We were up and out early this morning to visit some more Indian ruins. About 50 miles NW of Santa Fe is the Bandelier Natl Monument are the remnants of an Ancestral Puebloan community established 7-8 centuries ago and incudes pueblo and cliff dwellings. About all that is left of the village of tyuonyi (chew-OHN-yee) are foundations of the original buildings (see photo). The buildings were originally 1-2 stories high and contained about four hundred rooms (very small rooms) and housed approximately 100 people. Access to the village was through a single ground-level opening. In the cliffs to the east lived the cave dwellers in the cave rooms.
The hike through the park was about 2.5 miles on a good trail. The Alcove House is a 3-story house up in caves that is accessed by a 140 foot climb on 4 ladders. We chickened out on doing the ladders - me because the ladders were not build for 64 year old women with short legs and Larry wanted to keep me company... 8-) He did climb into one of the other cave houses that only had one ladder.
The rocks were formed by the Jemez (HAY-mess) volcano that erupted over one million years ago and that left up to 1000 feet of ash in the valley floor. The eruption was six times more powerful than the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. The rock looks like sandstone but is actually compacted volcanic ash and is a soft, crumbly rock called tuff. Erosion has caused it to have a swiss cheese effect. We agree that we have seen enough indian ruins to last us awhile....
On the way back we drove through Los Alamos which is home to the Los Alamos National Labratory which was established during WWII to develop the first nuclear weapons. We were suprised that it remains active today while working on projects such as developing a cure for AIDS, developing technologies that remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere and designing a stealth aircraft that can detect chemicals and radiation danger. It was kinda wierd to drive through the labratory grounds and think about what it must have been like 60+ years ago when the bomb was being developed. We didn't get to go through the museums since we were there on a Sunday morning and they don't open until in the afternoon.
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