There is construction at the Taos Plaza gazebo and a Tesla plowed into the Guadalupe street UPS store last Monday

I.e., the uncontrollable. The Tesla accident injured five people. This is the same UPS store the thru-hike has an account at and people can drop off their resupply boxes at.

As shaken up as everyone is at the UPS store, they’re still operating.

We have a lot of new merchandise

I’ve been working on the Printful store. You can see it here. 

The image below is clickable, but just a placeholder to show you what’s there. I’ll be adding a lot more items, including a few more later today.

Getting up to speed with Printful opens up a lot of options. I have over 7,000 photos of the thru-hike. Printful has 440 customizable products.

You can see just a few of the photos from the thru-hike on the home page of the website, near the bottom of the page. There’s a slideshow of 52 photos there.

Each of the Section pages also has a slider with about 30 photos each.

If you’d like one of the images shown on the website to be added to one of the Printful products and made available in the SF2T “store”, just reply to this email and let me know which image and product you want.

The parking saga continues…

Confirmed: There is no publicly available overnight parking near downtown Santa Fe

Per the Santa Fe parking division, via an in-person visit, last week. The parking division attendee mentioned that there is overnight parking at the Rail Runner stations, but the likelihood of having your car’s catalytic converter stolen is apparently quite high.

Parking at Sipapu

It’s not directly on the route of the thru-hike, but you can park a car at Sipapu Ski and Summer Resort (along NM 518) for two weeks or more. It costs $15 for every three days, which is less than the $12 per day cost at nearby Agua Piedra Campground.

Note that if Sipapu is having a major event, they might want use of all their parking spaces. So call ahead (575) 587-2240 to confirm.

Parking at the Santa Fe Ski Basin

I was up at the Santa Fe Ski Basin a few days ago and polled a couple of people who were around their cars in the parking lot. I asked them if they’d feel comfortable leaving a car there for a week or so. Everyone said yes. Then I asked if they’d feel comfortable leaving their car there for two weeks. Most people said no.

They said no because they thought a car might get towed because the Ski Basin staff might think the car had been abandoned. Apparently this happens at the Ski Basin.

I will keep bugging the people at the Ski Basin about the parking situation. Parking is currently free, which is an attractive option. And while it’s not parking near the SF Plaza, the Blue Bus runs reliably to and from the Ski Basin and the Plaza. I rode it most of the way down from the Ski Basin the same day I did the parking poll.

Placing a car at the Ski Basin would also give you a self-supported resupply option.

Note that there are no facilities reliably available from Ski Santa Fe during the summer. If they are doing work and have crews around, you might be able to do something, but that’s unlikely. And even in the winter months when they’re open, they don’t have showers or comparable infrastructure.

Parking at the Scottish Rite Temple

The Scottish Rite Masonic Temple is an eight-minute (or 0.3-mile) walk from the Santa Fe Plaza. They allow overnight parking for $10 per day. You have to call and confirm in advance. They do also have blackout dates when they need every parking space. Their online event calendar will give you an idea of when their blackout dates are. Unfortunately, they have quite a lot of blackout dates.

Possible: The SF2T Thru-Hike renting a secure overnight, long-term parking spot (or spots) at Right Space Storage or Santa Fe Self Storage.

This would cost the thru-hike $75 or so a month, but it is unlimited overnight parking. It is not terribly walkable to the Plaza, but there is good bus service from near the Right Space storage unit to the Plaza every 30 minutes. It’s a 2.7 mile walk from Santa Fe Self Storage’s closest location to the Plaza. Or you could Uber.

You can also still park overnight at some of the campgrounds, like at Panchuela or at Agua Piedra. And you can park at Santa Barbara campground for free.

For Taos Parking, the best options currently are:

1) Parking at the Taos Airport. 13 minute drive to Taos Plaza.

2) Emailing Taos Town Hall ([email protected]) and asking super politely to stay in their parking lot overnight.

3) Parking at the El Nogal trailhead parking lot. It’s right on the thru-hike, though I wouldn’t leave a car there for more than a few days.

4) Working something out with one of the hotels. Maybe start with the Hotel Don Fernando de Taos Hilton.

There are more parking solutions in the works. Stay tuned.

Seems this is long enough. I’ve been on trail quite a bit, but I’ll share more about that later.

If you missed the window to get into the Discord community, here’s your reward for reading to the end of this email: https://discord.gg/QeCajnQJ

That link doesn’t expire.


See you on the trail,

Pam