The Real and the Imagined

Last weekend we drove down to Socorro, New Mexico, a short overnight trip to explore the area.  The idea was to catch sunset at the Very Large Array, sunrise at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, and to track down a few green chile cheeseburgers.  We managed to do all this, but it was an unexpected stop that - as often happens on a venture like this - was the highlight of the weekend for me.

Saturday morning, after leaving Bosque del Apache, we decided to follow the signs to the El Camino Real International Heritage Center (which is now called the El Camino Real Historic Trail Site). After a short drive we arrived, walked in, glanced around, and decided to stay and check out the Visitor's Center and Museum.  In short, I can say that this is definitely worth a stop, as you can learn a lot about the El Camino Real and the settling of New Mexico by the Spanish and other emigrants during the 1600-1800s (you can find details about the Center here).
 
After going through the museum we went out on the observation deck, and almost immediately I decided to go back to the truck and grab my camera. 

What first caught my eye was the reflection of the clouds in the building's windows and how the blue tinted glass almost mirrored the feel of the blue sky...

 

There were cold blue steel girders and the patterns of those beams and wires against the backdrop of the cool blue sky and wispy clouds...

I looked up and saw a steel beam bisecting the sky...

 
Then there was this structure, jutting out from the ground like a concrete slab of progress fighting to gain a foothold in the barren desert landscape...

Walking back out to the parking lot, out the front walkway, I looked up and saw these converging lines, leading the eye out to the wide open, vast nothingness of the desert plain...

And looking back down the walkway I was taken in by the repetition of pattern, both in the construction of the building and the shadows that cut across the wall and the walk, the texture of the concrete blocks, and how this man-made structure served as a window to the still open, mostly undeveloped country...

Once I started thinking about it, everywhere I looked all I could see was the juxtaposition of this modern concrete and cold blue steel building against a land that, in any given direction, looked much the same as when the first Conquistadors crossed the rolling hills and open plains dotted with juniper and cactus, scrub brush and sage...

Footnote:  As I started to write this I jotted down an outline of thoughts that I had bouncing around in my head, then I hit the Internet to do a little background research.  I soon found the "Friends Of El Camino Real" website, and learned the following: "The wagon caravans, traveling the trail over the flat desert expanse of the Jornada del Muerto, were often described as looking like ships on the ocean. The Visitor's Center building was designed to be that ship that takes the visitor along El Camino Real. The entrance is the gangway to the ship; the building interior to appear somewhat like a cruise ship, entering along the promenade deck to a stairway to the main deck. Outside the building, to the east, is the ampitheater, overlooking the vast Jornada del Muerto, as if standing on the bow of a ship, complete with a bow mast and observation deck."  After learning this I thought about revising what I had written to that point, but decided to go with what my initial impressions were, knowing that I now had two frames of reference for the experience - the real and the imagined.

All photos taken with a Nikon D7000 camera body, and Nikkor 16-85 DX VR lens

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