SUNDAY

We are in a little piece of paradise tonight, Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos, NM. It is an hour and a lifetime away from Santa Fe. We were all very glad to leave the dusty rv park behind today and leaving was eventful for Saffire. I cut very hard to get out of the site we were in and drug her right rear, giving her a bit of a bruise.

She is just getting more and more lived in!

The drive up here was spectacular, so beautiful and this whole area is amazing. I was here many years ago with Joe and Pat and Dave Hough and it is even more beautiful than I remembered.

This is Kodachrome country. The saturated hues of the canyon walls play off of the brilliant clumps of red flowers blooming out of the barren rock. The brilliant blue birds dart around the campground, everywhere you look there is something to delight your eye.

We have been to the visitors center and explored the area a little. Dinner on the coleman tonight, chili with cheese tortillas, it really tasted great.

There is a young woman tent camping alone across from us. She looked like she was out hiking all day, then assembled a hula hoop and had another workout! Way too much for me, from the tent on up!!!!

Nancy didn’t feel so well this morning when we left Santa Fe and had a nap this afternoon. She seemed to have bounced back by dinner time. Deb is in her camper with my extra wool blanket, it’s supposed to be 39 tonight. I offered her the couch, she may be here tomorrow evening if she is frozen in the morning.

Planning to hike from campground to the visitors center, about two miles and 600 feet down. The hike takes us past two of the Anasazi cliff dwelling sites. I’m really looking forward to the down, hope I’m here tomorrow night to report I made it back up!!!

MONDAY

We started the morning off with some excitement, the best of which was snow flurries and now a brilliant sunny sky! The winds have really picked up again and there is talk of rain tomorrow, so we are off for a hike before too long.

Unfortunately, Deb and Nancy both awoke to dead batteries. The night wasn’t too cold so they weren’t uncomfortable but had to get things working again. Nancy just forgot and left her porch light on, so hers was an easy fix with a few minutes hooked up to the truck.

Deb’s problem took a little more detective work, but after putting collective WAC’s heads together we determined her refrigerator had been running on the battery which quickly drained it. An easy fix once the problem was pinpointed, and her truck battery has recharged her house battery and her refrigerator is running on propane.

Erlene had her excitement yesterday with a flat tire right AFTER we pulled into the campground. AAA was out and put her donut tire on, so she is off to town to have her real tire repaired and put on.

Nancy has decided she likes this camping in the parks for a variety of reasons, not the least that us old girls camp at national park campgrounds for $6 a night! Her big problem is no internet so she is off to Los Alamos to see if she can find a wifi card for her computer.

A little history on the park. People have been living in the canyon over 10,000 years. The Pueblo people were farmers and gatherers and archeologists have found over 3,000 inhabited sites in Bandelier. In the the early years families lived in groups of two or three, by the 1200’s villages formed, and by the mid-1500’s some of the villages had over 600 rooms. In Bandelier the villages of Tyounyi and Tsankawi and surrounding cave dwellings have been preserved.

The Frey Trail will take us down into the valley and we’ll be exploring both villages on our hike today.

I owe my life to Deb, she convinced Luanne to hike one way so I didn’t have to climb the mountain, Thank You Deb!!

It was a wonderful hike today, a perfect day for it. Very cool and windy to start and ended under a turquoise blue sky. Luanne couldn’t resist climbing while Deb and I started our lunch. We saw a long, skinny snake on the trail as well as a lizard. When we got to the canyon bottom there was a pretty little stream running through and we spotted a rainbow trout in it!

The pictures don’t begin to show the beauty of the landscape. We only visited one of the cliff dwellings. Check the pictures for the petroglyphs above the room openings, and the huge one of the horse on the large wall face.

We’ve found a nice spot to picnic tomorrow and then go off to see the two villages we haven’t visited.

Dinner was bratwurst grilled outside. Erlene had charcoal and Luanne had a cool tripod, so cooking was deluxe. Everything tastes twice as good out here.

It is cooler than last night and we have all gone to our campers as the sun has set.

TUESDAY

I spent a good part of the day in the sun reading, it was wonderful. A soft breeze blew early in the day. Shortly after lunch Deb came over as the winds were picking up to tell me we were expecting 50+ mph gusts again and she was thinking of moving her A to a more sheltered site. So off we went, driving it down the hill of the campground!

Nancy and Luanne went into Los Alamos, returning with tales of a very spooky city with security checkpoints everywhere. Erlene spent the day in her A quilting.

When we all gathered again early afternoon we decided to take the dogs down to the river to play. Old non water dog Teddy had more fun than anyone! Speaking of Teddy, he is forever grazing on whatever green vegetation is around. I was sitting outside with him when he started choking and it was a pretty scary few minutes before he managed to clear his throat.

Luanne, Deb and I took off from there to do one of the village hikes. By the time we came down from the cliffs the wind was blowing so hard we were being sand blasted. Deb about lost her life on the walk. I bought a trail guide, which flew out of my pocket,

and Deb about fell off of the mesa chasing it! Walking through the village and fields where the Ancients or Anasazi’s lived is magical, but boy it makes you appreciate how easy life is today. It is very cool to climb the hill and sit in the cavette, looking at the indentations in the floor where the women ground corn and the sweeping vistas of the valley floor. But those people didn’t live past 35 and the whole race of people vanished without an explanation.

We came home to gusting winds but fairly nice temps, still shorts and t shirts while the sun was up. I visited at Deb’s in January and we made a bet with consequences. We had to lose 10 pounds before the camping trip or we would have a dire feat to perform.

My chosen act for Deb was to wear the tutu!!! I took pity on her and didn’t make her wear the whole outfit, but the tutu was a must! See the pictures, they took her back to her childhood! I just don’t know who enjoyed this more, Luanne who practically tackled Deb and forced her to don the tutu, or Nancy, Erlene and I who were enjoying the show.

I’m GLAD Deb didn’t lose her weight, wouldn’t have missed this for anything!!!

WEDNESDAY

Erlene took off for her home in Colorado early this morning. The rest of us slowly poked our heads out of our warm blankets to a chilly morning. It started off with some excitement as coyotes were circling the camp. Teddy was smelling hard when we went for a walk.

It’s late afternoon and I’m on the couch after a wonderful warm shower. We hiked the Waterfall Trail, probably 3 1/2 miles and it was the best thing we’ve done this trip. It was a wonderful hike along the stream and eventually to the waterfall. Spectacular! The rock formations look like ferry castles. There was a large cave way off the trail and of course Luanne went rock climbing up to it. She reported it was once a home with blackened ceilings, way cool to think of the Ancients walking the same paths we walked. We saw lizards and squirrels and birds...but those were nothing! At the end of the hike we saw a mother bear high up a tree with two cubs!!!! It was so cool, the pictures don’t quite do her justice, she was so high up and I just had my little camera. It is quite a memory.

Deb is now our official mathematician, any time we’re going for a hike she looks at the sign, announces how far it is and we immediately divide it in half! All the signs are posted with distances to a specific sight and she just automatically adds them up!

It has been a wonderful day, the winds are picking up a bit again. We’re planning on leaving tomorrow to visit Chimayo. There is a really good restaurant there and a very old pilgrim church which claims many healings. After we leave there we are on to Taos for a couple of days.