Click on a photo to enlarge it.
On Monday we drove to Mesilla Spanish village where most of the buildings date from the 1850s and are in the adobe style. We also saw the former
courthouse where Billy the Kid was sentenced to hanging at the age of 22 for shooting Sherriff Brady.
We visited the Stahmanns pecan shop where there were lots of pecan goodies to taste! Then we went off to the Stahmanns pecan farm just down the
road which goes through the fields of pecan trees, for more tasting and huge butter pecan ice creams!
Our next stop was City of Rocks State Park. It was well worth the $5 per vehicle entrance fee. We went for a one hour walk through the rocks where
camp sites were laid out. It would have been a super place to stay ($10 dry or $14 elec/water).
Then we drove up into the mountains to Gila Cliff Dwellings which is a National Monument and parked up at a free campsite for the night.
On Tuesday we walked up to see the dwellings where the Mogollon people lived between 1270 and the early 1300s. They built their houses in the rocks
and there were even some 700 year old corn husks on the floor.
Gila Cliff Dwellings and Catwalk.
Then we drove back over the hills and went over to the western side of the Monument to do a super walk called the "Catwalk". It follows the route
of water pipes used for a mine that used to be here and was a super walk along a thin canyon and across a suspension bridge. We managed to find a
free National Forest campground for the night.
On Wednesday we went to El Malpais National Monument and walked over a 3,000 year old lava flow that had even older lava flows underneath. We drove
through some great scenery with the lava flow on our left and large sandstone cliffs on the right.
We stopped at La Ventana which is a large rock arch in the cliffs that are striped in yellows, oranges and reds. After stopping at the excellent
Northwest New Mexico visitor centre, we drove to El Morro National Monument and parked at the campground for the night.
On Thursday we drove to the visitor centre and did a short walk to "Inscription Rock" where there are lots of Spanish inscriptions, the earliest
dating from 1605. Then we drove back through El Malpais and walked through a collapsed lava tube.
In the afternoon we drove to Acoma Pueblo. We paid $10 each for a one hour tour of the pueblo. They live by different rules and are completely
autonomous. The homes are owned by the females who pass them on to the youngest daughter.
Our tour guide was the head of the Pueblo - the youngest daughter who looked about 60 plus years old. She herself has 6 daughters and numerous
grand children. She makes all the decisions for the Pueblo and the men have to carry out whatever orders they are given by her.
Unfortunately no video was allowed and a $10 permit was needed to take photos. But even the permit didn't allow photos of the church and cemetery.
So we didn't buy a permit.
Acoma Pueblo is known as Sky City and is the oldest continuosly inhabited community in North America. It is about 370 ft above the desert floor and
has over 300 structures made of adobe (mud brick) and white sand stone.
The people first came to live here in 1150 and the cemetery has 5 layers where all the dead are literally buried on top of each other.
Only 13 families live year round here but the others live nearby and return for the various ceremonies that are held here. Their religion is a
mixture of traditional Indian and catholic. Our guide sprinkled water in front of the first step to the altar in the church to ask for permission
to stand on the step. We were allowed into the church but we had to stick with the group and weren't allowed to wander off alone.
There were several stands in the Pueblo where pottery was for sale and we enjoyed walking between the various adobe buildings and learning about
the history and culture.
After the tour we were given the choice of riding in the bus back to the visitor centre or taking the steep steps. We chose the latter which is
also the way the inhabitants used to get into and out of the Pueblo. The steps were quite steep and went through narrow canyon walls which was a
far better way to get back to the centre.
On Friday we drove through the centre of Albuquerque and headed for Tent Rocks National Monument. The last stretch of road is all gravel for
4 miles. On the way, large black clouds had been gathering in the distance and were getting closer. We decided it wasn't worth the risk of getting
washed out and not being able to drive on the gravel road.
So we turned around and drove to Santa Fe. This turned out to be the right decision because on the first Friday of every month all the museums are
free from 5-8pm. Without planning it we just happened to be there on the first Friday of the month! We visited two museums, one of which was an art
museum housing the work of Georgia O'Keeffe who is a well known local artist.
Then we drove to Wal-mart for the night where we were treated to another lightning show as a massive thunderstorm and heavy rain passed over us!
On Saturday we drove to Bandalier National Monument where we did two trails, totalling 6 miles. The first walk took us to two waterfalls and on the
way back there was a rattlesnake on the path! Fortunately there were 2 people in front of us who warned us otherwise we may well have stepped on it
because it was hidden in the shade!
Intrepid Kirsten got closer to take photos and although the snake reared its head, it didn't rattle its tail. Then we had to take a detour through
the bushes so we didn't get too close to it. We found out later that it was an adult western diamond rattlesnake which can grow up to 5ft in length.
The one we saw was coiled up but it was about that long.
The second walk was to several cave dwellings with pictographs and painted walls although most of the paint could no longer be seen due to wind and
rain erosion. But there was one section of the wall that had been protected by a plastic covering so that it was visible.
There were several sections that went between narrow walls and a few ladders to climb to look into the various rooms. Then we walked to the
ceremonial cave where we had to climb up 140ft of ladders to get to it!! Quite an adventure!
On Sunday we drove into Los Álamos which was built as a secret science laboratory during World War II. It was called the "Manhattan Project" and
was where J.Robert Oppenheimer and a group of extremely talented scientists worked on creating the atomic bombs that were later dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
We can only hope that such a deadly and devastating display of science in action will never be repeated.
We drove out through the hills and stopped to do a 2 mile trail which took us over 9 bridges. Only 5 of them were properly constructed the others
were a mixture of stones and wobbly tree logs!!!
We spent the night at a canyon overlook parking area.
