The Road Less Traveled

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Ann and I share a love of exploration, of wandering off the beaten track, and that attitude has always reaped rewards as we have taken the roads less traveled. On our painting trips we keep our schedule flexible to allow for detours and diversions for we never know what we’ll find over the next hill as we take the unfamiliar, but potentially scenic side roads. Sometimes we find special painting places that we return to periodically as we pass through on our way somewhere else. One of these is the Orilla Verde Recreation Area, nestled along the banks of the Rio Grande river between Taos and Espanola on New Mexico State Road 570. While the locals know about it, travelers must seek it out, as there is only a small, easily missed sign posted on a fast-moving highway. I think that we discovered it on a scouting trip nearly 20 years ago, when we were poking along in ‘Van-Go’, our ’84 Westphalia mobile studio that served us so well for many years. Orilla Verde was a fairly primitive camping …