2007 NM Sat. Feb 3

Sat Feb, 3

We checked out of our hotel in Taos, sad to leave it, but looking forward to coming home.

We planned to stop at the Rio Grand Gorge Visitor’s Center as we were heading out about 10 am. We had been by the Center 5 times and had never seen it open. We figured on a Saturday morning it just had to be. Nope. So far it holds a perfect record. We know it is open from 9 am to 3 pm – just not any day we happen to be there, apparently! Your tax dollars at work!

We drove down to Los Alamos and toured the museum there – it was interesting, but they managed to make a fascinating subject kindof boring. They need to get someone from the History Channel to help them make films that are more interesting! We did see replicas of Fat Man and Little Boy – Fat Man was named after Winston Churchill and Little Boy was supposed to be Thin Man after Roosevelt, but the name got changed. Such small things to cause such terrifying destruction!

Their main job is to figure out if our nuclear weapons are still viable, without doing any nuclear tests. In order to do this, they have invented any number of creative things.

After Los Alamos, we went to Bandelier, which has a lot of trails that tour cliff dwellings. It was nearly 4pm, so it was too late to do that, but we plan to do it another time.

We headed back to Albuquerque and vowed next trip to not head there at 5 pm! It is an hour driving due west, straight into the sun! We did get to see the Sangre de Cristo mountain range at its' sunset best. I think I mentioned this last trip, but the name means “Blood of Christ” and the Spanish named them that due to their pink color at sunrise and sunset.

So, the trip is almost over and we had a wonderful time, but we are looking forward to getting home.





I am pretty pooped, so how about some more gorgeous pics of New Mexico? These are taken on the drive from Pojoaque to Los Alamos and Bandolier. (Yes, the sky is really that blue!)