Vacationing in Northern New Mexico... part 2 - Mountains and Deserts

One of the best parts of Bandelier is it's location to the Jemez Mountains. One afternoon, M and I took a drive up into the aspens to check out a place called Valle Caldera. http://www.vallescaldera.gov/ This national preserve is an experiment in nature preservation. A Board of Trustees manages the land - allowing for recreation, ranching, and natural processes to occur in unison on the land.

The day we visited, it was windy and chilly, so we stayed on the highway instead of hiking down into the 12-mile wide natural caldera. I was hoping for elk but we'd have to get up at 4 am to see them... That's too early for me, vacation or not. So we headed on up the highway and stumbled upon a great little hike by a high mountain stream.

Las Conchas trail runs along the east fork of the Jemez River

The geology was amazing

Michael really wanted to get his feet wet....

It was a bit chilly - he's standing on a thin sheet of ice

yuck....

Someones artwork on a tree - I love random acts of art!

Once we left Bandelier and the mountains, we headed down to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. KKTRNM was the catalyst to going on this trip. M and I saw some pictures of this place and knew we had to go there.

I felt like I was back in the canyons of Utah

Once through the canyon, we climbed to the top of the mesa for some fantastic views!

I think they're a bit phallic.... :-)

Looking down into the canyon and narrows

Ginormous Ponderosa

After the very hot morning hike we headed into Santa Fe for lunch. Found a great local spot, the Blue Corn Brewery, who had excellent food. I highly recommend you check them out if you find yourself up there.

We had planed to camp at a recreation area by a reservoir. We both had reservations about that. Rec areas are notoriously crappy places for tent camping.So we scrapped that idea and headed into the woods once more. We camped our last night at a campground outside Santa Fe at 9,000 ft.... it was more than chilly. More on that next time...