My thoughts after traveling to Farmington, New Mexico

I drove west on Hwy 64 from Chama to Farmington over the weekend. Here are a few of my thoughts:

The Carson National Forest is a sight to behold. It’s also absolutely massive. I’ve stepped foot in the CNF in Pagosa Springs and outside of Taos, and I now know that it stretches all the way out toward Farmington, too. I saw deer, elk, and wild cattle along the highway (I also used to see wild cattle quite often when I lived down south in Las Cruces; I had an unsettling experience in Valles Canyon, where one mooing cow stalked me for over an hour).

I was looking forward to driving through Dulce. I’ve previously posted in this sub about reading Greg Valdez’s book “Dulce Base: The Truth and Evidence From the Case Files of Gabe Valdez,” so I was excited to get my eyes on the mesa where some of these UFO sightings had supposedly happened.

I was also surprised by how nice Dulce was. Business signs and advertisements lined the road the entire way into town. I passed Tribal Police patrol twice, once on my way into town and once on my way out. To the right of the road, there were some very nice buildings that looked like government operations. I have spent time on the Crow Reservation, and it is sadly in much worse condition by comparison, so that is my only frame of reference.

Interestingly, there is also a monastery on Hwy 64 out in the middle of the desert. My research tells me that it is the Monastery of Our Lady of the Desert. It was founded in 1990 by a group of Benedictine nuns. The nuns apparently gather several times a day for the Liturgy of the Hours, a set of prayers marking the hours of each day. I would like to retreat there or to the Monastery of Christ in the Desert near Abiquiu for a few days.

The town of Farmington shocked me. The roads were jam-packed with traffic, and the town had every box store you could think of lined along Main Street. I wondered if there was a military base nearby because I saw lots of young people out and about, and it didn’t make sense to me how a town of that size (46k people) could pop up out in the middle of the desert.

Personally, I didn’t visit the box stores. I dropped my s/o off at TJ Maxx while I proceeded to the 911 Kronic dispensary. I picked up some nice-looking clones and spoke to the owner. He said their business had been open for 13 months and already generated $1 million. However, he also said owning a dispensary could be tough because federal law does not allow tax write-offs for business expenses. He said his business has thousands of dollars in packaging expenses every month, but they can’t be written off. I thought that was absurd.

It was nice and hot last weekend, so I didn’t get out of the truck to take many photos. But I did take this shot. It has a “home on the range” feel to it.

I was thankful for the opportunity to explore this part of our great state. Love to everyone affected by the fires right now.