13 June 2024 – Trip Day 74
We drove out to Bandelier National Monument today. This was about a 2 hours away from Albuquerque up by Santa Fe.
This is one of the more popular sites that we’ve been to.
We arrived and were able to find parking and managed to avoid the shuttle requirement. We had lunch in the picnic area while the kids worked on their books.
Ducky got his own hat – he was very happy with it!
The site was a short hike from the visitor center. It was a very hot day, but we pressed on anyway.
A view of one of the large kivas on the valley bottom below the housing areas.
Meagan checks the pocket guide for information on some of the ruins as we work our way up the path.
Pressing onward up the trail.
The trail leads up to the base of the cliffs where ladders are placed at some of the caves so you may climb up and have a look around.
Petroglyphs on the wall where rooms once stood. The small holes in the rock face are where support beams would have been inserted to form roofs and walls. The trail along the cliff face was very narrow and required deft footing to successfully navigate.
After we checked out the cliff dwellings, we continued on down the trail to Alcove House.
Alcove House sits about 140 feet above the canyon floor and required navigating a series of ladders to climb up to it.
After the first ladder is a short ‘path’ up the hillside to the next ladder.
Meagan was at the top of the ladder, while Alan waited at the bottom of the ladder.
Family photo at the top in Alcove House.
The kiva
After exploring the Alcove House, we returned to the visitor center. Randal was very excited about being out of his pack pack and being able to walk!
The kids turned in their books and received their badges for being a Junior Ranger. After that, since we were close, we headed over to Los Alamos to see if we could get the Manhattan Project National Historic Park as well.
The Manhattan Project NHP had a nice park, but they were closed when we arrived. They didn’t seem to get much traffic and were only open on certain days.
We dropped off some postcards to be mailed at the drop box, and then proceeded to see about hitting Valles Caldera National Preserve.
Valles Caldera was accessed from a quick turnoff on the way out of Los Alamos.
We came into the Caldera valley and were greeted with a verdant valley. We made it to the visitor center a few minutes before they closed, and were able to get our stamps and Junior Ranger books. We only had a few minutes inside the park before it closed and had to head out.
We drove out and around the Caldera the other way from which we came in, and came upon a scenic turnout. There we were able to get a glimpse of a herd of elk in the evening light. The phone cameras have quite the zoom on them, and we were able to get a couple good shots.
On the way back to Albuquerque for the night we came upon an odd sight. The marker roadside told the story of Soda Dam.
We had to stop to take a look at it and get a couple pictures of the unusual sight.
A close up of the dam.
Dam complete, we returned to Albuquerque for the night.
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