Ancestral Pueblo People

Bandelier National Monument

The Ancestral Pueblo People started building large permeant structures in Frijoles Canyon around 1150. For 400 years they hunted, farmed, loved, laughed, and raised their families in this lush green oasis. Then they moved south to pueblos along the Rio Grande River. This canyon was carved through hundreds of feet of volcanic tuff deposed when the Valles Volcano erupted 1.2 million years ago.

Frijoles Canyon

Diorama at the visitors center 

Tyuonyi

Tyuonyi was one, two and three stories tall and consisted of around 400 rooms. 

How it might have looked back in the day.

Kiva

When in use, the kiva would have been covered by a roof made of wood and earth. It was the center of the community, not only for religious activities, but also for education and decision making.

Rooms were carved out of the soft volcanic tuff. 

A reconstruction of how some of the rooms might have looked

Other caves were fronted with rooms built of local materials. This reconstruction may not be accurate as the pueblos traditionally entered their homes through the roof.

Long House

At Long House a long series of rooms were built against the South facing canyon wall. All these dwellings, Tyuonyi, Long House and rooms carved out of the tuff were occupied simultaneously. Who lived where and why is up to speculation; maybe clan, family groups, personal preference.

Long House

The rows of holes that anchored roof poles indicate that the building here was three stories high. The cliff face at the back of some rooms looks like this has been smoothed and plastered over. Niches were cut in the wall. 

 This pictograph was uncovered behind a layer of plaster on the back wall of a second story room.

I made the 140 climb to Alcove House. You can see two people climbing the ladders.

Alcove House

 A nice climb up three different ladders leads to a spectacular view and another kiva. This one restored, but you may not enter it.

370 days ago

Jemez Mountains

Heading up into the cooler Jemez Mountains

Soda Dam

Hot spring waters that surface through a fault at this site began their journey in the Valles Caldera, heated by the magma beneath the caldera. The hot waters traveled through limestone layers dissolving the rock and then depositing it here. 

Looking back down this gorgeous canyon.

Great spot to spend a couple of days (35.87527, -106.66481)

Valles Caldera 

Looking north across the 12 mile wide Valles Caldera, a supper volcano that exploded 1.2 million years ago. (35.918608, -106.517457)

Lunch at Ruby K's in Los Alamos was excellent. 

A great little bagel and sandwich place.

I had a very tasty ham and swiss on a fresh house baked  baguette.

After lunch I explored the town that didn't exit until 1945.  Between 1942 and 1945 during the Manhattan Project the residents were prohibited from uttering the words Los Alamos. All incoming mail came to PO box 1663 in Santa Fe. All outgoing mail censored. 

Dr. Robert Oppenheimer was the Laboratory Director and General Leslie Groves was the commanding general

The Bradbury Science Museum has many excellent interactive exhibits on the history of the Manhattan Project and the current research at the National Laboratory

Mammoth Hunters

Blackwater Draw Museum

In 1926 archeologists discovered artifacts near Folsom, NM that indicated that humans had been in the new world twice as long as previously thought. Then in 1932 artifacts and projectile points were found at Blackwater Draw near Clovis, NM. This second exciting discovery pushed man entry into the Americas back another 1000 years to 13,500 years ago. This discovery evolved into the Clovis First hypothesis stating that the Clovis people were the first humans to enter the Americas. This hypothesis was vigorously defended for decades. But sites such as Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania and Monte Verde in Chile have begrudging been accepted as evidence that migrations to the Americas preceded the Clovis people.

The Clovis people hunted the mega fauna including the mammoth.

A Mammoth jaw showing their four teeth used to grind up vegetation. 

Each Mammoth gets 5 replacement sets during their life time. When the 6th set is ground down to nothing, they would die of starvation.

These bifacial pressure flaked points with concave flutes running up from the base define the Clovis culture. 

They were attached to spear shafts and used to kill Mammoths by thrusting up through the soft under belly. 

Five thousand years later the Mammoths and other mega fauna had disappeared from the Americas. Some anthropologists think because of over hunting by the Clovis people. The Folsom people were now hunting bison. Their projectile points were smaller and thinner so they could pass between the bison's ribs. 

365 days ago

730 days ago

Good Eats

Roswell has a very tasty Italian restaurant, Carmines. (33.399709, -104.522486)

My Crab Bisque tasted great and was loaded with crab. 

The Chicken Marsala was wonderful.

A Great New App for Boondocking

Nina and Paul over at Wheeling It blogged about an app that shows exactly where you are in relationship to public lands. BLM boundaries are seldom clear. With this app, $3, I will be able to know for sure when I am on BLM land. 

Up UP and Away

We went to the Old Timers Balloon Rally in Carlsbad, NM this morning, 6am. I liked this festival better than Albuquerque because it is free, a smaller festival with only 80 balloons, you can park next to the field and just walk on, and the pilots were very friendly.  We were invited to their Bar-B-Que after flying.

Pilot Debbie is attaching the balloon to the basket. 

Pulling out the balloon.

Paul and Trish spreading out the balloon.

The balloon is first inflated with a large fan.

When the balloon is inflated enough so it will not catch fire,  the burner is used  to make the balloon stand up.

Back at the Bar-B-Que.

What happens to you when you accrue 1000 hours of flight time.

Debby is retired and spends most of the year traveling anywhere that looks like fun only returning to NM for the flying season. She earned the AX5 Feminine World Records for Distance and Duration for a flight she made in February 2001. She flew a distance of 181 miles and was in the air for 9.5 hours.

363 days ago

Dairy Capital

We are back at Bottomless Lake State Park for the balloon festival.
Roswell is the dairy capital of the southwest. Today we visited Jerry and his brother's dairy. Jerry, a third generation dairy farmer. He was a great host explaining all the ins and outs of  milk production.

Jerry has 2,400 cows that produce 20,000 gallons of milk daily. Milking goes on around the clock. Each cow is milked every 10 hours. 

Margaret getting up close and personal. 

The gang posing with Jerry, red hat.

Four or five calfs are born each day. At first they are isolated from each other. There were over 400 calfs here. 

Carol making a new friend.

Next a socialization process begins. They are introduced in increasingly larger herds, eight to a corral, then 10, 20 and so forth until there are 200 cows in the corral. 

The dairy also produces most of the feed needed to feed their stock. They have 700 acres under cultivation. 

We went back to Big D's Downtown Diner for the second time. They have great sandwiches and salads. 

This time I had the scrumptious Texas BBQ Berg.  Crispy fried onions, pecan smoked bacon, aged cheddar, sweet and spicy BBQ sauce, and classic slaw.

366 days ago

732 days ago