Wednesday In Santa Fe

Today we ventured out to Bandelier National Park. It is very surreal to see the ruins of the cliff dwellers. We had a great time. My dad, Jeff, and I went. My mom stayed back to rest, which was probably a good thing because this was quite a hike! When you pull in, they give you reading material for the points of interest on the hike. I think the points range from 1-24. On the hike, you stop at each point and read about the history of that particular point. I hope that makes sense, I feel like I am not explaining it very well. So, we stopped at each point took some beautiful pictures and took turns reading aloud the various excerpts. It really is a beautiful hike and the weather was nice and cool, just how I like it!

Anyhoo, I visited Bandelier with my parents and sister about 15 years ago. It was here that my dad educated me and my sister on a rare and almost extinct bird... "The Yellow Fangled Tweety Bird". We were walking through the trail and there it was...the most magnificent bird my dad had ever seen! My dad said "Hey! Look girls, a Yellow Fangled Tweety Bird!" We were like, "Where Daddy, where?" and looked all around to find this ever so magnificent rare bird. Um, yeah. He got us good. Once he started laughing at us we realized that we had been..had! Oh, fond memories of my young and impressionable youth. We still joke about it to this day. I guess you had to be there :-)

Here are some pictures of our trip to Bandelier. I have also included a bit of history on Bandelier if you are interested :-)

"Bandelier's human history extends back for over 10,000 years when nomadic hunter-gatherers followed migrating wildlife across the mesas and canyons. By 1150 CE Ancestral Pueblo people began to build more permanent settlements. Reminders of these past times are still evident in the park as are the strong ties of the modern Pueblo people. By 1550 the Ancestral Pueblo people had moved from their homes here to pueblos along the Rio Grande (Cochiti, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Santo Domingo).

In the mid-1700's Spanish settlers with Spanish land grants made their homes in Frijoles Canyon. In 1880 Jose Montoya of Cochiti Pueblo brought Adolph F. A. Bandelier to Frijoles Canyon. Montoya offered to show Bandelier his people's ancestral homelands."

We also saw this huge lizard. We later discovered that he is a fence lizard.

I love this picture. It appears as thought a little raccoon was playing in the stream a bit before we walked over the bridge.

After we went to Bandelier, we went to Los Alamos to the atomic bomb museum. This place is very interesting and a bit eerie! Spooooky! :-)

Cheers!