The Grand Canyon from top to bottom

Elie Wiesel house

When I was living in San Francisco, a good friend came up to visit for a few days. During that time, I very fondly remember feeling like I was experiencing one of the best days of my life. Nothing incredible happened, that was part of what made it so nice—just living life and having really good feelings about the whole thing. We listened to a lot of music, climbed on top of the roof to watch people, lounged in the park and listened to the hippies play in their drum circle. It was altogether pleasant from sun up ‘til sun down. Since that time I've been slightly more aware of those rare ‘perfect’ days, and when one comes up (usually without any effort or foresight), I always try to write it down in order to keep the memory of it. One recent addition was during our trip to Romania when we started the day by visiting the Elie Wiesel house, then while walking around we stumbled upon a market. I really love markets, especially when they sell food and common household items. We bought some head scarves for me, and a watermelon which we then ate in a nearby park. Lovely. From there we walked ourselves right over the bridge into Ukraine and spent some of the afternoon there.  Very nice indeed.

Well, all of this is leading up to last Sunday, when another fine day made history. On Saturday night Joe and I drove up to the forest land right outside the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We wanted to camp there because it’s free, but an unintended outcome was hearing Elk bugling throughout the night. Their territory/mating call sounds like an antiquated electronic system, like the kind from old movies when they’re searching for a satellite signal. It was cool to be surrounded by that.

Starting things off right with that beautiful view

The next morning we got up early and drove into the Grand Canyon, aiming for the South Kaibab trailhead. Our plan was to do a loop starting from the Bright Angel trailhead, down to the bottom of the canyon, and up the South Kaibab trail, so we had to catch the shuttle from our parking spot. While we waited, Joe spotted a few impressive birds and we both enjoyed those incredible views. The shuttle came and brought us to where we needed to go without any trouble at all. Then we started our hike. The weather was great, the other hikers were friendly, and the whole thing was looking to be downright pleasant.  And so it was. Down the Bright Angel trail we went without an ache or complaint. It’s about 10 miles to the bottom, and we took a brief detour to rest on one of the beaches of the Colorado River. After enjoying the views from there we carried on to the silver bridge which brought us to the Bright Angel campground. We went down to the river, where boulders replaced the smooth beach sand, and stuck our feet in the cold water. It was heavenly. Truly. After all that downhill walking, there was no better feeling in the world at that moment than taking off the boots and cooling off the feet. We stayed like that for a long time, then found some shade and ate lunch. We also filled up on water before starting out again.

Quick stop at the beach

Resting with my feet in the river.

Crossing the bridge over the Colorado.

Rather than backtrack, we took the South Kaibab trail up which is shorter, coming in at 7 miles, but steeper. It actually wasn't bad at all, some of which I contribute to being able to rest our feet in the river. On that trail we only saw four other hikers, and every one of them was happy to take a quick break and chat for a minute. It was shaping up to be a pretty good day, based on the unbeatable scenery that followed us everywhere (turns out there’s not a bad view from anywhere within the Grand Canyon), and the bizarrely painless hike. But this is what moved it from a good day into the realms of greatness:

Look closely, he's there...

When we were about a mile from the top, as we rounded a switchback we both looked up to see turkey vultures and ravens riding the thermals above us. And then… a condor! Coming directly towards us from out of the vulture/raven group. It soared above us, very close, seemingly unaware of its awesomeness. And within seconds it was out of view. We both stood there for a few seconds holding our breath, taking in this spectacular moment. Then, after waiting a few minutes with the hope that it would return, we began walking slowly and quietly, looking all around for this condor. After a few minutes of walking, there he was again. This time soaring quite a bit higher than before, still hanging out with the ravens and turkey vultures. We stood there looking up, feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Then! A second condor! Oh please. It was almost too much. These birds, even to people who aren't married to an ornithologist, will get your attention. They are so big, the largest bird in North America, with a wingspan of just under 10 feet. Not only that, they are endangered, so there are very limited opportunities to see them in the wild. We considered ourselves pretty lucky in that moment. And really, the best way to sum up the overall feeling is that it just didn't seem real. But there we were, there they were—it couldn't have been real-er.

Both of those majestic beasts.

Twenty minutes later, the birds had gone and we started up the last stretch of trail. I felt like I was floating rather than walking, still riding the wave of excitement and awe. We parked almost a mile from the trailhead, but that extra mile was pure delight after experiencing the happiness of seeing condors. We took in more of the views from an overlook at the top, did a quick overall bird count, then drove home. There’s nothing about that day that could have been better, and it will live on as one of the best I've ever had.

Wait a second, HOW big was that bird??

Guess where we're going on our honeymoon...

Appropriate reading materials

Somehow, in one of those rare instances when everything comes together just right, Joe and I managed to pull together a month-long honeymoon.  It is the perfect storm of ideal occurrences—my work responsibilities will slow down, Joe’s peregrines are all leaving the nest for the year, and we both have some savings lying around waiting to be spent. So why not go on a hefty trip? I realize that the countries we’re going to don’t necessarily hold the same appeal as many other places on this planet, but our agenda is based entirely on countries we've been wanting to experience for quite some time.

The rough layout will go something like this, 10 days in Romania, 10 days in Bulgaria, 5 days in Macedonia, 5 days in Albania, and 1 hectic day seeing everything we can in Athens, Greece before hopping on the plane for home.  

Things have been pretty busy up til recently, so we’ve only just begun planning the details of the trip. I’m getting more excited each day as I read more and more about these places.  The most I knew about Romania, outside of Joe’s experiences, was the heavy human trafficking industry they have going on there. Its proximity to Russia and Western Europe make it an ideal spot, evidently. Turns out there’s way more to that country and I’m loving every sentence I read. This morning we finished chapter 1 of ‘Teach Yourself Romanian’. It was not as easy as I had hoped, but still, it’s really fun to get the basics of another language.

For most of the trip we’ll stay in the mountains (Carpathians and Balkans), sleeping in mountain huts and carrying all our belongings in our very large backpacks. We’ll get around by train and bus when needed, and occasionally a bike rental will come into play. Overall, my impression is that this is going to be an amazing trip and I can’t wait to get out there. 

If you have any suggestions for places to see, or reading materials (movies count) please pass them on! 

Oh, the Places We'll Go

Now that I have a husband, it seems prudent to create a list of things to do during our lifetime (Joe, it should be noted, had nothing to do with the creation of this list but by default he’s coming along for the ride). Some people call this type of thing a Bucket List but not me. That terminology is just asking for trouble. Anyway, our interests change so frequently that I can hardly presume to know what things we will want to complete before death. This is something I realized as I began compiling the list. One potential route would be to minimize the time period from ‘Entire Life’ to ‘Summer 2012’ or just ‘2012’, but that is restrictive because there are things that I know we want to do but won’t be able to squeeze into this year. What I’ve settled on is a very short list of activities that Joe and I will complete—the sooner the better—and I’ve given an explanation for each, understanding that the list will grow with time. Eventually I’ll add a more immediate list of things to do before the year is over, but for now behold The List:

  #1 Read every book written by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky

a.       Visit Russia, using Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as tour guides

Those two guys have had me dreaming about visiting Russia for a long time. I even gave a very half-hearted plea to go to Russia for our honeymoon. That didn’t work, but the next best thing is to reward ourselves with a trip after reading the complete works of both authors.

#2 See Brandi Carlile and Ray LaMontagne in concert

  

We really like both of these singers, and at some point in my life it would be super awesome to go to a live concert. Even better if they’re touring together.

#3 Own the original piece of my favorite art (assuming I ever find my favorite piece)

This just means that if I find a piece of art that I really love, and I feel like I will keep on loving, I should try to purchase the original rather than a print. So far I haven’t found anything that fits the bill, but with this on my list I may not feel guilty about putting large sums of money towards a wall hanging.

      #4 Play in a band, preferably with my old band mates

KEB, our band at Brecken's weddding

In high school I was in a band and the result was a lot of really funny memories. It seems like every time someone is willing, we always end up singing or dancing. And on the rare occasion when Joe agrees to whatever I want, my first point of action is to pull out the guitar and sing a duet together—why not put all that talent into an official band?

#5  Speak German

In college I had a plan to learn German, move to Germany, then learn Russian. All before I was 25. Needless to say none of that happened, but at the very least I’d still love to understand German grammar. It’s a beautiful language and a very important language to music and art.

      

      #6  Live in another country

Bariloche, Argentina

Not forever, but maybe 6 months to a year. It would be really amazing to experience another culture as close up as possible. My first choice would be Argentina or somewhere else in South America. Other appropriate options would be Spain, Germany, or Russia (assuming we both already know the language for either of the last two).  

And that’s it for The List. Any advice from your own list?

Capriccio Nicaragüense

Me and Teena in Switzerland 2003

During my senior year of high school I became very good friends with an exchange student from Switzerland. She introduced me to the chocolaty voice of Leonard Cohen, and the beauty of batik wrap skirts. Together we spent hours walking from place to place (an homage to her pro-walking homeland), bicycled to the library, cooked, and discussed the most important intricacies of life, like ‘what do you think Bob Dylan meant with that line?’ Because of Teena I became more confident with my individualism, coming at a time when life was a lot easier if you just did what everyone else was doing. Over the years we have managed to see each other twice, both times in beautiful Switzerland, and there was never much talk of her returning to this side of the Atlantic. That being said, last week Joe and I went to Nicaragua. The one in Central America.

Getting comfortable in a restaurant in Granada

In early December, Teena wrote to see if I would be able to join her for a portion of her Central American travels. She would be starting in Costa Rica and working her way up to Mexico over a three month period. Those wacky Europeans sure do know how to travel. In any event, I told her for sure we could meet up, offers like that don’t come around just any day of the week—catching up with a good friend who I almost never see, and visiting a new land, not bad. I suggested mid-February, knowing our jobs would be able to live without us for a few days, and she figured by then she’d be in Nicaragua. So off we went.

Howler Monkey mid-jump

View of Volcan Concepcion from Volcan Madera

The most exciting part of the trip was getting to the island of Ometepe, which is created by two large volcanoes (one active, one dormant) connected by an isthmus. Myself, Joe, Teena, and Simon (a guy we found along the way) stayed at a farm at the base of the dormant volcano. While we were there we lounged in hammocks, watched howler monkeys, indulged in the Nicaraguan cuisine (rice, beans, and cheese), did a little bird watching, and climbed the volcano. And at night, when everyone else had gone to sleep, Teena and I stayed up and talked and talked. It was perfect.

The reward after climbing Volcan Madera

The last full day of our trip was spent back on the mainland outside of a town called Masaya. We wanted to get to this beautiful crater lake that we had heard so much about and finish the trip off in style. When we arrived it became clear that this was not as remote as we had hoped, in fact it was nothing short of a resort. No matter, make the most of it. We went for a dip in the largest crater lake in Nicaragua, but were quickly chased out by floating poops. The other swimmers didn’t seem to mind, but we did. You could see the beans.

Teena, me, Joe, and Simon on Isle de Ometepe

It was a short trip, but we packed a lot in. And on top of all our activities there was still time to reconnect with my dear old friend, which was above and beyond the best part of being down there. 

Out with the old, in with the new

Even though 2012 doesn’t feel any different than 2011, I’ll go ahead and accept that there’s a whole new year up ahead. I’ll do so by throwing plenty of winks in Joe’s direction. Also, I’ve carefully selected one photo for every month of the past year, the year that only just recently was replaced by 2012. Each photo was chosen based on how well it reflects my feelings for the particular month represented, but I am an emotional enigma so it was very difficult to pinpoint just one photo. Most of the stories associated with the pictures can be found by rummaging around this blog for older posts, so I’ve kept the explanations fairly brief. In all, 2011 was a great year with absolutely zero regrets. In fact, if I could keep on reliving it, I would, even the part when we lived in New Mexico.

January

 One of the first things we did after moving to Las Cruces, NM was head out to White Sands, about an hour's drive away. We did this largely because the idea of spending one more day in Las Cruces had become unbearable, and we had only been there for a week. It was a rocky start to the new year, but after exploring some of the surrounding lands we found that a quick and pleasant escape would be waiting for us whenever we needed it. 

February 

While doing laundry one rare afternoon, I was greeted by this unpleasant and very pregnant apache violin spider. Having long feared brown recluses, I knew almost immediately (because of the 3, rather than 4 eyes) that this closely related species was not a spider to mess with. Quickly, with fearful tremolos punctuating through my voice, I called for Joe to come here right now! He, being exactly 24 steps away, took a leisurely 5 minutes to respond, while I stayed in place paralyzed by fear. We killed this unlucky lady, but spent the rest of our time in Las Cruces carefully shaking out every article of clothing before getting dressed each day. Our efforts were rewarded by never receiving a bite, in spite of finding several more spiders during our stay.

March

In early March Joe and I climbed Organ Needle in the Organ mountains (pictured above). These mountains are quite famous in Las Cruces, because they are the only beautiful thing the city has to offer, I suppose. In any event, their steely charm had called to us both immediately upon arrival and we were anxious to get to the peak. We did, but Joe broke his rib in the process. We made it down safely, though it was touch-and-go for a while. This mountain was a beast to climb, even without a sever ailment it would have been difficult getting back down, and I'm still amazed that Joe did it without help or complaint. That's why he's the brave one.

April

This was an especially hard month to sum up in just one picture. By April, Joe had been trapping eagles in Arizona for a couple weeks, so I took all my alone time on the road and explored the southwest. But before I could leave Las Cruces behind I had to make it through two symphony performances-- one with the El Paso Symphony, and the other with the Las Cruces Symphony. Both experiences were incredibly uplifting, both for the musical fulfillment but also because I met tons of very nice people. It was a lot of hard work, particularly with the Sleeping Beauty solo, but equally a lot of fun. I'm so glad I got to play with them, and those two performances made our time in Las Cruces worthwhile-- it was a brief taste of life as a professional harpist.

May

In May Joe and I drove all the way to Mississippi for my grandpa's 80th birthday party. It was well worth it and we got to see a lot of awesome stuff along the way (including the ever elusive aplomado falcon). Introducing Joe to all my Mississippi family members was a big part of the trip, as he became increasingly aware that he was surrounded by republicans. In spite of that, we had such a good time and are ready to go back for more. This picture is the only known documentation of my grandpa smiling-- some people thought it couldn't be done

June

Joe was asked to help teach a raptor workshop in Wisconsin for a week in June. Seizing the opportunity to learn more about birds and see my dear friend Tiffany, I went along with him. Before and after the workshop, I stayed with Tiffany and her family, and had the most magical time. She's an awesome girl, one of the finest on earth.

July

Joe was called off to remote Alaska to do some work with gyrfalcons and golden eagles. I flew up and met him in Anchorage for a few days before he had to go back out to the bush. While he was gone I stayed with his friends in Anchorage and explored the city by bike. It was a great week because I was able to experience so many of the places that Joe had told me about from the time he lived up there. When he returned to Anchorage the two of us went exploring, and one great side trip we took was backpacking through Denali Nat'l Park. We hiked up and over mountains, found a gyrfalcon nest, saw the outline of Mt. McKinley among other exquisite views, and slept near a pair of caribou. It was fantastic.

August

This is from Carlsbad Caverns in eastern New Mexico. Once we knew our time in Las Cruces was up, we took the month of August to see all the nearby places we hadn't yet visited. On that list included the very cool Carlsbad Caverns, complete with the summertime bat exodus.



September

My most vivid recollections of September are of Joe and I endlessly maneuvering between boxes in our new apartment, while getting used to an entirely new work schedule. It was hectic and took adjusting, but by the time September was over we had a few things figured out. The saving grace of that transition was going on hikes every weekend. We found nearby peaks to scramble up, but also took a couple adventure trips in Utah. It was a great way to clear out of our house, which had also become our work place. The trend of hiking every week continued well into November, and I was proud to note that we had climbed 1 mountain every week since moving back to Las Vegas.

October



Joe was away in Texas for two weeks during October.  Party Time! But no, actually, I missed him a lot and was comforted only by knowing that he was having an incredible experience out there befriending peregrines and contributing to science, all in the same pop. While he was gone I spent a lot of extra time working and catching up with friends. The weekend before he came home I took a spectacular solo road trip up north to Great Basin National Park and climbed the highest stand alone mountain in Nevada.

November

In November I was finally allowed into a peregrine's nest. To get there, we simply had to hike to the top of a  mountain, pound in stakes, and rappel to the nest. Getting back up proved to be the hardest part for both of us, as my gangly moose legs kept shooting loose boulders towards Joe's head while I slowly worked my way up to level ground. It was a super cool experience.

December

The entire Christmas experience was nothing short of fantastic this year, starting Christmas Eve when Joe proposed, and ending a full 24 hours later after a morning of presents and an afternoon family football game. Please enjoy the above picture, properly demonstrating the colorful family (plus David Nivens) that Joe has voluntarily decided to join.

I hope your 2011 was excellent, and your 2012 will be even better!

Life Essence

Cathedral Gorge State Park

Joe and I walked in the door just after 5 this evening, and proceeded to relax for the next hour. He caught up on emails while I read on the couch. We spent the next hour making pizza and soup, and enjoying it to the delightful tunes of Dvorak. Now, for the rest of the night the only thing left to do is relax some more. This is the first night in a very long time that it has seemed acceptable to just sit. Sure, there are things that could be done. As Joe pointed out, we used nearly every kitchen appliance we own in the making of dinner, and eventually those will have to be washed—but not tonight. The floor could be vacuumed, the counter could be cleaned off… but those are minor things compared to how nice it feels not to do them.

Lehman Caves, Great Basin National Park

Since we moved back to Las Vegas not a weekend has gone by when we didn’t venture out to some mountain and climb it. Occasionally they were nearby and required only a short drive outside of the city, other times the whole weekend was required. It has been great for getting us out of the house, since we both work right here in it, but in doing so we sacrifice our down time.

Wheeler Peak, Great Basin National Park

While Joe was away in Texas I decided to take advantage of the good weather and climb some time-sensitive peaks. There were three on my mind, and each one teetered on the brink of being too cold and snow-covered to climb until late next spring. I took my chances on Wheeler peak, up in central Nevada. The weather couldn’t have been better that weekend, it was glorious. In addition to climbing Mt. Wheeler, I moseyed over to nearby Bald Mountain and gave that a climb as well. Not because it seemed like fun, at the time it most certainly did not, but because there’s a fabulous piece by Mussorgsky called “Night on Bald Mountain” complete with cascading arpeggios in the harp part. How could I not climb it? The next morning I went down into Lehman Caves with a group of people for a hugely informative tour. From there it was time to head home, but not without a brief but worthwhile stop at Cathedral Gorge State Park. Every step of the trip was light and refreshing, the long drive was an element I was particularly looking forward to, but getting to the top of Wheeler was a spectacular feeling as well. There’s no better way to remember that you have not lost complete control of your life than climbing up a very tall mountain.

On top of Wheeler Peak

Last weekend Joe and I went to Death Valley where another time-sensitive peak awaited. The weather conditions were better than I would have thought to ask for, which makes for a splendid hike. Telescope peak, the highest peak in the Panamint range, has extraordinary views of the Sierra Nevada and the Spring Mountains, not to mention other nearby ranges in Death Valley. We were so inspired by those views that we began planning the next weekend’s climb for Mt. Whitney. Come to find out, Mt. Whitney and all the other high peaks were hit hard by storms this past week and have effectively been taken off the market for 2011 climbs. Never say die. We spent this weekend in California climbing around in the low-elevation Turtle Mountain Wilderness. That same night we stopped in to visit some friends who live near Joshua Tree. It was great to share a big meal with good company after the climb, and have a nice warm bed to fall asleep in. This morning we parted ways with them, and headed home through Mojave National Preserve.

From Telescope peak, looking down into Badwater.

The past few weekends have been a whirling dervish of fun, and I’m fairly certain my mind would have exploded with stress if I hadn’t done myself the favor of trampling around in nature. On the other hand, it may have started to affect the nature of our ability to communicate:

Joe: I wonder why I’m so tired. Maybe it’s because I’m losing my life essence.

Me: Hmm, that’s okay, we’ll just replace it with the essence of lemons.

Joe: Frog.

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley

From the Canyons to the Stars

On top of Griffith peak in the Spring Mountains

Lately I’ve been feeling like my creativity has been sucked dry.

Planking on Mt. Ellis

With that in mind, this is what I've been up to lately:

In late September we took a trip up to the Henry Mountains , which are located between Canyonlands and Capitol Reef. As you may know, those are two rather distant landmarks from Las Vegas so our trip consisted of a lot of driving. But it was worth it 100 times over because those mountains are so beautiful, and the views from the top of them are even better. Imagine looking down into all those red canyons in Utah—oh geez, it’s time to go back. We drove all night Friday, then got in some good hiking Saturday.  Then it was Sunday, time to go home. We took our time, first driving down to Lake Powell, then up along the waterpocket fold that gives Capitol Reef its fame, and dabbled a bit in Escalante before getting on the state route that would take us back to Vegas.  Two weeks later the Henrys got hit with ice cold weather and will remain covered in snow until next June. We got there just in time J

View from the Little Rockies, Henry Mountains

Hiking around the Henrys

The Henry Mountains as seen from a plane.

Last weekend we flew up to Duluth, Minnesota, a town most people didn’t know existed. Joe wanted to go mainly to stock up on Christmas presents for his family, but there was also the annual Raptor Research  conference that he was presenting at. Raptor biologists are a special breed and if you’re wondering what skill set their jobs require, well… to put it simply, you just have to be awesome. Because of that, you can imagine that those conferences get pretty entertaining. He did a great job presenting and we had a good time seeing those familiar faces that come around once a year. Duluth is a pretty cool city, and we got there just as the leaves were changing colors—stunning, totally breathtaking.

Working on our balancing act on the shores of Lake Superior

Trees and colors

Shortly after returning to Las Vegas, Joe took off for Texas where he will spend two weeks catching peregrines. So far he’s had some pretty incredible moments out there with the birds, and he even managed to catch a white tailed hawk, an incredible feat if you ask me.

Joe the bandit and his regal companion

Meanwhile, I’ve been working quite a bit and occasionally slip in something fun. On Sunday I took a much needed trip up Bonanza peak in the Spring Mountains. It was delightful and delicious. And Saturday I went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream up at Lake Las Vegas. It’s playing for free at a different park in Henderson every Saturday night in October. Highly recommended—the public nature of it will give you a taste of what it meant to go to the theater/opera/symphony before the 20^th century came around and made concerts a stuffy event for the social elite.  But aside from the historical value, it’s a great play and this theater company gives it an adorable modern twist.

Clinging for dear life on Bonanza Peak.
The timer wasn't working with me.

One more note before I sign off, it would appear that some connoisseur of classical music has passed on, or gotten a divorce. In any event, the Enterprise Library has come into a wealth of used classical CDs which they are selling in the used books section for $1 each. There are some excellent recordings in there, if that’s your thang.

Adios Las Cruces!

View of volcanic Mt. Taylor from El Malpais
National Monutment

As with most places, it’s important to have on hand a working list of “Things to do”.  For example, if I were to go to Carol’s house, my list would read something like: visit her pet ground hog. Our ambitious to-do list for Las Cruces has taken on the level of Pressing Urgency these past few weeks because we are moving this Sunday for crying out loud, and in addition to packing up an entire apartment we still need to find time to tackle The List.

So far so good. Not with the packing, but with getting to the fun stuff around these parts.

The weekend before last we headed back out to White Sands, about an hour’s drive away. It’s a cool place because, as the eponymous name would suggest, the sand is white, and there is lots of it. Interestingly, a few plants have figured out clever ways to survive out there on those heaping piles of sand. Also, lizards and other small insects have begun turning white in order to evade predators. It’s a place like no other. When we went it was raining, which turns the sand hard and makes diving into it rather unpleasant. But hiking around is easier so we made it farther in than we did last time, and from that inland portion we would like to delight you with this photo:

Joe, Emily, and the Soapbox yuccas

Our next stop was the Capitan mountains, a few hours up the way from White Sands. We arrived that night and set up camp with the intention of climbing Capitan peak the next morning. Without going into detail about the plethora of ranchers who close off public roads because… they feel like it, I will just say that the peak remains unclimbed by us. It was still a nice drive and got us up to an area we had heard about but never experienced.

The scenic hike up Wheeler Peak

That short trip was small potatoes compared to what we accomplished this past weekend. We left Saturday morning and drove several hours north, past Albuquerque and Santa Fe, into the bohemian town of Taos. We found out, upon arriving at the base of the Sangre de Christo mountains, that there was a dirty hippie music festival going on and because of that we were going to have a hard time finding a campsite. A few miles down the road we snuck into a spot and managed to rest up before climbing 13,167’ Wheeler Peak. It was not a particularly difficult hike, but it was so very long. My legs, by the end, were perilously close to boycotting the act of stepping. After a full day of hiking we returned to Taos and ate festive New Mexican food, which Las Cruces curiously doesn’t offer. That portion of the trip was scenically reminiscent of my first trip to New Mexico in 2009.

Top of Mt. Wheeler. We got there just before the storm came in.

After eating, we had to drive a few hours down the mountains to Bandelier National Monument where we camped. It houses quite a few interesting ruins, none of which were open to the public on account of an enormous wildfire that had effectively wiped out large chunks of the vegetation earlier this summer. The website had warned us of the closures so we knew there wouldn’t be much in the way of viewing ruins, but we weren’t too dispirited because the next morning we were on our way to Chaco Culture. The drive from Bandelier to Chaco was stunning. The windy roads follow rivers and canyons, and provide views of just about the finest vegetation New Mexico has to offer. There were also some alarming views of wildfire damage.

That's me, I'm the Spanish Queen

We arrived at Chaco in the late morning and spent a few hours admiring the handy work of the Ancient Puebloans. Exquisite planning allowed for multi-storied buildings using sandstone and mortar that still stand centuries later. It was incredible walking around the ruins and reading about archeological theories and discoveries based on these ruins. If you find yourself in northern New Mexico Chaco Culture is a stop worth making.

Ruin at Chaco Culture

From there it was simply a matter of getting back to Las Cruces. Tomorrow it looks like we’ll be rappelling, and this coming weekend we’re going into the Carlsbad Caverns. And that’s it for our Las Cruces to-do list; incidentally, that will also be it for Las Cruces. At least we’ll leave knowing we made the most of it.