billbauer

Bill is up fairly early today to visit Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, about one hour SW of Santa Fe.  The monument is known for its light-colored, cone-shaped tent rock formations resulting from volcanic eruptions that occurred between 6 and 7 million years ago.  The main attraction for me is the narrow slot canyon trail rising 630 feet providing amazing photographic opportunities.  This spot is so popular that they turn people away that don't get here early.  I arrive early enough to have mostly unobstructed views.  This is only a small portion of today's photographs. I took a wrong turn leaving tent rocks and ended up on a "local" road that kept getting worse and worse.  Before I finally turned around ahead of a stream crossing sans bridge, as in you drive through the water, I encountered horses on the road.  This is rural. Bev shops at the native market in front of the Governor's Mansion. This afternoon we also tou...

A beautiful sunny and warm day greets us in Santa Fe.  Today is Puye cliff dwellings and Los Alamos nuclear laboratory day.  After a particularly unremarkable breakfast across the street, we head north again on US84 turning off this time for Puya. Puye is one of two cliff dwelling sites in the area.  The other is the better known Bandelier National Monument.  We chose Puye because it is run by the Native Americans and reputedly has a more indigenous outlook on the presentation.  The Puye cliff dwellings are on a plateau (mesa) with dwellings on the side of the cliff and up on top of the flat mesa.  We could tour either, or both.  Touring on top required climbing a long, steep wooden ladder and ascending "natural staircases".  At our age, we decided that the one hour cliff side tour would be more appropriate.  After waiting an hour for our tour to begin, our one hour tour actually took two hours.  It was great but it was a long time in ...

Breakfast this morning is at Harry's Roadhouse, recommended by a Cable area friend who once lived in Santa Fe. Granola, yogurt & fresh fruit along with a bacon stuffed waffle topped with bananas with honey butter. We leave Santa Fe in a pouring rain.  It is the kind of rain where you check the windshield wipers to see if they are on and find out they are already going maximum speed.  The heavy rain changes into off and on showers and an occasional peek at the sun.  It is not a total rain out. We visit Pueblo Taos, a still active native Pueblo village having adobe housing over 1,000 years old.  This is the new Catholic Church, Catholicism imposed by the Spanish and tolerated by Pueblo as a dual religion with their native spiritualism. The old Catholic Church was burned on this site during a cavalry siege taking the lives of around 150 women and children.  It could no longer be sacred so it was turned into a cemetery. Native Pueblo adobe hous...