Centuries of Human Advancement in One Day

When we head out Thursday morning I know where we're going, and what we hope to see. I don't however, think about the incredible extremes we are going to experience.

Once again, our drive is beautiful. Heading northwest from Santa Fe takes us through more wide open spaces and multi-colored canyon walls.

Hwy 4 off Hwy 502

Our first destination is Bandelier National Monument. I've never been here and Bill has vague memories of a camping trip with his parents and his cousin Jeni - it rained and they slept in the car :-)  Today the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky. And we'll be sleeping in our own bed tonight.

Bandelier National Monument from the view point 

While stopped at the view point I change my camera battery and find that the "fresh" one is dead as well. Fortunately I have my IPhone as back up, but I'm not happy :-(

Our inter-agency pass gets us in for free and we check out the visitor center. It's Friday and the parking lot is full. 

We care.

Behind the visitors' center.

It's not a thick forest, but the pines are tall.

Not far onto the main trail I can already hear people talking and laughing loudly. I'm sure they're excited, the canyon probably magnifies the sound, but I don't want to experience this place with all that noise.

Instead, I take the trail along Frijoles Creek where the sound of the water allows me to be alone with the spirit of this ancestral place. Signs of recent flood damage make the formation of this canyon by water very real.

Small, but fast, the sound of Frijoles Creek is calming

Large areas of the park are closed due to flood damage, including huge trees felled across the trail

Coming out of the trees, the trail faces the cliff dwellings. The steps have a line of people, and I really don't want to visit these 1000 year-old homes with all this noise and chaos. Instead, I find a large log to sit on and enjoy the breeze in the surprisingly hot mid-day sun. 

If not for the railings and the loud tourists, the ruins would be completely hidden, even from this close. These were very defensible homes, carved from the soft tufts of the canyon walls. From those heights, they could see for miles in both directions, in a canyon that can only be accessed in two directions. Entrances and windows blend in with the natural caves and pockets. Engineering and strategy are evident.

The canyon walls are full of deep divots 

Storage buildings were built lower, and are more visible from the bottom of the canyon

but the dwellings are high up in the cliffs - see them?

See the window? From there you can see

up the canyon

and down the canyon.

At the bottom, the ruins of small summer housing close to the water as well as large circular structures complete the remains of this once active community of hunters and farmers. 

Small rooms in the canyon floor

From the monument we turn left for Los Alamos. Physics, big laboratories, and nuclear bombs, this place is a big part of our history. Other than curiosity about all of this, I have no clue what we're going to see here.

It's a town with a security gate entrance. The guard checks our ID and we drive "in". Lots of buildings with tall electric fences line the highway, and then suddenly we're in a small town with houses and stores and banks and lots of apartment buildings. 

We find the Bradley Science Museum to learn the history and the relevance of nuclear weapons. The amount of information is overwhelming. Literally. To read every word offered, to view every exhibit displayed, to watch every video, and see both films - it would take days.

Layers of information - time line, photos, documents

Exhibit of nuclear detonator - how do they know what all those wires do?

This small compartment tests nuclear explosions without exposing the environment

The only DARHT testing in the world - Google it, it's very cool

In the race to zero nuclear weapons is Los Alamos still necessary? Does the work being done here today really keep us safe?

We watch a 20 minute film that attempts to answer these and other similar questions. It is well done. It is convincing. One cannot argue with the fact that no other world-wide conflicts have occurred since the bombs dropped. 

But Los Alamos labs are working on more than weapons stewardship and safety. The information on other studies is fascinating and encouraging.

Preventing disease and death

Understanding environmental changes

Growing fuel rather than extracting it

The road leading southeast from Los Alamos follows a ridge between two large canyons. Really large canyons. Again no place to stop and capture photos, so you have to come see it for yourself.

The extremes of what we've experienced in this one day are not lost on us. Seeing the advancement of the human race from communities carved in canyon walls, to technology that can test the viability of a nuclear explosion inside a small pod, is a LOT to absorb. 

We are far from perfect, but we humans are incredible.