A Weekend of Hiking in Santa Fe National Forest and Bandelier National Monument

It was such a lovely weekend in Santa Fe and since I didn't feel like doing any work, I decided to do some exploring. On Saturday afternoon, after searching the internet for some "easy" hikes in Santa Fe, I headed back up toward the aspens at the ski basin to the Chamisa Trail in the midst of the Santa Fe National Forest. Now the internet warned me the first 1/4 mile would be "steep" and the rest "level"--yeah right! After climbing the steep part, I followed the narrow trail of rolling terrain through a pine forest looking off into the mountains. It was lovely but strenuous as I got as high as about 8700 feet. I definitely have not overcome all my altitude issues. Having gone about 1.75 miles I decided not to climb down to the Tesuque Creek (next time), but when I got to the top of the trail a sign told me "You are here--breathe deeply." I did my best to follow instructions and made my way down--which was far more pleasant except when the scary mountain bikers drove past. So, an hour and a half later I had much more hike than I bargained for, but it was an experience. I rounded out the night going to see the movie "Lars and the Real Girl" (which I liked) with my friend Chris who afterwards made us some amazing late night carbonara! Watching the sox win game 3 rounded off the evening nicely.

This morning I decided to make the hour drive out to the Bandelier National Monument at the slope of the Jemez mountains, home of the cave dwellings of the ancestors of the modern pueblo people. Nestled in Frijoles Canyon, the cliff dwellings were inhabited about 600 years ago and are extremely cool. The major trail (mostly paved) started at the visitor's center and wound 1.2 miles around ruins and up many stairs to peer in some of the cave dwellings. Wooden ladders were placed at the base of some of the caves so you could climb up and look in. I was surprised at how many people did not actually climb up the ladders, but just walked past them. There were also some incredibly interesting petrogylphs carved into the rock formations, so I spent quite awhile trying to pick out shapes--a dog, a bird, some swirls, a river, and some interesting faces. It was a beautiful day--sunny and around 68, so I decided to extend my explorings and walk the extra mile through a lovely forest to the Ceremonial Cave House. The sign warned me about heights, ladders and stairs, but I decided to assess the situation when I got there. I was really scared to climb the 500 feet up to the cave on wooden ladders and stairs, but decided to overcome my fears and just do it. The experience was worth it, but I don't know if I would do it again. You can see the ladders and the ceremonial cave from the ground looking up in the pictures below. I spent about 3 hours at Bandelier and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting. Bandelier is only 6000 or so feet above sea level, so it was much easier hiking for me than yesterday's 8000. I was happy to use the National Park Pass I bought for the roadtrip again, saving me a $12 entrance fee.

I really do love the New Mexico landscape--the mountains and the sage brush and all the interesting rock formations, but don't think I could permanently live in the desert. I miss the ocean. Aside from my bandelier adventures, it was a typical Sunday--laundry, grocery shopping, football (the Pats are unstoppable)--and now the red sox. I ate my first purple potato at the farmer's market on Saturday, so I bought some and made a purple potato hash for dinner--delicious.

Back to work in the morning!@!

Pic 1: Cave Dwellings, Bandelier National Monument
Pic 2: Dog Petroglyph
Pic 3: I climbed 5 big ladders and a bunch of stairs to get to the Ceremonial Cave--scary!!
Pic 4: The Ceremonial Cave is the opening at the top of this wall
Pic 5: The woods surrounding the Monument

Among the Aspens

Yesterday (Saturday), I decided to do some things I've been wanting to do since I got to Santa Fe but haven't done for any number of reasons. So, after the Saturday morning ritual of the farmer's market (a ginger apple muffin, mixed greens, 8 apples) and a quick workout at Fort Marcy, I drove down Cerrillos Road in search of Jackalope. Jackalope is a very strange store, more of a mercado, where alot of Mexican imports, antique furniture, and huge planters are sold. I wandered around for a bit, and was very good about not buying anything except a few cards. After Jackalope came shopping for the week at wholefoods--I am trying to eat as organically as possible down here--and then I decided to take a drive up to the Santa Fe Ski Basin. The Ski Basin ride is a lovely one--about 15 miles each way--and the starting point is just a few quick turns from my casita. The ride is famous in the fall for the explosion of yellow as all the aspens turn. I gather, from my ride up, that I missed the full flowering of the aspens by about a week as many of the leaves had already fallen. It was, nonetheless, an absolutely beautiful ride up a very windy road through the Santa Fe National Forest and a few state parks along the way. Lots of people were out and about--hiking, biking, walking dogs--and next time I venture up, I will check out some of the trails. When you are at the top, there is a lovely view of Santa Fe and the mountains in the distance. The pictures below will give you an idea of what I saw along the way, and some of the stunning vistas. Being from New England and used to all of our lovely fall hues, seeing just yellow leaves was strange, but no less beautiful. I didn't really know what Aspens were, but their bark reminds me of birch trees, and they are just as handsome without their leaves. It really was a lovely day (in the high-60s) and so after my ride up and down the basin trail, I decided to visit another Santa Fe hotspot I'd not yet ventured to--Tara's Organic Ice Cream. Hidden away on Second Street, Tara's was a little hard to find, but worth the wandering. This ice-cream store is famous for its uniquely flavored homemade icecream. I had a combination of Rosemary Pear and White Pepper Chocolate Chip. Savory, and strangely delicious. Well worth the adventures.

Today's adventures will not be so exciting I think. I've just cooked a big pot of turkey veggie chile and am off to the research center for a little reading and note-taking before heading over to Fort Mary for a workout.

Hope all are well. The offer of coming to visit stands until December 21 when I leave!

Re-Settling In

Hi All. I've been a very lax blogger as of late, but October has been a whirlwind month. I flew home to Boston last week for a multitude of reasons: a wedding, a birth, a funeral, putting a house on the market--sounds like a bad British comedy, I know. It was a hectic and stressfull week in Beantown despite a number of nice chats, visits and events. The visit started off with the craziest Southwest flight I've yet been on, and never care to repeat. The plane stopped in: El Paso, Austin, Baltimore, and then, finally, after 8 hours, Manchester, NH. Ugh! But all worth it when I saw the smiling face of Steve in the waiting area.

I spent the week hastily gathering research at BC, running around for the house, seeing friends, and scrubbing. It was strange to return to BC and not have any sort of affiliation there. Students, friends and former colleagues looked like they had seen the ghost of Libby past, it was funny. I do miss teaching though, and will (somewhat reluctantly) leave Santa Fe for the wilds of Maine winter around Christmas time. I did get to write my first real academic department memo this week, which was a fun experience!

Although it rained in Boston all week, Kate had a lovely day for her wedding--sunny, crisp and cool--the epitome of New England Fall. A good time had by all, except for Chrissy's smashed window in the parking lot of the international. Mr. and Mrs. William Travis Morgan are currently vacationing in Bora Bora, and I wish them well!

Our house is now on the market--feel free to purchase it--it is a buyer's market as they say! So Steve and I (though Steve had done the bulk of the work by the time I got home) scrubbed like Cinderella and moved yet more useless possessions to the storage unit to get ready for our open house which had a grand total of 3 visitors--competing with upwards of 70 open-houses in Framingham that given Sunday. Good times. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and pray to the St. Joseph statue that my mother has promised to bury in the yard.

It was funny how stressful it was to return to reality--all of my organic eating, non-diet coke drinking, gym going habits went out the window. The challenges of incorporating the ease of my Santa Fe life into my "real" life will be many, I think. But it is easy living here, and save the absence of Steve, I am really very happy in SF. I couldn't ask for better colleagues than Chris and Jonathan, and we have a lot of fun together, coming up with new dishes--like O'Keeffe Apple Cobbler (from the tree outside), pear cake (from Chris's casita pear tree) and my experimental Southwest baked ziti with roasted green chiles from the farmer's market. I like the various types of people who wander the streets of Santa Fe--always something to see. I need to start up on sightseeing again, which I've been kind of lax about since working. A drive to Taos is on the agenda soon, and the scholars are being treated to a trip to O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch on Halloween (how appropriate)! This weekend, I think I will head up to the ski basin and go for a little hike among the aspens before all of the leaves fall.

It is most definitely fall here--very chilly and breezy with many yellow leaves. It tends to be in the 30s in the morning and at night, and then rise into the 50s and 60s during the day. Lovely weather, really. Nice to be wearing sweaters again, though it is rather funny to see all of the Santa Feans wearing winter hats already--I mean, come on, I just put my flip-flops away!

Have Happy Weekends. Go Sox. Go Pats!

My What a Bad Blogger I am....

Typical Libby. Starts out with great gusto documenting new adventures and then gets so wrapped up in new adventures that she forgets to write them down. Ah well, such is life. At least I can report that I am being a diligent scholar--revising an article, writing a chapter for a book and researching a new project! Life at the research center could not be more pleasant. Our new fellow, Chris, came today from Pennsylvania and he is a delight, along with Jonathan. We make quite the trio and the staff tells us that we are atypical scholars in that we like to talk to one another and talk about things other than academia. I am happy to be an exception.

I cannot believe that today is the first of October and that I left Framingham nearly six weeks ago. But, I return home on Saturday for a week to be in Kate's wedding on the 13th and to see my husband whom I miss terribly. Big shout out to Steve who is single-handedly getting our house ready to be put on the market. Anyone need a house in Framingham?

The weather in New Mexico is turning to fall. The sage is blooming yellow and makes a lovely contrast with the purple lavender. The aspens, I am told, up in the ski basin will turn yellow in a few weeks as well. The weather is in the 60s and 70s and cooler in the mornings and it's been raining quite a bit as of late, as it is while I am typing this. It's not the same as New England fall with its multicolored leaves and crisp burning smell and football everywhere, but it's pleasant in its own way. The baloon fiesta begins next week in Albuquerque, but I think I miss most of it, having chosen to go home and visit.

I hope all are well and I send my heartiest congratulations out to Derek and Petra, proud new parents of Benjamin Henry Peplau, their beautiful son born on Friday. He's adorable!

More frequent posts promised in the future.