Santa Fe and Kasha-Katuwe National Monument

September 23rd and 24th-  The drive to Santa Fe from Ruidoso was a fairly easy one, and we arrived in Santa Fe around 2 pm.  The last time we were here, we had intended to visit the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, but had run out of time.  We took advantage of our early arrival to head downtown.  Georgia O'Keefe, a well-known American artist, spent the last years of her life in New Mexico, living in the outskirts of Santa Fe.  The museum showed her works from early times in the East, on into her later years in this area.  She is known for her bright colors, and semi-abstract works.  Dale was not a real fan, but he toughed it out.  After our visit, we headed downtown. Being Sunday, many of the shops and art galleries were either closed or would be soon.  We did stop in one that had some wonderful horse sculptures, and more realistic paintings of the west- more to Dale's liking!  There was an art exhibit going on, and we spent  few minutes looking through the works of various artists.

We had two possible National Monuments to see here and, to be honest, I thought we would have time to do both.  We had booked a Wyndham stay in Pagosa Springs, CO for the next three nights, so did not have an option to extend our Santa Fe stay- a city we both enjoyed on our last visit.  My preference was to go to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks, with a visit to Bandelier if we had time. 

Kasha-Katuwe is located on an Indian Reservation, the Pueblo de Cochiti, and is managed jointly by them and the Bureau of Land Management.  There is not a visitor center as is done on National Parks land, but there was a nice center a mile or so prior to the entrance.  We actually went to the park first, turned around and went back to get more information on hikes in the park.  She recommended the Cave Trail, but also suggested we might want to hike in as far as we wanted on the trail to the top, which was a steep climb near the end, but we would have an opportunity to see the slot cave prior to the steep area.

By the way, if visiting this site and you are traveling with a dog- dogs are not allowed in this site at all, unlike most National Park locations where they are allowed on leash in limited areas.  Not sure if it is because it is located on an Indian reservation, or the nature of the site- viewed as a special place by Native Americans.

Heading back to the park, we were surprised at the number of vehicles in the parking area- this is a little-known park, and it was a Monday!  The lot was almost full.  We headed up the Slot Canyon Trail first.  It is funny- sometimes you are just caught by surprise with what you find in these parks.  When I researched the area, the information spoke primarily of the tent rocks; these rocks, shaped like tents as you will see in the photos, were formed by volcanic eruptions 6-7 million years ago.  Many of the tapering hoodoos had "cap rocks" at their tops, which protected the softer rock underneath from disintegrating.  Those that have lost the cap rocks are deteriorating.  The layering of the volcanic rock is obvious by the alternating bands of gray, beige and pink rock.  This is what I expected to see. 

What I didn't expect is that, over time, wind and water would carve out these deposits to create arroyos, canyons and ravines- creating the slot canyon.  The canyon was the most impressive part of this park, and was really fun to hike- climbing over and - once- under rocks, squeezing through narrow spaces- a great time!

After hiking through the canyon, we headed back to complete the Cave trail.  This trail is named for a man-made cave, which has been there for a long time, and still shows evidence of soot on the ceiling from camp fires.  The remainder of the trail revealed more tent rocks of varying styles.  Also- we noted a plant with both white flowers that, as they age, turn to pink fluffy flowers known as Apache plume, a member of the rose family.

We ended the hike in the parking lot, and headed out to find some lunch.  Obviously, we would not have time for Bandelier.  We were told at the visitor center that the nearby golf course had a good lunch.  The course itself looked impressive- being in the middle of the desert, it was pretty obvious they irrigate- a lot! 

We enjoyed lunch, then headed north to Pagosa Springs.  Friends had told us it was a beautiful area.  We drove primarily on two-lane highway through rural areas, which became greener the closer we came to Colorado.  The mountains in the distance were more rugged than we had been seeing, and they formed a dramatic background for our drive.  We planned to stay for three days here, and hoped to play a little golf and play catch-up on our blog!

White Sands National Monument

September 21st and 22nd-  Finally, we are going to one of the places that has been on my bucket list for several years.  We came close to White Sands on two of our previous trips, but passed it by. 

We left Wilcox early, driving through desert landscape.  We arrived at White Sands in the early afternoon.  This monument is the largest gypsum dunefield in the world, covering 275 square miles.  The sand- really almost more a powder- is cool to the touch even on the hottest day, as there is water very close to the surface here.  Gypsum is washed down from the mountains, settling in the lowest area of the park, Lake Lucero.  Lake Lucero itself is not open to the general public.  The Park Service offers several guided tours there over the course of the year.  Once the gypsum settles in the lake, it forms into crystals, which are then worn down by wind and rain until they reach the size of a corn flake.  The wind carries these pieces long distances, friction making them smaller and smaller as they move across the earth's surface.  The dunes themselves, although constantly moving and changing, do not blow away because of the level of moisture in the sand.

Because the dunes are constantly moving- some areas move more than 50 feet per year- plants have had to adapt.  For example, the yucca plant so common here, grows a very long stem to allow the green part of the plant to stay above the level of the sand.  Once the dune has moved on, the stem is too weak to hold up the top of the plant, so it just collapses.  Another strange adaptation is by the animals.  Many animals here have evolved to have very light colored bodies to blend into the white sand.  The most amazing part of this is how quickly this adaptation has occurred.  The earless lizard and the Apache pocket mouse are two examples of this. 

We took several walks into different areas of the dunes.  The sky was beautiful, bright blue against the white of the dunes, with fluffy white clouds.  It was a little surprising as we drove deeper into the park when the pavement stopped, and you were driving on packed gypsum sand.  It really looked like plowed snow.  The dunes deeper in the park had fewer plants to hold the dunes in place, so tended to move more in these areas. 

We went back to the Visitor Center to talk to the ranger, as we had heard they had a full moon walk the night of the full moon, which would be the next night.  We were disappointed to find that the walk was full- and had been since one day after it was announced!  However, they do have a sunset walk every evening.  We drove up to Alamogordo, the nearest town, to grab an early supper, then returned back to the park in time for the walk.  It was a beautiful evening- a little wind, not too much, beautiful clouds over the mountains, long shadows on the sand- just a mystical feeling being there in the evening.  The ranger who gave the tour was very knowledgeable, talked about the formation of the dunes and the plants and wildlife.  The tour ended on the top of a dune in time for the sunset.  Just spectacular!

You can tell by the number of photos that I loved this park.  After enjoying watching the setting sun, we set our for Ruidoso, where we had an RCI rental for two nights.  We knew it was about 1 1/2 hours away, but we were not really prepared to drive in the dark on unfamiliar roads, construction on many of them, winding mountain roads... not really fun.  Our GPS took us on a "shortcut" to the lodge, up over a logging road... when we could have just stayed on blacktop and been fine... When we reached the lodge, they had left a key for us.  It was a challenge to find the unit, as the numbering did not really match the instructions.  Turned out the unit was a rather old-fashioned ski lodge, could have used some updating, but we made out OK.

We decided to play golf the next day on a local course in town.  I was happy it appeared to be an easy course, as the last one we played was not.  The course was not in good shape, although we played with a nice guy who was a course ranger- he certainly helped out with some of our shot decisions.  Overall, it was a nice day.  We would move on to Santa Fe the next day.

Chiricahua National Monument

September 20th-  We left Sedona early and headed south towards Tuscon.  The next monument we planned to visit was southeast of that city, almost to the New Mexico border.  On route, as we neared the Tucson area, we began to see miles and miles of the iconic Saquaro cacti, honored with its own national park just outside of Tucson.  We think we saw more of these impressive cacti along the highway than we had seen in the park!

After a beautiful drive on scenic highways, driving through grassy valleys surrounded by mountains, cloud shadows changing the view every few minutes, we arrived at Chiricahua, the Land of Standing Rocks, in mid-afternoon.  We stopped at the visitor center, talked with the volunteer manning the desk, and watched the movie.  There is a scenic drive to the top of the mountain area.  These mountains are considered a "sky island", which refers to an isolated mountain range surrounded by grassland sea.  The landscape changes as the elevation increases, going from meadows with cacti and mesquite, to oaks and juniper, than with cypress, pine and the woodlands seen at higher elevations- 9763 feet.  Because of its isolation and drastic change in topography, plants and animals from four different ecosystems meet here.  There are many different birds, including Mexican species at the northern end of their range.  We spotted a couple as soon as we started the drive- a Mexican Jay and an Acorn Woodpecker.  I managed to get a shot of the Jay.  An animal I would have loved to spot- but is apparently seen only rarely- is the coatimundi, a member of the raccoon family.  Chiricahua fox squirrels are seen only here.  We did not spot one of those, either.

As we drove further up the mountain, the "standing rocks" for which this park is known, became visible.  They could be seen towering over the roads, different shapes tempting you to name them.  Once we reached the top, we walked down to an amphitheater-like valley just filled with the standing rocks.  It reminded me of the Chinese soldiers that toured the country several years ago.  The rocks themselves were formed from volcanic activity, and the volcano can still be seen in the distance.

Returning to the bottom of the mountain, we stopped to see the old Faraway Ranch.  Swedish immigrants, the Eriksons, settled here in 1888, building a cabin.  Their daughter and her husband turned the homestead into a guest ranch.  They took guests on horseback tours of their "back yard", showing them the unusual rock formations in the area.  This remained a guest ranch for tourists, bird watchers and hikers up until 1973.  After the deaths of all three of the original homesteaders children, the ranch and furnishings became a historic district within the park.

Leaving as the sun was beginning to set, we headed to Willcox, where we had booked a hotel room.  It had rained very hard in the area the day before, and we noted a number of areas with shallow water- some with ducks!  It is funny, after driving in the desert for so many miles, how the sight of even very shallow water attracts your attention!