Loving Santa Fe

We really love Santa Fe. Put-it-on-the-list love it.

I know the winters can get very cold, and the spring winds very brutal, but our ten days here have made us consider it as a place to land when we come off the road. 

The people are friendly, the culture diverse, the food delicious, the services plentiful, and the natural wonders spectacular. All of this, and the place just feels magical.

Our last few days are a combination of hanging out at our wonderful Site 18, and more exploring of the area.

A couple families are in the park and it is fun to watch the kids playing outdoors, running the hills, even doing archery with a portable target.

Tessa has a new channel to watch on her "dog tv"

We love this view from our windows

and our spacious patio

On weekends this is the playground - very entertaining

The Turquoise Trail is a wonderful 100-mile round trip from the RV park. A combination of beautiful scenery, artisan shops, galleries, tasty eateries, old buildings, pine forests, and red rocks - it is another perfect day trip.

Garden of the Gods - on private property

Historical Cerrillos, NM

Filming site for the movie Young Guns

Old gates with wonderful detail

Newer gates maintaining the tradition

Enormous old growth tree - at least 10' diameter

Artsy town of Madrid (MAD-rid)

Brunch at The Hollar - wonderful!

Dozens of shops and galleries in a one-mile stretch of Hwy 14

Epic views from Sandia Peak Ski Area

Majestic pine forest

Intense red rock

So many pretty colors

On our trip to Los Alamos last week we were "Wow'ed" by the huge canyons we drove above on our return route to Santa Fe. The rim road had no pull-overs on the "down" side, and we didn't see any side roads to take us into the canyons themselves. So we decide to return one afternoon just to take a closer look. We stop at every scenic turn-out, find a rim route with homes at the very edge, and take a different highway along the bottom to head back.

Massive canyon from the top

From the side - what a view!

From the bottom

It is easy to understand why ancient tribes chose the cliffs to carve out their dwellings in this area. But it is less so to figure out what drew government scientists to build high-security laboratories. Not that I begrudge them choosing such a lovely place to live and work......it's just odd that they're here.

With a windshield replacement appointment waiting for us we must sadly leave Santa Fe for now. Next stop Albuquerque.

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.

Winter Wows

We missed it by a couple of days when we arrived in Roswell, and really thought we'd missed our opportunity to see it on the big screen. Then Bill checked Santa Fe and saw that it was still playing until March 2 - the day we were planning to arrive. Noooo! 

So of course we changed plans and headed to Santa Fe a few days early! 

The story continues......

Wonderful movie, we really enjoy it, and now my sons won't disown us :-)

The day we arrive we want to find the place where we'd enjoyed delicious sopaipillas three years ago, but have no idea what the name is. Still, driving down the main road there it is! We don't recognize the name, and the parking lot is much fuller than before, but somehow the front is very familiar.

Just like we remembered - superb!

Tuesday we are out the door by 9:00 and don't return until nearly 6:00. It's been a while since we've spent a whole day saying "Wow!", and this is a very full one.

The drive to Taos north on Hwy 64 passes through the Rio Grande Gorge and parallels the Rio Grande River for several miles. It's amazing and difficult to catch a decent photo.

As the road turns east, away from the river, we can see the huge gorge cutting through the flat plains to the west. It is absolutely incredible! We laugh when we both say "Wow!" As we often do in these places, we talk about coming across that deep canyon as pioneers in wagons - what did they think? - how long did it take to find a crossing?

The Taos Pueblo is both what I'm expecting, and very different. I'm happy to pay the $16/person fee to wander the settlement, and yet a bit uncomfortable knowing that I'm photographing people's homes. Not a large number of natives still live here, but some do. The structures are incredible - multiple stories that have lasted over 1000 years. Big Wow!

Dogs are allowed on leash, but it is a bad idea. "Res dogs" run loose everywhere. Tessa makes friends with the first little pit bull who greets us at the car, but the seven larger ones heading our way are just too much so we leave her in the car. She lets us know periodically that we are horrible humans.

The original church was destroyed in 1690 by the local natives

Pueblo architecture 

The location is lovely

In addition to residences, some rooms are small businesses

Bread oven

The buildings are beautiful

The new church, built in the 1800's, still holds mass every Sunday - no photos inside

On weekends, many native vendors sell their wares in the courtyard, this day there are only three

The weather is a perfect 62 degrees with a light breeze so we continue north.

Not far out of Taos we begin to see more than just an occasional small patch of snow in the shadows. By the time we reach 8000 feet, the snow is deep under the tall pines. We were just in the flat, brown plains. Wow!

Tessa checks out the cold, crunchy surface

Soon she's embracing her inner ski bunny

Angels' Fire is a small ski village in a very large open plain. A couple skiers enjoy the one run that remains open, but nearly everything in town is closed on this weekday afternoon. It is very beautiful here.

Angel Fire Ski Run

Frozen Monte Verde Lake

We find a good lunch at Zeb's and head south.

Instead of retracing our route, Bill navigates us to the High Road to Taos (in this case it's from Taos) for the drive home.

The pine forest goes on forever. 

Carson National Forest

When the road comes out of the forest the vista is beyond amazing. There's no way a photo can capture the layers of color and texture. The red canyons, the gold plains, the green forests, the purple mountain range - all laid out in front of us for miles. 

There are so many wows this trip that it is almost overwhelming. For the grand finale, the sun sinks behind three bands of clouds, the rays shooting up from the top one, while the bottom one is seemingly on fire. Photos still don't do the Wow justice.

We're loving our time in Santa Fe - I think we'll extend our stay :-))))