Before I begin my journey to England in two days, I had the privilege of attending a weekend retreat at SMU’s campus in Taos, NM. This retreat was one of the highlights of last year, and this year, it didn’t disappoint.
We traveled to NM on Friday morning and made it to SMU-in-Taos by dinner time, despite a cancelled flight. Dinner was followed by a night hike to a nice stargazing spot. There were plenty of stars, planets, satellites, and meteors to see every evening. On Saturday morning, I went on a dawn hike alone and took a few pictures of the beautiful valley where the campus is located.
I hiked twice more on Saturday, including another night hike for some stargazing. On my second hike on Sunday, I found a picturesque little creek that I couldn’t help but photograph.
The second photo resulted in me falling into the ice-cold creek. Wet shoes for the rest of the day. I think the photo was worth it. Of course, I had to climb some rocks on the way back:
On Sunday, a group of 36 woke up at 4:30 am to hike to a nearby ridge in time for sunrise. Just like last year, it was breathtakingly beautiful.
Taking the trail down is FAR too simple, so I decided to slide down the vertical rock face and then run a mile through the forest back to campus. On the slide down the rocks, I sprained the little finger on my left hand, which required a makeshift splint made from a stick.
Sunday included a visit to Los Alamos, home of the Manhattan Project. Monday was a travel day back to Dallas, which included a one-hour stop in Santa Fe. My goal was to visit the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, which I missed last year. I was disappointed to see the $10 student admission fee, but by the end of my visit, I was glad I paid. The museum had an excellent display of O’Keefe’s works, and an entire gallery of Ansel Adam’s photographs from Hawaii. As the son of a photographer, I was naturally drawn to this exhibit of lesser-known Adams photographs. Finally, we flew back to Dallas, tired and exhausted. I have barely over a day here to pack for my next adventure.
