Sunrise over Santa Fe

This day trip was prompted a few weeks ago when I ran across the photo someone had taken of a unique church standing in a field. I learned the church was near the town of Mora, New Mexico, and with a visit to an old churches of New Mexico book I have, I learned there were quite a few historic churches in the area around Mora. Not one who has spent much time on the east side of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the necessity of a trip came into focus, and this last Sunday was a good day for it.

I got up early and was at Santa Fe by dawn, and then I made the familiar turn east towards Glorieta and Pecos. Once I was past the Pecos turn off, though, the area around me was new to me, and I soaked it in in the early morning light.

Cab view toward Bernal and “Starvation Peak”, horizon left.

Outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico, I approached Bernal and noticed its landmark symmetric butte, which I came to know was called Starvation Peak. It gained the name based on a tale that Navajos chased a band of Spanish explorers up onto the rock and the Spanish could either come down to be killed by the awaiting Indians or stay on top of the butte and starve.

Business is boomin’ at the Fort Union

After fueling up in Las Vegas, I left I-25 and took State Road 518 north, toward the church rich locale. I passed an old drive-in movie theater on the edge of town and stopped to take a photo. A groundskeeper told me business had been good the last two weeks, with 20 to 30 cars attending shows each weekend night.

The “newer”, main church at Sapello, NM.

Hermit’s Peak, northwest of Las Vegas, NM.

My first target church was listed as somewhere near Sapello, NM, a building present with a cemetery. Arriving at the junction community, there was a large cemetery and a church on a flat off to the right of the road, but it was too new. A few conversations with several visitors at a gas station at the junction directed me to look for the church on up State Road 94. Ok. After several miles, I ascended a rise and to my right, there it was, an old church with a cemetery. Across from it, to our left, was the face of Hermit’s Peak, home of an old Italian eccentric who lived on the summit and carve religious icons for a number of years long ago.

I took quite a few photos of the church and yard and then sat on a stool in the shade of my truck’s cab to eat lunch.

Two fields, Mora Valley

As early afternoon warmed up, I drove on and entered some beautiful Mora Valley country. I found a church by the route in windy Ledoux. At Mora, I found my way back onto 518, and headed east for the little town of La Cueva. My main target for the trip was there, outside of town in a field across from a greenhouse property: San Rafael Church, a structure completed in 1880 of adobe but sporting rafters to support its high roof, and featuring gothic arched windows, both of which were French influences coming from its designer, the local French priest Jean Guerin.

It’s a unique look amidst New Mexico’s Spanish-influenced sanctuaries. Retired in 1950, the church fell into disrepair until a recent community effort brought it back to good condition as a historical building.

The area around Mora is rich with a collection of old churches, and had I had more time, I would have found a few more to photograph- but I had a second mission on this trip: to pick up some red chile pepper powders from a couple in Chimayo. Around 2:30, as dark clouds moved in from the south, I got rolling back towards Mora, and then took 518 west, through a pass in the mountains, to Penasco, and then roads 75 and 76, the Taos High Road south, back through Trampas and Truchas to Chimayo.

San José de Gracia Church, Las Trampas

After I got that sweet chile pepper powder, it was time to head on to Nambe, then Santa Fe, and then home.

Deluge, Espanola Valley