What National Monuments Preserve

That’s what I was going to call this post, seeing as how yet more national monuments are on the current administration’s chopping block, as well (of course) as the jobs of park rangers across the country at national parks and national historic parks. I knew when we started this “summer of parks” in the West that some might have limited hours or be closed by the time we got to them, but now that we’re spending our days learning about the cultural and natural cores of certain of these places that are at risk, my feeling of grief over some of what this nation is losing is making me not even want to talk about it.

I do have photos of these gorgeous places that I want to keep, so I’m in a quandary. Plus, some of you may never have been to these places, and maybe you’d like to see them. And some of you appreciate a break from the news. So here goes, with several smiling faces thrown in to cheer us all up. (I continue to add to my page of posts from national parks and monuments, here.)

Bandelier National Monument

This national monument is named after the Swiss archaeologist who discovered the villages of ancestral Pueblo peoples here in the Cañon De Los Frijoles.

I won’t go on and on about the historic details because you can find better info at the monument’s website (for now). What’s different about the cave dwellings above the large village in the canyon are the fact that they were built in volcanic tuff, which is the common name geologists use for sediments of volcanic ash that are here among the sandstone outcroppings.

Tuff is softer even than sandstone, so caves naturally form along its exposed sides during erosion. The Pueblo people dug these caves in farther and built additional rooms in front of them. Here in Bandelier they built what we call The Long House, a series of homes built along the canyon wall for 800 feet, sometimes three stories tall.

We walked for something like an hour with the Long House beside us. You can tell the cave dwellings from the purely natural caves by holes left by ponderosa pine trunks used as building support, plus, with binoculars, you can see soot on the ceilings and small storage areas dug in the very back, sometimes partly covered with man-made walls.

The Monument allows you to climb up and look inside a very few of these, but due to recent vandalism, we could not look inside the one that they had rebuilt.

The Alcove House was a community cave dwelling, 140 feet above the canyon floor, accessible only by a series of ladders. Tracy took these photos when he went up and came down. Inside wasn’t as impressive (to us non-archaeologists) as the cave dwellings at Gila, but the height sure was.

I really enjoyed the visitor’s center this time, with life-size recreations of what life might have been like in the caves.

What’s amazing is that these particular dwellings are about a thousand years old (I think I have that right), and we know as much about the people who lived in them from their descendants as we do from archaeological studies. The Pueblo people say, “We are still here.”

Falls Trail

The canyons formed around the Valles Caldera reveal amazing geology, with several types of volcanic rock on spectacular display.

The Frijoles Creek running down to the Rio Grande is now often dry or a trickle, although we were lucky that there was enough water when we hiked the trail to make the waterfall.

We hiked in the morning because we like to have the trail to ourselves, but that meant the sunshine hadn’t hit the canyon walls or floor yet, so the area was hard to photograph (for me, at least).

The timing of green growth and blooms here do not depend on the increased sunlight of spring as much as on rainfall, so everything is green only during wet periods of summer.

We could see just the beginnings of blooms.

Even with the morning light and the dry conditions, the hike was gorgeous.

Los Alamos

I’d thought this “town” would be an historic place only; little did I know. It’s got a population of 13,000 and continues to be a hub of scientific discovery. We toured the former homes of the physicists who developed the hydrogen bomb, and everything was all decked out as an homage to the great scientific minds that worked there. It was wild to be somewhere where physicists are the heroes. Of course, I took photos and spoke with Finn about the place. All in all, though, the strong defensive vibe at the science museum defeated me. Seems like the message is: “We still do science here that’s not about killing people, but, look at how much we can do in case we need to kill people later.”

Instead of touring more, we stopped at their brewery, named after the street that Oppenheimer, Bethe, and Pearsons lived on, the only street in Los Alamos to have bathtubs.

Santa Fe

Here at Bandelier, about an hour out of town, we’re continuing our grand tradition of Strip Mall Tourism. We had to hit a laundromat, a propane place, groceries, drug store, I can’t even remember what else, but it boils down to spending much of our day in the famed city of Santa Fe in strip malls. We did walk around the plaza, and we spent an hour in the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, where I learned a bit about ceremonial and modern jewelry.

And we had lunch with fellow full-timing Airstreamers we met at the rally this past fall, Amy and Tom.

We’ve been crossing paths with them already this spring and will almost all summer. I love this in part because I can learn more about places we’ve just seen or places we’re about to see just from reading their social media posts. The best part though, of course, is that they’re added to our growing list of great nomad friends we share a lifestyle with.

Here ends a long post, the result of when I don’t feel like writing but have certainly seen a lot. I’ve done my best to take lots of selfies and post them here so I can be reminded of smiles and share them with you.