GREETING![]()
S FROM SANTA FE, New Mexico (NM) USA
A bit further up, or down, or along the railroad line, we are now in Santa Fe and we have two nights here to explore the area a bit further afield.
Following our usual path from A to B – via Z – we criss-crossed this part of New Mexico to take in our planned sights for the day. And it was certainly worth the effort !
First stop was Sandia Heights where the Sandia Peak Tramway takes you into the surrounding mountain range for a fabulous view of the area and a look back down to Albuquerque. Sandia Peak is a busy ski resort in the winter months. We luckily arrived just as a cable car was heading up so no time for me to back out now – off we went ! The base is already about 6,000 above sea level and the cable car takes you another 4,000 feet to the peak, with 2 midway towers linking across canyons on the way. Again the top is a restaurant and a further chairlift which takes you to the ski slopes when open. During this time of the year you can hire bikes to cruise down to the bottom chairlift station and they put the bikes on the chairlift to bring them back up.
Back down the tramway, we headed north then cut across as we headed toward the Jemez Mountains and the Valles Caldera. This is where our scenery really changed ! Having spent a few days driving through desert scenery, we first came across rich red mountains, very much like around Sedona in Arizona. The road climbed slowly and followed the Jemez River through old pueblos and as we got higher we entered the Cibelo National Forest – where the contrast of vivid green leaves from the pine trees and the red rock was stunning ! Continuing across the mountain we skirted the Valles Caldera – the crater of an extinct volcano which is now mainly a wide open grassed plain where Elk are prevalent (we didn’t see any though – maybe no one has been paying attention to the signs saying “elk viewing area only – no hunting” !). We stopped at Bandelier National Monument which showcases ancestral pueblo dwellings in the canyon and into the canyon walls. It is believed these dwellings date back more than 900 years. They are quite we’ll preserved and there are petroglyphs on the canyon walls.
This region is also home to Los Alamos, famous for the Los Alamos National Laboratory which was established in 1943 for the “Manhattan Project” – to develop the first nuclear weapons which ultimately created the bombs used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII.
The laboratory is “off limits” even now – just cutting across from the road to Bandelier National Monument to the town of Los Alamos we had to go through a security checkpoint both ways and show our passports ! All the building complexes are identified by numbers only “Tech Area 16″ or Tech Area 42” etc and some of the roads require passes to even enter.
On the way back the checkpoint was manned by a guy from the military who made it clear we were “on government property and no photos allowed” – we then realised we had the GoPro filming the whole way coming in ! So if we go missing you will know why !
In Los Alamos we visited the Bradbury Science Museum which showcases the place from its beginnings to its current uses in “saving the planet”. They showed an interesting short film on how they came to select the area and basically commandeer it “for the war effort”.
Our sightseeing stops for the day over, we headed on to Santa Fe where we are staying at a nice hotel – The Inn of the Governors – right in the old town area of the city.
They do not have a full restaurant here but have a nice bar serving good “pub food” so we decided to eat here tonight.
As their advertising says they “serve the best burgers in town” we thought we would test the claim – Adrienne had a “Del Charro Burger” and I had a “Cowboy Bison Burger”. Despite the fact we had to wait nearly an hour to actually get the meal – bison takes a bit longer to cook according to the waitress ! – they tasted pretty good. Maybe we are becoming “too American” when it comes to meal time and expect the food on the table before we get there !
Tomorrow we have a day to walk around the old town as well as driving a bit north to visit the town of Taos on “the high road to Taos”
Today’s Trivia – Of the state capitals in the USA, Santa Fe is both the oldest (established 1610) and highest (7,000 feet above sea level) !