  Happy 4th, everyone! A nice part of celebrating this holiday here is that the emphasis on crazed patriotism is a little minimized in light of tired working people happy to have a free day on which they can drink some extra beer and laugh a little harder. Traditionally, the US government prohibited large social gatherings on reservations unless it was a US national holiday, so US holidays like Thanksgiving and July 4 have become appropriated among Native Amerians as huge gatherings and holidays.
Accordingly, today Nambe Pueblo and Taos Pueblo are both holding Pow Wows. We’d planned to attend the Pow Wow at Nambe all week, but this morning we awoke to a hazy sky that would have been quite normal in Houston, but here was an unusual opportunity for extra hiking in otherwise inpenetrable sunshine and heat. We loaded the kids and the small pack and headed for Two Rivers, a recreational area outside of Questa where the Rio Grande and the Red River converge deep in the giant Rio Grande Gorge. The area offers all levels of trails down the cliffs, varrying from .3 miles to 2.2 miles each way and from 300 feet elevation change to 1000 feet. Just before the Questa turn-off, however, both children unexpectedly fell asleep in their carseats. John and I agreed that we could force sleepy kids down the canyon, thereby butting our heads against the proverbial parenting wall for a few hours, or we could just ride the wave. We drove right on by the turn-off and continued to drive through Red River (just missing the huge Texan-attended parade by minutes) and Angel Fire, to Mora via the back road and back to Taos on the old Toas high road from Penasco. By then, both kids were awake and we stopped for a huge lunch at Orlandos. After Orlando’s we again headed toward Questa and would you believe both children again fell asleep?
They did. This time we sat at the viewing point at the edge of the gorge and took turns walking over to the scenic overlooks. Before long the kids awoke and we hit the trail. We picked one marked moderate on the continuum from easy to difficult. It was the Big Arsenic Spring trail, .8 miles each way with about 600 feet elevation drop down. Returning upward wasn’t too difficult, Aidan was again the hiking champ of all toddler and boyhoods. I expect to be more sore from the decent than the assent tomorrow. 
