Bandelier and Santa Fe, NM

On Sunday we woke up and headed for Bandelier National Park. It was just a few miles from where we were staying in White Rock, NM.

On the way there we found a rock that had fallen to the road.


We hiked the short 1.2 mile trail to see the Ancestral Pueblo ruins of the people who lived here 800 to 500 years ago. The main rock formation of interest was the tuff. Tuff is very erosive ash rock that was deposited by Jemez Volcano over one million years ago. Check out the remaining caldera. This rock became homes to the people who lived here.

Then we hooked up with Rob and Stephani and headed for Santa Fe, NM. We spent the day there walking through the shops and looking at all the fine art and pottery of the area. We had burritos for lunch.

We stopped by the Loretto Chapel to check out a famous spiral staircase that when originally built did not have the banisters and did not have any support from below or above, but only the staircase it self. This was a very pretty church.

After dinner at the Hill Diner in Los Alamos, we went out for a view at the White Rock overlook.

Later that night I helped Rob and Stephani set up their own blog site!

Headed for Taos and the Colorado Springs tomorrow morning.