St. Francis Church

Another community, another county, another geocache AND another squirrel moment as a geocaching friend calls all the photo moments while geocaching. When we arrived at ground zero, I gave Hubby the GPS and the hint, and I grabbed the camera because this stop was AWESOME!!! No wonder it was awesome, according to Wikipedia, I was as inspired as Georgia O'Keefe, Ansel Adams, Paul Strand and Ned Scott. I don't know the last two in that list, but I certainly know of the work of the first two!

We entered the community of Ranchos de Taos, about 4 miles from the community I had hoped we would be driving through that afternoon. I wanted to see what we had seen in 1987, the Taos Pueblos. Honestly, the pueblos is the only thing I remember about the drive through Taos in 1987.

San Francisco de Asis Mission Church

a Spanish Colonial mission church

construction started in 1772 and completed in 1815

adobe buildings around the plaza

some in disrepair

notice the large timbers supporting the roof/ceiling

fallen walls

other adobe buildings in use

the side of the above building

needs more stucco!

and on the corner of the plaza...a saloon

no longer being used

and another unused building across the street in the plaza

And in the garden of the mission church...

St. Clare statue

one of several headstone

died 1914

died 1915

and in another corner

and the final location of the itty, bitty geocache container

Hubby's geo-search gave me plenty of time to take the photos. He still had not found it when I felt I taken all the photos I needed so I helped with the search and made the find. Woot! Woot! Once in awhile, I get lucky!

a National Historic Landmark and

a World Heritage church

Well worth the stop and made up for not driving the extra miles to see the Taos Pueblos which I have seen and do remember. Another gem found while geocaching!