Santa Fe City

Santa Fe is an interesting city in a unique situation.  It is located between the Jemez and Sangre de Christos mountains in northern New Mexico.  This means it is pretty high up, about 6,500 feet above sea level.  The city itself has been very carefully planned, with most of the buildings made in an adobe style.  It is home to many artists and also to a big 'New Age' community.

    Adobe view of Santa Fe.

    Adobe on steriods.  The Scottish Rite Temple in Santa Fe.

    Even parking lots and petrol stations are adobe!

    Special Sunday outdoor altar in Santa Fe.  We're not sure if these are put up every Sunday.  While we were there they were put up in the morning and then taken down again about 4 in the afternoon.  We just managed to get this picture as the man arrived to pack it away.

Bandolier National Park

This national park is full of tremendous archaeological remains from the Anasazi Indians, as well as being very beautiful and serene.  The Anasazi Indians lived in the Four Corners area of the US about 700 years ago.  They were most likely the ancestors of the modern Pueblo and Hopi Indians.  They lived in villages and farmed crops like squash, beans and corn.  The ruins at Bandolier are of a large settlement that probably supported about 500 people in it's prime.  No-one really knows why they abandoned the site, but experts think it may have been because they exhausted the resources.

    Sign at the entrance to the park.

    The Frijoles Canyon at Bandolier.  This is where the ancient settlements were.  The people probably originally settled here because the Frijoles (little bean) river runs all year round.  This is a very precious resource in a land were much of the running water is seasonal.

    The village at Frijoles.  The dwellings were built in a circle around a central plaza.

    Large kiva in the village.  A kiva is a ceremonial structure.  The modern Pueblo Indians use them for initiation and dancing ceremonies.

    A reconstruction of a cliff dwelling.

    Roberta has worn very sensible shoes for scrambling around ruins - 2 inch Miu Miu platforms!

    Frijoles Canyon from the canyon wall.

    Frijoles River.

Jemez Mountains

We drove up into the Jemez Mountains after visiting Los Alamos.  We don't have any photos of this famous place, as there wasn't much to see, apart from museums and government installations!

    Camel Rock on the way to Los Alamos.

    Valles Caldera.  This caldera was formed thousands of years ago when a number of volcanoes collapsed.  It is huge and covers about 800,000 acres!

Chacos Canyon

This was a marathon day!  We thought Chacos Canyon was a lot closer to Santa Fe than it actually was.  We ended up driving for about 8 hours there and back with only about one and a half hours at the site!

It is a fascinating area though - another Anasazi site but much more extensive than Frijoles Canyon.  Chacos Canyon grew to become quite a metropolis and acted as a ceremonial and trade centre.  It sat at the middle of a network of roads that ran throughout the Four Corners region and beyond.  Many of the buildings are aligned precisely along astronomical lines and are very sophisticated.  Once again there are more questions about the people who lived here than answers.  It is not known why they left but guesses of climate change have been made.

The climate in the canyon now is pretty extreme, with long winters and short, very hot summers.  It was absolutely baking when we were there and very arid, with no water at all anywhere.

    Ruins of a long house at Chacos Canyon.  These houses were up to four stories high and had as many as 500 rooms.

    Large kiva.

    Elevated kiva.  This is quite an unusual design, as most kiva are actually built partially below ground.

    Glen in his RCA hat (Rodeo Cowboys Association).  We bought this at a really cool shop in Santa Fe, which makes hats to order.  They have this special machine that measures the dimensions of your head!

    Flat top mesa at Chacos Canyon.