Santa Fe, New Mexico

Dave getting the new tire on the bead lock rim. 

Per and Susanne's VRBO within walking distance to downtown.

Lunch at Blue Window in Los Alamos

While Los Alamos is known to many as the birthplace of the atomic bomb, the town's history dates back 1.6 million years with a different kind of energy - volcanic eruptions.  Ancestral Pueblo people, Homesteaders, Ranch School students, and thousands of scientists, soldiers and engineers from all over the world to work on the Manhattan Project and stayed to create the Los Alamos community.

Because these home were the only ones in town with bathtubs the area became known as  Bathtub Row.

Long before the Manhattan Project the Ancestral Pueblo people lived in the area. The Pueblo here was likely occupied around 1225 by Tewa-speaking people, and housed two or three families. It included bedrooms, kitchens, storage rooms, and a semi-circular kiva used for ceremonies and meetings.

Bandelier National Monument protects over 33,000 acres of rugged but beautiful canyon and mesa country as well as evidence of a human presence here going back over 11,000 years.  Petroglyphs, dwellings carved into the soft rock cliffs, and standing masonry walls pay tribute to the early days of a culture that still survives in the surrounding communities.

This underground structure, called a Kiva was an important part of the ceremonial cycle and culture.  It was the center of the community, not only for religious activities, but also for education and decision making.

These walls belong to the village of Tyuonyi. Only one of several large pueblos located within Bandelier National Monument.

Classified as Cavates these were dug out of the cliff wall.  Even though the tuff is soft it would have been quite a task to carve them using only stone tools.

Most Cavetes had stone rooms built in front of them, such as this one.  This stone house was reconstructed in 1920 to give visitors an idea of how some cliff homes may have looked.

This painted design or pictograph, was part of the back wall of a second-story dwelling.  Uncovered behind a layer of plaster, this pictograph was probably created for a very special purpose, then later covered over.

There were many petroglyphs.  This one is called the Macaw petroglyph was the most unusual. 

Returning via Frijoles Creek. It is one of the few places on the plateau where water flows year round. A reliable source of water for the Ancestral Pueblo people.  

Dinner at Ostería d'Assisi back in Santa Fe

Walking back from dinner we noticed this piece of art that looked just like the Macaw petroglyph in Bandelier National Monument.

A good list to keep in mind for next time