic that passes up and down along NM 68. Racecourse run on the Rio Grande, near Pilar, NM. This photo was shot from across both the road and the river.
Goldeneyes
A storm produced some nice lighting effects in the gorge.
This point is defined by the gorge of Taos Creek (found on the far side of the point), where it joins the Rio Grande. Adjacent to Taos Junction Bridge, in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument.
Across the gorge of Taos Creek from the point seen above, this basalt cliff is stained red by a deposit of reddish soil that lies above it. This deposit is a “stream fill” (former stream bed dirt deposit) which was capped by a subsequent basalt flow. The heat of the flow “baked” it and gave it its red coloration.
The same cliff as seen in the above photo, with the Picuris Mountains beyond
These photos were taken with a Nikon Coolpix P900 Superzoom camera.
