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