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We truly enjoyed our week at the Los Alamos Elks Lodge and could have found more to do in the area but we have a 2 week reservation at a campground about 12 miles outside of downtown Santa Fe. It will be a short travel day of just 45 miles. We could have explored the New Mexico state capital city from Los Alamos but after a week without a sewer hookup, it will be nice to have a full hookup site. Santa Fe Skies RV Park has about 50 sites and most are large enough to for rigs our size.
The next morning we head about 30 miles east to explore Pecos National Historical Park. We saw that there was a ranger guided talk at 10 AM so we made sure to get there in time for that.
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| Pecos National Historic Park |
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| Adobe Visitor Center |
The visitor center has a lot of displays and we had 15 minutes to spend wandering before our tour started. This part of present day New Mexico was settled many hundreds of years ago because of it being near the Glorieta Pass through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It became a popular trading hub and many groups of people traveled through the area.
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| Pecos Pottery |
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| What the Pueblo May Have Looked Like 500 Years Ago |
We learn much from reading about the history of Pecos and the people. In the mid 1500’s the Spaniards arrived and forced their religion and customs onto the Pecos people.
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| Santa Fe Trail Wagon |
We meet outside the back of the visitor center for the tour. We have a group of about a dozen visitors and Ranger Haleigh to lead us around the grounds. The walk will take us about a half mile along the paved paths in the park. That’s when we get our first glimpse of the old church on the hill above us.
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| Starting Up the Path |
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| Church |
We stop a few times along the way, usually in a patch of shade, to learn a great deal more about the history of this area and the different groups of people that came through here. When we make it to the top of the hill, we are at a reconstructed kiva. The ranger explains how this ceremonial structure would have been used and then offers to take the group down the ladder into the circular structure. The majority of the group opts to come in while the others sit in the shade of a tree above.
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| Stone Wall Along Path |
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| Ready to Descend Into Kiva |
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| Bigger than Expected Inside |
After another lesson inside the kiva, we head up and over to the old church remains. This structure is the last of 4 churches built on the site in 1717. The park service has done work to keep the structure standing and sound and many of the walls remain intact. We learned more about the church, as well as the uprising against the Spaniards. It was fascinating to learn about all the history that took place in what seems like a rather desolate location today.
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| View of Distant Mountains |
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| Remnants of Old Church |
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| Teardrop Passage |
The tour ended at the church, but there is another trail that loops back to the north that seems worth the effort. It’s only about another half mile so we aren’t talking a serious hike. We find a few more kivas and some nice distance views of the surrounding mountains.
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| Modern Day Adobe Making |
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| Another Kiva |
As we head back to the visitor center, we get a different view of the backside of the church. We enjoyed the visit, spending just over 2 hours total exploring and learning. It’s going to be a hot one so we head back to camp.
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| Back Side of Church |
The next day is our anniversary. Not our wedding anniversary but a special one nonetheless. We have been traveling full time for 10 years now. We decide to take it easy and head into Santa Fe for dinner at Tomasita’s New Mexican Restaurant and have a nice meal.
Even though we are camped at an elevation of over 6300 feet, it’s a bit hotter here than the last two stops in Los Alamos and Taos. To compensate, we try to limit the longer hikes and get out earlier in the day to beat the hottest temperatures. After our lazy day, we headed out to check out some nearby petroglyphs. The La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Site is less than a 10 mile drive to the west from camp. AllTrails lists a loop trail here that is only 2.7 miles long with just 167 feet of elevation gain so we head to the parking lot to check out the trail and the petroglyphs.
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| La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Site |
The hike starts out towards the south along the base of a nearly 200 foot rocky cliff. We assume the petroglyphs are somewhere along the rock wall but we aren’t seeing them from this far down below. Fortunately we had the trail downloaded to the Garmin because the trail isn’t well marked for much of the hike and finding the intended path up through the rocks was challenging.
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| Partway Up Cliff |
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| The Last Rocky Stretch Up |
On our way to the top, we did find several petroglyphs but we were more concerned in trying to find a safe route up than to explore this part of the “trail”.
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| First Set of Petroglyphs |
Once to the top of the cliff, the terrain is flat and dry looking which is a stark difference from the green valley below. The Santa Fe River that runs through the valley which is likely why it’s so green. The trail continues south along the upper edge of the cliff for another quarter mile but just ends at the barbed wire fence of the adjacent ranch so it really wasn’t a needed portion of the hike.
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| On Top of Cliff |
From here the intended trail is along the upper edge of the cliff for about a mile. But as we proceeded, we realized that from this vantage point, we would have no chance of seeing any petroglyphs since they would be below us and likely facing away from us. Less than a quarter mile after passing the point that we came up, we spotted what looked to be a faint trail midway up the cliff. We hoped this would be the best viewing route and found a way down to it through the jumble of rocks. Sure enough, we hit pay dirt and found many petroglyphs.
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| Need to Head Down |
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| A Head? |
There were definite paths over and around the rocks and we found if we followed a faint path, it generally lead to more petroglyphs.
It was challenging since these seem to be more “social paths” so it’s a bit of bouldering and squeezing around the sparse vegetation. We stopped in the shade of a small tree to have a snack before continuing towards the north. At one point we came upon a father with his 10 year old daughter at our level heading the other direction. We compared what each of had seen so we have an idea of what to expect as we proceed. We found more petroglyphs and were pretty amazed by the quantity and quality of them. The only real drawback is they are exceedingly difficult to get to. If we had simply walked the AllTrails route, we wouldn’t have very seen many of them.  |
| Rock Full of Petroglyphs |
When it was clear we had gone past the bulk of the petroglyphs, we found a way back up to the top and proceeded along the ridge. Instead of heading down the path that would get us back to the trail to the car, we did a short detour to find a nearby geocache hidden off one of the other trails to the north. By the time we made it back to the car, we were at 3.25 miles and 400 feet of elevation gain. It wasn’t necessarily a pretty hike but the petroglyphs were very nice and we were done in time to head back to camp for lunch.
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| Heading to a Geocache |
Santa Fe has a lot to see in the downtown area. There are many museums and shops plus it is the state capital of New Mexico. We enjoy visiting state capitol buildings when we have the chance so we plan to spend the day exploring a little bit of Santa Fe starting with a free tour at 10 AM. We find a nearby parking garage and head over to the capitol building and find it rather plain compared to many of the ones we have visited over the years. It is also unusual in that it is a circular building without a prominent dome - dubbed the "Roundhouse". There was some construction work on a section of the outdoor patio so we couldn’t walk around the perimeter.
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| New Mexico State Capitol |
New Mexico is one of the newer states - joining the union in 1912 as the 47th state. We end up with around 10 people on the tour and 2 guides. We are given some of the history of New Mexico and it gaining statehood as well as how their government functions. The tour takes us through the senate chamber and will also get to the governor’s office later on.
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| Gallery Seating Overlooking Senate |
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| State Seal |
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| Central Skylight |
Lots of capitol buildings have artwork in hallways and elsewhere in the building, but this one is kind of unique in just how much artwork is on display. In some sense, it seems more like an art museum that also happens to have government tasks being performed. With four floors, there is a great deal of wall space to display art.
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| Multi-Panel Painting |
There is more artwork than can be covered in a 45 minute tour so we walk past much of the art and have a few areas where we stop to learn about the artist that created. In nearly all cases, the artist is either a New Mexico resident or has some strong ties to the state.
The most popular piece of art is one created in 1992 of a bison head. Constructed entirely of scrap materials like bike tires, magnetic tape and old paint brushes, this thing is fascinating to look at closely. At first glance from a distance, it looks like a buffalo head but with closer examination, it’s possible to see how all these dissimilar items were brought together to create a one of a kind piece.
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| Bison from Scrap |
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| Bison Eye Up Close |
We finished up at the governor’s office which has a large amount of artwork on the walls inside.
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| Reception Desk at Governor's Office |
From here, we wander past some of the pieces we didn’t have a chance to see in more detail before heading out. We spent over 90 minutes between the tour and wandering on our own.
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| Painting of Santa Fe Back in the Day |
Our plan is to start wandering some of the downtown area nearby and hope to find a good place to eat. Even though it was a Wednesday, there were a large number of people milling about. We hoped to be able to see the inside of Cathedral Basilica of St Francis Assisi but when we first went by, there was a service in progress and weren’t permitted inside. When we walked by later in the day, it was just after they closed for the day so we only managed to check out the exterior.
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| "Buffalo Tail" Sculpture |
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| Cathedral Basilica of St Francis Assisi |
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| Sunflower in Front of Basilica |
Santa Fe is a very neat town with lots of shops and artwork on display. We walk around just casually checking things out while hoping to find a Mexican restaurant.
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| Lots of Adobe Buildings to See in Santa Fe |
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| San Miguel Chapel circa 1610 |
There were several performers in Santa Fe Plaza. One man was dressed in colorful ceremonial clothing while dancing with a series of hoops. We watched for a few minutes. There were a dozen or more artists displaying their works - mostly jewelry - under the shaded walkway across from the plaza. It was pretty stuff but nothing we really need.
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| Colorful Walkway |
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| Vendors at Palace of the Governors |
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| Colorful Crafts |
We found a small place to eat right across from our next destination - New Mexico History Museum. The food wasn’t particularly excellent but worked to fill our bellies. We had decided to try to take in several of the local museums while we are in the area. To help incite us to that goal, we decide to purchase something called the New Mexico Culture Pass. For $30 per person, we get a pass that permits us to visit 8 different museums and 8 historic sites around the state. Since there are four of them in the Santa Fe area and admission for nonresidents is $12 per person for each museum, we should be able to recoup the purchase price and possibly become cultured. We had just missed the start of a docent guided tour but we caught up with the group in the second room of the museum.
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| Arrows Overhead |
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| Stagecoach |
This docent knew his New Mexico history and had a lot of interesting stories to explain things rather than simply stating facts and dates. When he finished up, we still had much more of the museum to see.
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| Harvey Girls Exhibit |
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| Route 66 Mural |
It was an interesting museum since it covered such a broad range of topics. One room told all about the space and defense projects in White Sands and Los Alamos. Another had the history of diners in New Mexico.
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| A Cinetheodolite - Missile Tracking Camera |
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| New Mexico Dining Exhibit |
The museum is comprised of several buildings and a courtyard so it takes the bulk of the afternoon to get through it all. One current exhibit called “Reflections on History” was an artistic display of historic black and white photographs printed onto large mirrors. They were both interesting and at times creepy.
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| Reflections on History Exhibit |
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| Old Print Shop Equipment |
As we head out of the museum to head back to the parking lot, we stopped in the shade to take a break and started to talk with another guy doing the same. He was visiting from Albuquerque so we had all sorts of questions about that town since we plan to head there after Santa Fe. After we resume our walk, we had a few geocaches to try to find along the way. One was in the La Fonda on the Plaza hotel. This is a neat 100+ year old building. We needed to go inside to actually find the container. It’s a beautiful building and fortunately the concierge was nice enough to hand us the geocache from behind her desk. It was nearly 5 PM when we made it back to the car. A long but fun day.
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| A Dragon is Watching |
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| Inside La Fonda Lobby |
Part of our goal with buying the Culture Pass was to be able to alternate hiking days and museum days since there are a fair amount of both in the area. The following day we head over towards St Johns College on the edge of the mountains to the east of Santa Fe. Our goal wasn’t for higher education but to hike Sun and Moon Mountains. Since there is limited parking at the trailhead along the road, we head to the visitor parking area of the college. It will end up being a longer hike but the advantage was we were able to park in the shade under the solar panel. From this parking area, the trail starts out following a large wash up past the water tower.
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| Our Destinations |
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| Heading Up Trail |
The initial mile climbs about 300 feet, but then it gets much steeper as we make the turn to begin the true climb to Moon Mountain. We did have a geocache puzzle to find partway up the mountain. The problem was it is about 600 feet off the trail. We decide to stay on the trail until we are at the same elevation as the cache and then cut over. This cache doesn’t get a lot of finds both since it is a puzzle that requires some effort to solve and then there is the fact that it’s difficult to reach. That means there really isn’t any sort of “geotrail” that some more frequented caches develop. It takes some trial and error to find a safe path across the steep slope but finally make it near the cache. The hiding spot is somewhere in the large rock outcropping. It’s a pretty view but tough to safely get around. After 15 minutes, we finally make the discovery and sign in after it last being found well over a year ago.
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| Nice View from Near Geocache |
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| Lots of Rock Nooks to Search |
We head back to the main trail and continue up. It gets very steep and rocky which is okay going up, but makes us wonder how bad it will be when we need to come back down. The view from the top made up for the effort. We had another cache to find here which proved to be somewhat easier to get to since it was only 20 feet off the trail.
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| View of Sun from Moon |
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| Made it to the Top of Moon |
The hike down Moon Mountain was slow going but we made it back to the junction safely. The trail up Sun Mountain is shorter and less steep than to Moon but is in full sun since there aren’t many trees growing. It’s fairly rocky but a bit easier than the last ascent. There are nice views of the valley below and all the residential areas. The view back to Moon Mountain is good as well.
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| View of Santa Fe from Sun |
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| View of Moon from Sun |
We spotted a short-horned lizard scampering around the rocks as we started our descent. Rather than retracing our route back through the wash to the car, we take a lesser trail that will lead us back into the campus. There is a section of many switchbacks that finally get us to the roads through campus. When we reach the car, we have 4 miles and 1300 feet of elevation - a rather challenging hike for us.
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| Horned Lizard |
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| Working Our Way Down |
