Las Golondrinas: Walking the Trail

Friday, 10 July 2015 (Part II)
Santa Fe Skies RV Park — Santa Fe, New Mexico

After we completed our tour of the placitas [little plazas] at El Rancho de las Golondrinas [Ranch of the Swallows], and I went back and photographed the various rooms in each (post here), it was time to head off on the trail that meanders around the far end of the living history museum.

threshing floor (Left) and sorghum mill — first stop on the trail.

When the Curtin/Paloheimo families came up with the idea to convert the original ranch into an open air museum, they began by restoring or reconstructing whatever buildings were already on the property.  If the state of disrepair was too far gone, they rebuilt on the original foundations.  Some old structures — mostly log buildings — were grouped in the hills as a mountain village; a Peninte meeting house in Abiquiu was used as an inspiration to build a similar one; and rural buildings from elsewhere were carefully de-constructed, moved here, and put back together to represent buildings that had disappeared long ago.

Ranch of the Swallows … aka El Rancho de las Golondrinas

Friday, 10 July 2015 (Part I)
Santa Fe Skies RV Park — Santa Fe, New Mexico
Temps: Hi 76F (24C) / Lo 53F (12C)

¡Bienvenidos a El Rancho de las Golondrinas … Welcome to the Ranch of the Swallows.

Those were the first words in the brochure we picked up for $1 when we went into the gift shop to pay the $6pp admission fee for the open air museum that is located 20 minutes south of Santa Fe … and maybe about 10 minutes from the RV park where we are staying.  We went thinking we’d just spend half a day there.  As it turns out, we arrived just as the museum was opening at 10:00a and left just before they locked the doors at 4:00p ;-)  Luckily, the sun did not become unbearable until late in the day as much of our time was spent outdoors ... except when we were inside the buildings that dot the grounds.