El Rancho de las Golondrinas Harvest Festival

The Setting
Salazar Plaza, in front of the Paloheimo Education Center. Taken during the Harvest Festival, October 7th and 8th.

It was a mostly sunny and comfortable day. At times a light breeze blew along with pockets of warm and cold air mingling, as is common when the seasons change, and you're near large rock expanses.

I looked for some shade first and was drawn to Salazar plaza with the long portal and tall, curiously shaped building at the end. Once I had walked over, I knew this was the right place.

The colors of the rocks at the foundation, the colors of the "adobe" stucco, as well as the doors and sky were what caught my eye. But then I saw the shadow of the cottonwood tree across the top of the Paloheimo Education Center, up near the top where it curves around and leans inward.

The distance of the branches to the building facade is shown by how clear each shadow is. I like that effect.

Another reason I like this pano is it shows (albeit only a little) the multi-level clouds we often have here in central northern New Mexico.

No mountain views from this location. :-(

Meanings
El Rancho de las Golondrinas translated means The Ranch of the Swallows. La Cienega means The Swamp, if my sources are correct. However, from what I've seen, La Cienega doesn't resemble much of what I would call a swamp, but most likely the town of La Cienega got its name from snow melt coming near the surface further away from the mountains. On various kinds of maps and photographs you can find erosion patterns indicating higher than average water moves through there.

But, no doubt, the swallows found it a great place to rest and refresh.

Is this my best one of 2006? I don't know. But it's one of my favorites for now.

There are 5 more high resolution panoramas of El Rancho de las Golondrinas at www.TourSantaFe.info.

Enjoy! - Drew

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USA-Canada / USA-New Mexico

Lat: 35° 34' 26.91" N
Long: 107° 7' 41.55" W

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Medium. Nearby, but not to the last decimal.