You Know it’s a Long Day When the Campsite Host Locks the Gate on You

For such a tiny town, Jemez Springs is surprisingly touristy and they have quite a nice library. From there, we took a scenic drive past a view of the caldera. (Those of you with us last year will recall that Crater Lake is also a caldera, though a much wetter one.) This area had quite the volcanic activity tens of thousands of years ago (hence, the springs) and the ash compressed into rock (called tuff), which is now eroding interestingly, creating a neato Swiss cheese effect.

We then went through the Santa Fe National Forest (under some amazing cloud formations, including something disturbingly mushroom-y, especially given our proximity to Los Alamos) and ended up in the city of Santa Fe. Santa Fe is a bit like a hotter, drier Newport (minus, of course, the “port”), with art galleries (high end art galleries: nice to see an Ansel Adams in person, but $55K is a lot for a photo) and museums galore. We lunched on carnitas from the “famous” truck at the Plaza and wandered around for a couple of hours. On our way back, we stopped at Bandelier National Monument (free entrance fee with our InterAgency Annual Pass – at $80, quite a bargain around here) and walked the 1.2 mile main loop past an Ancestral Pueblo village and through some cliff dwellings.

Then we stopped at one of the hot springs that give the area its name. We almost didn’t make it, turning around after a steep scramble to nowhere but Scott sussed it out. It’s kind of just a hole in the rock, and quite warm. We joined a nice couple from Albuquerque and spent 45 minutes “taking the waters” and chatting with them. Earlier we’d targeted the Laughing Lizard for dinner and were surprised to be greeted with a closed sign at 8:20. We were also surprised to be greeted with a locked gate at our campsite 10 minutes later. Guess it’s a good thing the Lizard was closed.