Beautiful peacocks. Well, the male is beautiful, though I didn't get to see him in full display. They were so tame and unworried about us and even approached Zoe.
3/6 - I saw David/Cowboy's big green bus, I had met him at Skooliepalooza. We got a chance to connect before we both headed out. It's fun when people have such a recognizable rig. Other than my VT plates, my rig really does not stand out!
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| Zoe found a place to chill while I filled the water tank and the rest of the chores to get moving. |
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| My last soak |
Onto Hatch, NM. I heard it was a place to go for it Chile and had a HH, the Icebox Brewing Co., which had great reviews. There isn't much going on for this town, but there are lots of places to get Chile peppers/powder. Hmmm. I wasn't all that impressed, so was hoping for a good evening at the brewery. Which I did have. Zoe joined me for a beer, then I took her back to the van, fed her, and came back over. Tim first gave me a sample of their green Chile vodka, which went right to my head. It was really good! I almost bought a bottle, but decided better of it... I sat with the locals and really enjoyed myself! It was Karaoke night, so that was entertaining. Vonda (Vonda and Tim own the place - or are soon to own it) MC'd the Karaoke and sand herself. She has an amazing voice.
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| I cannot imagine what my shoes would look like with worse goat heads than here. It's crazy and horrible for Zoe. When I first got in the van after walking around a bit, it sounded like I was wearing cleats! |
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| This was the first extraction from my sneakers. The next time was even worse. |
3/8 - I would not come back here, just cuz of the goat heads. Poor Zoe just wanted to do her business and was trying to find a good spot. She had to stop at least 5 times to let me pull them out of her paws. I tried to encourage her to just go, but she always has to find the "right" spot!
We did manage a walk last night along the dirt road, where she managed to not collect too many. Sometimes I've put her booties on when at a place like this, but the last time she wore the booties, they caused sores on the top of her paws... 😖
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| 😟 |
On a very selfish note, I'm very concerned about getting back east and gas prices, or even worse, availability with this stupid war. I absolutely cannot believe this imbecile and all the supporting Republican imbeciles are doing this/allowing this to happen. I hate war. It's so pointless and destructive and kills so many innocent people. He is the worst president of all time, but I have to say, he's making a name for himself. He will absolutely never be forgotten. Most people want to be remembered for the good they did, but apparently he doesn't care as long as he's remembered. I can only imagine what the history books will say about this time. I said during Covid, that I don't want to live through big historical times. I want to live during boring historical times.
I went up to Truth or Consequences and tried to do a BW, but that didn't work out, so I went to Elephante Butte State Park and did some primitive camping on the beach. I didn't go far off the road, being that I didn't want to get stuck, but I ended up with a decent spot. There was a little peninsula nearby with an RV on it and I thought it was really just one site, so didn't head out there, but someone else pulled out there and stayed and I wished I had gone there, but my spot was fine.
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| That's the peninsula on the left with the RV and van. |
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| Back in T or C |
3/9 - We headed up to Albuquerque and stayed on the street by Tiguex park again (like last time I came through). It works out really well as a great place to walk Zoe, plus itis just a block from Old Town.
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| Spicy margarita while overlooking old town |
3/10 - Walk with Zoe around Old Town and breakfast at the Old Town Grocery.
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| Some beautiful native pottery. This also has dragonflies, but I didn't capture them well. 😕 |
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| Yum - Breakfast burrito at Tiny Grocer ABQ |
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| Good Girl! |
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| She creates poems on the fly if you provide a topic, so I provided dragonflies. |
From Albuquerque, we headed towards Jemez Springs based on a recommendation from Hana. This was just what I needed as I had been feeling very uninspired with my travels at this point. I was feeling like I just wanted to drive East without really exploring along the way. I think it is because I had already been in this area and wasn't thrilled with Santa Fe last time, so wasn't excited to go there. I ended up staying 3 nights at Vista Linda Campground. on the Jemez River. Hana had recommended site 7, but it was occupied my first night, but was able to move there the next morning. It really is the nicest site in this small campground. Wonderful hosts - Jane and Brad. I really enjoyed them.
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| Gorgeous red rocks |
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| Jemez River running by the campground |
3/11 - Jemez Springs Heritage site. This was interesting and sad. The Spanish came in and made the local people build their church and made them go to church and live their way instead of how the local people had lived for centuries. I find that stuff so hard to take, but unfortunately that's human kind for you. It's not just the whites and the natives and blacks. It's all kinds of people being mean to each other for their own benefit...
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| On the left is a Kiva (for worshipping) and I was able to climb into it, but no photos. Then some of the housing, and then the church. |
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| This Catholic church was across the street. The local native people would like to tear it down to allow them access to more ruins. This church was a place they sent the pedophile priests over the years... |
I wasn't going to go to Soda Dam, but then it was right along the road and I'm so glad it was as I found it to be very unique and interesting.
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| This formation has built up over the years by deposits of calcium carbonate from a spring the bubbles to the surface at this point. The river flows under the dome that is still growing. This natural dam is 300 ft long, 50 ft high and 50 ft wide at the bottom. |
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| This was right on the side of the road, so no effort needed! |
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| View from the back side of the dam |
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| Battleship Rock - another hike I did on my own |
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| Battleship falls |
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| mini rainbow in the falls |
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| And another hike I did on my own to a hot spring. This was the lower pool as the upper pool was occupied. The water was luke warm with lots of algae. Not worth a soak IMO. Others did arrive and soak as I was leaving. I passed many folks going in as I was leaving - glad I went when I did! |
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| On the way back, I stopped in Jemez Springs to grab a bite to eat and had fun visiting with the locals at the Los Ojos bar. |
3/12 - I relaxed at the site in the morning, then we headed to Gilman Tunnels, built in 1924, which was worth the ride. No hiking, but a pretty and interesting drive. These tunnels were created back when they were logging back there and they had to create these two tunnels in the rock to get the trucks with the logs outs.
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| That tall tree growing up the side of the rock. |
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| It is quite the canyon to build a road along |
After the Gilman Tunnels, I stopped in Jemez Pueblo on the reservation and got gas. The gas is always cheaper on the reservations and their 86, 88, and 91 octane were only a few cents apart, so I put in 91. In NM, because the reduce the octane, I always have to put in mid grade, which these days is quite pricey! And a bonus there was that they had orange Fanta from Mexico! - made with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Yum! It's often the little things. 😀
Then, off to the Jemez Springs bath house and had a soak. I was the only person there! I considered going for pizza next door after, but while I was soaking, the power went off and the pizza place was closed due to lack of power. Probably a good this, but I had heard it was very good...
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| Not glamorous, but private |
And to my surprise, who appeared at my campsite?! Sue and Bruce! They pulled into the site next to me. We had no plans to cross paths here, so that was a fun surprise.
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| I saw this when pulling in! Actually they had a chair in front of their plate so that I wouldn't see the VT plates |
3/13 - S&B headed out early towards Bandelier NM and I stopped along the way to do this short hike at Las Chamas for Zoe. I had worn my sneakers and it ended up being muddy and icy, but I was able to go until the whole trail was covered by ice. It was good for Zoe since she could get water along the way.
Next stop was Valles Caldera where I went into the visitor center and took a walk on my own.
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| This caldera is 14 miles across |
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| There was a ranch here for years with cattle and sheep. You can imagine them in this wide open space. Elk frequent it, but I didn't see any. |
1.2 million years ago, a cataclysmic volcanic eruption caused this land to collapse, forming a 14 mile wide caldera and Redondo Peak was pushed up by underlying magma. A series of lakes have come and gone, depositing up to 300 ft of sediment on the caldera floor - lending to its apparent flatness. Humans arrived more than 11,000 years ago and have been connected to this landscape ever since. The cabin district was headquarters for a 20th century ranch and the site of prehistoric seasonal village used for millennia. The Valled Caldera is considered dormant, but not extinct and will most likely erupt again at some point. It has erupted on average every 80,000 to 100,000 years and last erupted about 60,000 years ago.
During the eruption 1.2 million years ago, it deposited a thick layer of ash across the Southwest and Great Plains regions of North America. It covered 95 cubic miles. Compare this to Mt Saint Helens only covered 0.1 cubic miles, Crater lake - 7800 years ago, 18 cubic miles. Two were larger - Yellowstone - 630K years ago, 240 cubic miles and Long Valley CA - 760K years ago, 144 cubic miles.
After that I headed towards Bandelier where I decided to stay a night with Sue and Bruce in the Juniper CG. Thankfully, Heidi and Eben were totally chill about when I arrived at their place in Santa Fe. I don't think I mentioned that I needed to order some meds for Zoe from Chewy and I didn't know where I'd send it which I remembered that I had met up with Heidi and Eben when I was walking around Madrid (NM) two years ago and saw them. We exchanged info so they were happy to accept the packages.
I did the Pueblo hike, which ended up being super hot even though it was only 70 degrees at the most. The sun baking the rock made it so hot.
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| Tuff is compacted volcanic ash and was deposited here in Bandelier NM from the Valles Caldera I just left. Airborne ash from these eruptions is found as far away as Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas! Depending on how quickly it cooled, the tuff ranges from very hard to very crumbly. Over thousands of years, streams cut deep canyons into the tuff plateau, creating the canyon-and-mesa terrain seen here today. Wind, rain, and frost the eroded (and continue to erode) holes into the tuff surface. |
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| Canyon view from above |
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| Wall with holes and homes |
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| The walls of the Tyuonyi village |
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| It sounds like the people living in the walls may have been a different village from Tyuonyi??? |
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| Looking down on the Tyuonyi village where there were about 400 rooms and 100 people lived |
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| Ladder to a cave room (cavate), which are rooms carved out with harder stone tools |
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| I wonder about the hole in the floor |
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| Not a bad view |
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| View from a cave room |
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| The long house |
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| The long house with rooms added onto the cave rooms |
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| You can count how many storied by the holes for the roofing |
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| In the center is a pictograph that has been protected |
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| caves everywhere |
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| The Alcove house, which is in the top section of the photo. I didn't climb up there because I was feeling lightheaded. |
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| I'm glad I got back in time to head to Los Alamos with Sue and Bruce for dinner and amazing beer at Bathtub Row Brewery |
3/14 - The campground was super peaceful this morning. No noise at all.
Sue and I did a short, easy hike from the campground before I headed out and went to some more ruins at Tsankawi Village. These were the coolest and different from any I've seen before. The village, separate from the cavates here has not been excavated to respect the natives ancestors. I had a lot of fun exploring the cavates with an 8 yo kid - if only I had as much energy and no fear!
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| Sue |
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| The tuff is so soft, making these deep grooves in the trail. Some places, they were so deep and narrow that they were hard to walk through. |
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| Beautiful view from the mesa top |
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| In 1943 the US Army established a top-secret lab for the Manhattan Project. It cut off all traditional access to the local Indigenous Pueblo people. The restrictions continue today despite decades of tribal protest. The town and lab continue to grow and not only is the land impacted, but so are the Puebloan people. This land is sacred. The people of San Ildefonso, their ancestors, and their beliefs are "still here". |
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| I think the upper hole may have been for smoke to escape? |
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| petroglyphs |
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| more petroglyphs |
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| Stairway created by the puebloans |
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| Apparently, the fires strengthened the rock above |
Then onto Santa Fe to visit with Heidi, Eben, and Payton (daughter). We enjoyed dinner together and I really enjoyed hanging with Heidi after dinner chatting. They are so incredibly nice and welcoming. They invited me to stay in their guest room, but I declined.
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| I don't think Zoe was terribly comfortable on the little rope bean bag. |
3/15 - Heidi and Eben invited me to join them and their friend Jodi for breakfast. Jodi is also from VT. And then after that I showered and did laundry. I had planned to go to a laundromat, but since it was Sunday (usually busy), I took them up on the offer to use their laundry. Of course I spent hours doing 3 loads with only one washer and dryer. Somehow I was moving all day and never got a chance to sit down. I was able (barely) to fill my water from the house. I was parked on the street and my two hoses (50 ft) just reached. It was good to get new water in there because the last fill was heavy with minerals from Faywood Hot Springs. It left everything so encrusted with hard water marks!
Great photos as always! Loved the artwork too.
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