Ballooning New Mexico's Rio Grande Gorge

[Tripatini]

As I stand at the edge of the of this gaping, tectonic chasm in the wild, dry lands outside of Taos, New Mexico, I peer down into a long, vast tunnel of sandstone – mostly brown with thin striations of color, and the Rio Grande river running at the very bottom, 800 feet down –  and it all takes my breath away. Most people who tackle this jagged, craggy wonder of nature do so on foot. I, however, am flying (or perhaps more accurately, drifting) into it, in a seven-story-high hot-air balloon... keep reading