Fiber Trails of the Upper Rio Grande

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The cliffs rose from the high-desert floor in layers of reds, rusts, pinks, and yellows against a backdrop of brilliant-blue skies. Bright-yellow spots of blooming rabbit brush littered the valley. The last stretch of the drive here along the winding and sleepy backroads left me tense. As I stepped out of the car at the Ghost Ranch visitor center, I was surrounded by the faint smell of desert sage and piñon, and I felt myself start to relax. I love the desert. Any desert. It is the place in the world where I feel most at home. Visitors to the area will immediately see why New Mexico lives up to its name, The Land of Enchantment, and why Georgia O’Keeffe sometimes called this spot the “Faraway.”  

Featured above: Red cliffs rise from the desert floor near Ghost Ranch, located outside of Abiquiu, New Mexico. Photo by Sarah Drummond. 

In October 2019, I took a Fiber Trails of the Upper Rio Grande trip in northern New Mexico with Wonderlust Expeditions to explore the area’s rich and vibrant fiber history.

About the Fiber Trails Expedition

Shane Blair and Sarah Drummond started Wonderlust Expeditions in 2017 to run small art- and nature-based trips in the Four Corners states. “Our Fiber Trails of the Upper Rio Grande trip is a blend of wool, art, history, heritage, culture, and tradition woven together the first week of October in Abiquiu and Taos, New Mexico. All these elements coexist in abundance in northern New Mexico, and once we had the idea for Fiber Trails, the itinerary came together almost immediately,” says Sarah, a teacher, illustrator, field researcher, and wilderness guide when she isn’t leading a Wonderlust Expedition. Shane, meanwhile, is an engineer and captain of a vintage wooden charter boat in southwest Alaska part of the year.

Sarah and Shane shared their in-depth knowledge of the area with us all week as they kept us busy with hands-on workshops and field trips. My fellow travelers were a mix of crafters, hikers, photographers, travelers, fiber lovers, and lifelong learners. Wonderlust Expeditions provided all the big camping items we needed, including nice tents, warm sleeping bags, sturdy cots, camp chairs, and the official tour dog (a Chihuahua named Daffodil). The menu, prepared entirely by Shane, featured local ingredients in a regionally inspired menu. 

Off the Beaten Path at Ghost Ranch

Ghost Ranch, located outside of Abiquiu, served as our home base for the trip. The ranch offers 21,000 acres of beautiful red rocks, cliffs, plains, streams, and arid high desert on the far eastern end of the Colorado Plateau. Situated a little more than two hours north of Albuquerque, the ranch is off the beaten path, but the drive and the landscape are so beautiful that it is definitely worth the detour.  

Since I arrived early, I had some time to look around before I met up with the group. I immediately understood why O’Keeffe lived and painted in this area for most of her life. A walk around the ranch trails revealed some of the backdrops for her paintings.

The ranch is so iconic and beautiful that more than 30 movies have been filmed on site, including Red Dawn, Cowboys and Aliens, City Slickers, and The Legend of Buster Scruggs. Originally a working ranch, since 1955 Ghost Ranch has operated as an education and retreat center open to all. The ranch boasts trails, tours, horseback rides, three museums, conference facilities, lodging, and campgrounds, as well as a lending library, welcome center, trading post, and dining hall.  

Meeting Navajo-Churro Sheep

Ghost Ranch also has its own small flock of Navajo-Churro sheep. The Navajo-Churro sheep are a small, hardy breed brought to North America from Spain in the early 1500s as the first domesticated sheep. Almost completely obliterated in the mid-1900s, the Navajo-Churro is now recovering but still considered a “rare” breed by The Livestock Conservancy.  

On the day we visited the ranch’s Navajo-Churro flock, we managed to entice a few of the ewes to pose for our cameras. Both rams and ewes have up to four horns, and Navajo-Churro fleece is naturally low in lanolin, which is perfectly suited to the desert, requiring little water for washing. Yarn spun from the fleece is extremely durable and typically classified as a coarse wool used mainly for weaving rugs and blankets. 

Local Fiber in Action at Tierra Wools

Later that afternoon, Sarah and Shane took us on a field trip to visit Tierra Wools, a local fiber-arts cooperative that maintains their own flock of Navajo-Churro and Rambouillet sheep and produces yarns for weavers and fiber artists. While we were there, Toni, an instructor at Tierra Wools, demonstrated their dyeing process. The number of different colors they manage to create from natural dyes is amazing. We even got to watch a skein slowly change colors as it oxidized after being dipped in the indigo vat. The main fiber they use in their yarns is from their own flock, and I was happy to bring a little yarn home with me that will make a really excellent pair of mittens someday.

The flock was still grazing in the high country during our visit. Toni said that before too long, they would begin the annual process of bringing the sheep down to graze the low country. Moving the flock is a process that locals know can cause a somewhat peculiar traffic jam as the sheep are herded along part of the highway between locations.  

Learning Colcha Embroidery

Another day, we visited the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Center. The center had local art on display and a wonderful video about colcha, a traditional Spanish colonial folk art that is still practiced in the area today. That afternoon, we attended a colcha workshop. As one of our teachers, Connie Fernandez, explains: “In both its traditional and contemporary forms, colcha embroidery expresses the heart and imagination of its maker. It’s a joy to see this art form embraced by the younger generation. It is a privilege to pass on this cultural treasure.” Connie went on to say, “In New Mexico and southern Colorado, colcha embroidery is a living art form whose roots go back to early Spanish settlers and the wool of the churro sheep. It traditionally involves handspun yarn, natural plant dyes, and handwoven cloth or sabanilla (backing).”  

The workshop, hosted by the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center (EVFAC), was a great way to meet fiber artists of all ages from the region. I hadn’t picked up a needle-and-thread project in years, since almost all the stitches I do these days are knitted. As we worked and compared our samples around the tables, I was amazed at the simplicity and beauty of the colcha stitches.

The EVFAC features a yarn store in the front and community space in the back. The back area offers a huge array of weaving supplies, lots of looms, a library of textile books to borrow, and a nice classroom space. When visiting New Mexico, colcha instruction can be found through EVFAC in Española, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art in Santa Fe, and La Hacienda de Los Martinez in Taos.  

Visiting the Taos Wool Festival

Every year, the final full day of the Fiber Trails trip is spent at the Taos Wool Festival. Taos is a small town in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of north-central New Mexico. Established as a trading post in 1795, Taos today is known for its artists colony, its historic adobe buildings, and its many art museums and galleries. (The city’s population in 2017 was 5,668.) My favorite parts of Taos are the small-town feel, gorgeous views, clear mountain air, good coffee, history, and interesting people.  

We arrived around 11 a.m. and found the Downtown Taos Historic District and Kit Carson Park, where the festival is held, already bustling with fiber lovers from all over. “I love watching artisans at work during the festival,” Sarah says. “Whether it’s a Navajo mother and daughter demonstrating centuries-old weaving techniques, a spinner with an angora rabbit on her lap explaining how to incorporate its fur into yarn, or a local rancher showing off his sheep-shearing expertise, their passion and dedication is apparent. Everyone is accessible and friendly, eager to share their life’s work.”  

About the Wool Festival

All the tents set up around the park made for an amazing sight. Kit Carson Park is large enough that the fiber booths, event stages, information booth, and a handful of food and drink vendors all fit nicely with plenty of open space to wander and observe.

Merce Mitchell—a fiber artist, hand spinner, indie dyer, and owner of Vortex Yarns, which is located just across from the festival—said, “We have a long history of fiber producers, animal husbandry, weavers, dyers, and other forms of fiber art in New Mexico. The Taos Wool Festival connects the past to the present. I love the energy of fiber enthusiasts who visit my shop during the festival, and appreciate the exchange of knowledge, networking, and creativity. It is an exciting weekend both at the shop and in our booth at the festival. I always look forward to reconnecting with visitors and friends that I see every year.”  

Meeting people in the booths around the festival was a highlight for me. Vendors come from all over and generally have interesting fiber stories to share if they aren’t too busy. One particularly nice lady even helped me interpret a friend’s shopping request and pick out fiber from a sheep named Alfie. I’m always happy to discover that the people—not the fiber or the animals—are my favorite part of a festival.  

Join Your Own Fiber Trails Expedition

There are very few trips where you can learn new fiber skills, explore a beautiful region, and make a diverse group of new friends. This is one of them. Life is always interconnected, but in the stillness of the desert, you can almost see the strands that hold us together. It was a wonderful trip, one that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in northern New Mexico and its vibrant world of textile arts. Wonderlust Expeditions did a great job introducing us to the area and its rich history. As long as they still have open spots, Wonderlust Expeditions accepts new participants in the Fiber Trails of the Upper Rio Grande excursion right up until the start of the trip. After pausing the trip in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, there are plans to resume in 2022.  

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Resources 

Wonderlust Expeditions  
www.wonderlustexpeditions.com 
(719) 822-5353 

Ghost Ranch 
www.ghostranch.org 
280 Private Drive 1708 U.S. 84, Abiquiu, NM 87510 
(505) 685-1000 

Tierra Wools 
www.handweavers.com  
2540 U.S. 64/84, Chama, NM 87520 
(575) 756-1650 

Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Center 
www.riograndenha.orgwww.facebook.com/HeritageCenterAlcaldeNM  
848 State Road 68, Alcalde, NM 87511 
(505) 852-0030 

Española Valley Fiber Arts Center (EVFAC) 
www.nmfiberartscenter.org  
325 Paseo de Oñate, Española, NM 87501 
(505) 747-3577 

Museum of Spanish Colonial Art in Santa Fe 
750 Camino Lejo, Sante Fe, NM 87505 
(505) 982-2226 

La Hacienda de Los Martinez 
www.taoshistoricmuseums.org  
708 Hacienda Way, Taos, NM 87571 
(575) 758-1000 

Taos Wool Festival 
www.taoswoolfestival.org  
Kit Carson Park, Paseo del Pueblo Norte and Civic Plaza Drive, Taos, NM 87571 
(First full weekend in October) 

Vortex Yarns 
www.vortexyarns.com  
218A Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos, NM 87571 
(575) 758-1241 

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Tamara Moots is a knitwear designer and writer with patterns available through Ravelry, LoveCrafts, Knits Picks, WEBS, Love of Knitting, Knit Now, and others. When she’s not designing or knitting, she raises two boys and travels whenever she can manage. Find her on Instagram @tamaramoots. 

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