Spirit, Not a Ghost: February 2012

Chaco Canyon Ruin

After living in New Mexico for a bit, La Mami and I gathered a few friends and we started exploring the beautiful ancient seabed that is NM. Starting with Chaco Canyon, a National Historical Park. This place is certainly worth visiting as it provides a variety of hikes through canyons and high desert terrain, as well as fascinating architecture from 850 to 1250 CE. The ancients who built these structures used sophisticated astronomical and cardinal reckonings to lay plans for their fantastic "Great Houses". The superiority of the work shines through in the lack of disintegration in these 1,000 year old buildings, except where huge slabs of the canyon fell and crushed them (but that's pretty awesome in and of itself). They built many of these sites, all within a line of sight, stretching over hundreds of miles for easier communication. Chaco Canyon was the center of a great culture, one that traded with the Mayans for cacao!

The circular buildings were at the heart of the ceremonies, they are big and impressive. Just as awe-inspiring, however, are the cliffs that the site sits up against, which are rich in fossil goodies! Apparently, it was located at the edge of an ancient seabed, so we found in our hike a huge variety of fossils - from castes of tunnels made by some crustacean to shark's teeth! It was a lovely hike, stopping every couple of feet to see some fossils or ruins, or to just take in the beauty of the desert. With the combination of fossils, ancient ruins, and volcanic activity, Chaco Canyon was an excellent visit for this Renaissance Woman!

Ancient rippled sea bed!

Coal deposits undermining the canyon.

A tight squeeze during the hike

Fossilized tunnels made by ancient crustaceans

A view of the canyon edge

Next, we headed to Trinity, the site of the first test of the atom bomb. The base it's located on used to open twice a year, free of charge, but I think they are starting to charge this year. Anyway, during that time, you can check out what is left of the structure that held the bomb (3 pieces of rebar steel, all twisted up) and can check out the radiated rocks that were created from the sand and the heat of the blast. It's green and is called Trinitite - it's illegal to take from the site, so we collected a bunch and took a picture of it. There's a cool monument and a replica of Fat Boy. My favorite aspect was the radiation warning signs. The radiation that you get from a visit there is less than when you take an airplane. Since I take planes a lot (my worst environmental impact) I will probably become like Spiderman or something...

All that's left of the steel water tower structure.

I'm Radioactive, baby!

Fat Boy's less evil twin

Ole McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O, and on that farm he had a bomb...

Trinitite - bombed sand turned to rock/glass. It's pretty green.

Obviously, I didn't take this pic, thanks to Wiki!

Hoodoo in Jemez

Alaska was definitely lacking in warmth and towards the end of the summer, sunshine, so I headed to the Southwest for a bit of both. Little did I know that it would be in the negatives in wintertime in Albuquerque. After an excellent road trip, Cpt dropped me off and headed to Tanzania. La Mami went on several excursions with me, and some of the times were a little too exciting for La Mami's taste.

We started off easy, heading to Jemez, where hot springs flow like wine and hoodoos and fantastically red canyons surround the passerby. We stopped to get some sopaipilla at the local farmer's market and checked out the Jemez pueblo museum. It was filled with beautiful pottery and other artifacts and recounted the events of the locals versus the missionaries et al. Heading through the little canyon, we explored the scenic trails that wind through the red rock of the canyon, admiring the smooth walls and gentle shrines, espying a few lizard buddies.

Lizard buddy!

After the delightful hike through the red canyon walls with blue skies and puffy white clouds, we checked out the Soda Dam. It's a buildup of sodium carbonate that is easily accessible to the casual driver. You can crawl into the tiny cave and see the ripples of mineral-laden water. It's a great, easy and tiny rock wall for all you wannabe climbers out there.

Outside of Soda Dam

Inside Soda Dam

We headed towards the free public hot spring, terrified of meeting those native New Mexicans who like to show all! But as we climbed up the steep path, a thunderstorm of epic proportions cracked down on us. We had to run back to the car in order to avoid the buckets of rain that came as soon as we reached it. Running up a slippery slope in flippy-floppies is quite an ordeal! We decided to continue up the road a bit. Then the hail began, balls as big as golf balls trying to break through our rental's windshield. We had to pull over for a half an hour because they were coming down so hard and fast. Finally, the hail relented and we headed back to ABQ.

Now, in October in ABQ is a very special event - the Balloon Festival. Hot air enthusiasts come from all over the world to witness or participate in one of the largest gatherings of hot air balloons. So every morning, I would wake up to Darth Vader or Smokey Bear peering through my window. One morning, La Madre and I headed to Petroglyph National Monument near ABQ and saw hundred of balloons all over the city. The Petroglyph National Monument is really cool, the locals drew thousands of stick pictures into the volcanic rock, drawing some very artistic designs. Here are a few. We saw a big ole' hare, a couple of roadrunners, a bunch of birds, and the trail of a snake. Neat place to go for an early morning hike!