New Mexico Vacation, Day Six--Hiking and Dancing

We had a much needed slower day today. In the morning, we drove northeast of Santa Fe to Hyde Memorial State Park for a little hiking. The weather was cool at the higher elevations (8,000-10,000') and the trail was deserted except for us. A perfect way to spend the morning. And while the hike was great, the real treat was when we saw a prairie dog town on the side of the road. The only other time we had seen prairie dogs was at the zoo.

For the afternoon we drove back to Albuquerque where we visited the Indian Cultural Center. The Center is run by the nineteen pueblos (Indian communities) that are in New Mexico and had both cultural and historic exhibits. The exhibits were interesting for us because they brought together some of the other things we had seen during the rest of the trip. They also gave us pause to think because they  presented history from the Native American viewpoint instead of the New World settler's one. I also enjoyed reading the native legends and especially liked the one about the creator who said since man couldn't get along, he would give them different languages. That way they couldn't argue.

As we arrived at our hotel, the rain fell again. This time it came with 1/2 " hail, but was welcome all the same. Most of this week has been a very hot and dusty one. Now to find some place for dinner where I'm sure that Ward will want to have one last carne avodado burrito. I think he has already had five this week.

Here are a few pictures from today. Until next time...

View from Hyde Park Road

Hiking on Circle Trail

Prairie Dog Town. Notice the prairie dog in the back doing the classic pose of popping up from a hole.

At the Cultural Center, we saw dancers from the Zuni Pueblo.

New Mexico Vacation, Day Five--Bandelier and Downtown Santa Fe

Once again trying to beat the heat, we went to Bandelier National Monument in the morning.  Bandelier has remnants of an ancestral Pueblo community with pueblos and cliff dwellings. We got there early enough that we were able to drive into the park and not ride the shuttle with lots of other hot, sweaty people. Also a good move because paths along the cliffs were rather narrow at times and would have been difficult to maneuver with many other people around.

Then we headed back to Santa Fe for a look around downtown. There we visited the Palace of the Governors which was built in 1610 and is one of the oldest public buildings around. Today it holds historical exhibits and is part of the New Mexico History Museum. One of the things that struck me while touring it was that New Mexico was being settled at the same time as Jamestown, Virginia. Having lived in the east most of my life, I thought that Jamestown was the beginning of all European entrance into our country - how Eastocentric. The museum was also hosting a very interesting exhibit on cowboys. What a hard and boring job at times.

A bit more walking took us to the San Miguel Mission Church. Another really old church (1610) that has been operating forever. It had closed earlier in the day, but that didn't matter. A miracle occurred while we were there. We felt rain! The wind stirred up and a few big drops fell! This was the beginning of a break in the weather to cooler temperatures. Yea! We hope it lasts.

Here are a few pictures from today's sights. Until next time...

Wildlife around Bandelier. It seemed as if we saw a lizard every 10 feet.

Remnants of a kiva--central meeting place. Kivas were large stone lined pits in the ground covered with timbers and dirt.

Ward climbing up into a cave room. These were carved into the cliff which is made from tuff--a soft volcanic rock.

On the drive back to Santa Fe, we saw many eroded mesas like this one.

Palace of the Governors. Besides its historic significance, it is known for the native craftsmen who line up to sell their wares.

San Miguel Misson--the oldest active church in the US and the one that brought us rain.

New Mexico Vacation, Day Four--The Road to Santa Fe and beyond

We left Albuquerque this morning to head north to Santa Fe where we are going to spend the next couple of days. We ended up going all of the way to Taos, north of Santa Fe on two scenic roads, the Turquoise Trail and the High Road to Taos. We were in no hurry and stopped when we wanted to in little towns, visitor centers, or just to enjoy the scenery along the way.  However, with forest fires in the area, many of the mountains we saw were in a haze. The most memorable stop we made was at the very beginning of our trek at the Tinkertown Museum.

The Tinkertown Museum is the work of one man, Ross Ward.  He was a carver, painter, collector, and a visionary like no other. The museum is built out of bottles and has an almost overwhelming display of things to look at everywhere. It was amazing.

Here are a few pictures from our day. For both the Tinkertown Museum and the scenery shots, the pictures don't do them justice.

The parking lot at Tinkertown was decorated almost as much as the inside of the museum.

The museum was in a house made from bottles and had 22 rooms.

The creator of the museum carved all of the figures in these scenes.

Food for thought from Ross Ward.

This church is said to contain a well of healing dirt. Because of this, over 300,000 people make a pilgrimage to it each year. It was closed when we got there, so we assumed that the dirt on our shoes from walking around outside would work also.

Rio Grande Gorge near Taos (yes, this is the same Rio Grande that is the border between Texas and Mexico - its headwaters are in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.)

The haze in the mountains is smoke from nearby forest fires. At these high elevations near Taos, most everything is green.

We are back to desert landscapes at lower elevations near Santa Fe.

New Mexico Vacation, Day Three--Trolleys and Balloons

Today was another scorcher, so we followed the same strategy as yesterday. Outdoors in the morning, indoors in the afternoon. Using this plan, in the morning we explored Old Town Plaza of Albuquerque. This area is just like it sounds-- it is where the city was founded in1706 with 15 families and a church. The original church collapsed during a rainy summer in 1792 (that's what happens when you build things out of adobe = mud) and was rebuilt the next year. That church is still standing and in use today. It welcomes tourists, so we took advantage of their hospitality and explored their sanctuary and courtyards. The rest of Old Town is full of shops featuring mostly native arts and crafts that we wandered among. However, the best thing we happened upon was a trolley tour of Old Town and downtown Albuquerque. It was run by a couple of young men who created this tour company a few years ago just out of college. They gave a fun tour going off the beaten path a few times. We really enjoyed ourselves and it didn't hurt that the trolly was open air and a nice breeze was blowing as we rode along. Did I mention it was a scorcher today?

In the afternoon during the even hotter part of the day, we visited the balloon museum. Albuquerque is famous for the balloon festival they host every October, so not surprisingly they have built a museum to go with this worldwide interest. It was a well done museum where I learned that the first balloon flight was in 1783 in France and was witnessed by Ben Franklin. I didn't know balloon flight had been around that long. But perhaps what impressed us the most was the roadrunner we saw in the parking lot. Neither Ward or I ever remember seeing a roadrunner except in cartoons. (But no signs of a coyote.)

Until next time, here are a few pictures from today.

San Felipe de Neri Church or in other words, The Church in Old Town.

Our trolley had the distinction of being the only trolley in the world with stucco on it.

One of the sights on our tour along Route 66--the Frontier restaurant. This restaurant has been featured on the Food Channel several times for its good, affordable food and unique Western atmosphere. It's an Albuquerque landmark and where we had breakfast.

A model of the Hindenburg at the balloon museum.

The roadrunner was running from shade spot to shade spot in the very hot parking lot.

New Mexico Vacation--Day Two, Petroglyphs, etc.

The plan for the day was to do something outdoors in the morning and something indoors during the afternoon when it was going to be really hot. So in the morning we explored Petroglyph National Monument just west of Albuquerque. The area was a large boulder field made of basalt (black rock) covered granite (pink rock). Many of these boulders had pictures (petroglyphs) chiseled into them that could be as old as 2,000-3,000 years old according to archeologists. The imagines were thought to be made by ancestors of today's Native Americans, and the Spanish added to the collection starting in the 1600's. The images were simple and childlike with many different interpretations given to their meanings. The conclusion seems to be is we don't really understand them. Nevertheless, the scramble up the boulder field to the top of the mesa to see petroglyphs and a view of Albuquerque was worth it.

From this top view, we saw Albuquerque and the desert valley it was built in. Unlike the lush green that I am used to in the East, the city is a study of shades of brown. Not only is the ground brown, so are the houses. The brown (yellow brown, pink brown, brown brown) Pueblo style of houses with dirt/rock yards are prevalent.  Also from the top, we saw two of the five volcanic cinder cones from ancient volcanos that are to the west of the city. We set out to get a closer look at them, but a wrong turn prevented us from achieving our goal. 

By this time, the temperature was 102° F and it was time to change to indoor activities. We decided on the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. The museum was like the several other natural history museums we have visited before, but this one had some particularly impressive dinosaur fossils. However, the best thing about our visit were the very friendly and knowledgeable docents. We learned many new things that were not stated with the exhibits--including that the oldest age they have determined a dinosaur to live to is 30 years old. Also, cats are somewhat immune to rattlesnake bites. They will react to a bite, but it won't kill them. One person we talked to had a cat that had been bitten 5 times and was still kicking.

After a retreat to our hotel room for a short nap and a shower, we met one of Ward's virtual coworkers for dinner. They have worked together for several years, but have never met face to face. We ate at Sadie's where the locals come to get the best New Mexican food in town (or so the website says). The food was good and conversation was even better. 

Until next time, here are a few pictures from today.

The visitor's center also had a good display about native plants.

Can you see the bird and dog petroglyphs in the rock?

Not sure what all of these are, but the 4-pointed star was part of the Rio Grande style of petroglyphs.

Upper picture: Albuquerque with the Sandia Mountains in the background. Lower picture: a new neighborhood being built. Notice all of the brown houses.

One of the cinder cones we never got to see closeup.

At the Natural History Museum, this volunteer gave us a personal tour through the dinosaur exhibit.