Except for one drive many years ago that briefly dipped into New Mexico, I have never been here before. (Another exception was the drive Dave and I took 10 days ago from El Paso to White Sands.) I was fascinated by the reddish dirt and new landscape.
We are parked at the Santa Fe Rodeo Grounds for 9 days.
On Monday we drove to the Visitor Center to gather information about things to do in Santa Fe. As we drove, we saw a lot of smoke and what looked like a forest fire not far from the city. We learned later that it was a controlled burn.
We found the Blue Corn Brewery on our way back, about a mile from where we are parked.
On Tuesday we toured some of historic Santa Fe. I love the adobe architecture.
After walking around the town, we drove to the Second Street Brewery.
On Friday 4/19 We took a tram ride to the top of Sandia Peak. The tram started at 4,559 feet and ended at 10,378 feet. This was a new experience for me! It was a beautiful ride up the mountain and across 3 canyons. I kept a look out for wild life but all we saw was a redtailed hawk.
We found out that mountain rams no longer live here. They were decimated by disease brought in by domestic sheep.
We had some passengers, 3 technicians who rode on top of the tram, part way up. We left them at the first tower to do some maintenance. We found out that they ride the top of the tram every single day, regardless of the weather, to inspect the wires. Three times a week, they grease and oil the machinery at the towers. This was the situation for our passengers.
We took a “short cut” back to Santa Fe, a 16 mile road across the mountain. Eight miles of it was dirt/rock; it took an hour for that portion alone.
There was not a lot of traffic but we did meet three or four other trucks. There was a car that I’m not sure how it made the trip and 4 motor cycles. We don’t know if any of these vehicles made the entire trip or just went to some destination and then turned around.
When we finally got to the end of this winding road, we stopped for a beer at the Blackbird Saloon in Cerrillos. This was built in the 1800’s! We had a fun chat with a local guy, transplanted from Ohio.
On Saturday, we drove up to Taos. As the guy at the Blackbird said, it is an “artsy fartsy” kind of town. We saw a little art in the visitor center and other places, but art isn’t really a big interest to either of us, so we did not go into the galleries.
However, famed frontiersman, trapper, guide and many other things, Kit Carson had made his home here for 25 years, along with his wife Josefa, so we toured his home and museum.
We also found a brewery, Toas Mesa Brewery. Note the neat tap handles and bar.
I love all the adobe homes and businesses. Even nationwide businesses have to meet the standard. I went a little crazy taking pictures.
On Monday, we wanted to make one more excursion, before leaving Santa Fe. We drove to Bandelier National Monument, to see where and how the Pueblo Indians lived in the mountain side. We found out these mountains are made of volcanic ash 900 feet deep. They were formed by a volcano 800 times stronger than Mount St Helens. The rock has hard spots and soft spots. The Pueblo carved out homes in the soft spots. This variation is called “tuff”.
After living here for centuries, the Pueblo were displaced in the 1940’s as the US began nuclear testing in the area. They were moved for both safety and security reasons.
Our next stop was the Bradford museum in Los Alamos, where we learned about the nuclear test facility, where the atom bombs were developed.
Both of these bombs were developed in Los Alamos, to protect the US against nuclear threats developed by our enemies during World War II. Today, the purpose of Los Alamos National Lab is to make sure we have what is needed to deter other nations from building up their nuclear weapons and to make sure we can still protect ourselves if necessary.
We were surprised to learn that the two different bombs dropped on Japan were made with different materials and exploded with different methods.
Little Boy was an Uranium bomb with gun-type ignition, dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. It had a force of about 15,000 tons of TNT and detonated 1,968 feet above it’s target.
Fat Man was a plutonium, implosion bomb, dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. It had a force of about 20,000 tons of TNT and was detonated at 1,800 feet. This type had never been tested before it was dropped! There was not enough plutonium made at the time, for both a test and an actual drop.
Heading back to the campground, there were storms in the distance. The interaction of sun and clouds was neat.
