In very dry heat and dust-permeated breeze we travel from Taos, New Mexico on Highway 64 towards Tres Piety. The route takes us across the vast, broad Mesa along the Taos Regional Airport, which consists of a single dirt road and some metal shingled warehouses. Nothing indicates that we were about to cross the bridge over the 200 meter deep gorge of the Rio Grande. Suddenly and unexpectedly the Rio Grande flows in its rocky, barren and spectacular gorge deep far below the bridge. After crossing the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, which was called for many years 'the bridge to nowhere', lies the straight glimmering highway through the vast, dry plateau before us.

Like an illusion they appear in the barren "Mesa" north-west of Taos. Across of a vast farm with grazing...