New Mexico fun

After we left Bill & Jean’s we went to Cochiti Lake which is just north of Albuquerque about 50 miles. From there we explored Tent Rocks and Bandolier National Monuments. Fantastic places that we liked a lot. Spent two days at each one. The first day we explored the sights and did some short walks. The second days we did some longer hikes. Beautiful sunny & warm weather but a bit windy. The locals say that it is windier this year than most and May is always windy in New Mexico. We also went to Los Alamos and the Bradbury Science museum. Fascinating, especially the history area that was all about WW2 and the Manhattan Project. Los Alamos is a neat town on a high plateau with tons of hiking and biking around it. We would go back and stay for a couple days on another trip. Cochiti Lake was a Corp of Eng campground that is beautiful and new and the best part was it was $10 per night for a view site with water electric and even a street lamp. We only planned to spend a couple days there but liked it so much we stayed a week. We took a day trip to Taos and a lovely old adobe church nearby.

Now we are in Grants, New Mexico on Route 66 about 100 miles from the Arizona border. We explored El Malpais & El Morro National Monuments. El Malpais means the badlands in Spanish and has gorgeous sandstone bluffs overlooking huge lava fields. We hiked the bluffs, to a huge arch, and also to lava tubes, caves, and lava trenches. El Morro means the headland in Spanish and is also called inscription rock. It was our favorite place that day. There are inscriptions from Spanish conquistadores, some of which date to 1605, years before Columbus! After the conquistadores came the railroad workers and the American settlers. Fascinating place to walk and explore and the surrounding mesas and bluffs are lovely. Today we head for Acoma Sky City. It is an ancient pueblo that has been continuously inhabited since the 1200s. We have heard great things about the guided tour by the pueblo people who live there and are looking forward to it. Tomorrow we leave for east central Arizona and Petrified Forest National Park and Canyon de Chelly National Monument. The weather forecast is for sunny and mid 80s. Should be fun.