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| Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, New Mexico, 5/11/14 |
Weather in Santa Fe: Don and I are visiting this lovely and exotic city for a conference and we are scrunching in a few days of sightseeing before it starts. The weather was in the high 70s the first two days we were here, but today a weird weather system moved in bringing strong winds and it's expected to drop below freezing tonight with possible snow in the higher hills tomorrow or Tuesday. My my.
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| Art is everywhere in Santa Fe. |
Yesterday: we marched around Santa Fe, which included taking in the
Passport to the Arts on Canyon Road (over a hundred galleries and boutiques in one half mile). We even ended up at an art auction. Over 70 artists participated in a Quick-Draw contest where they had only two hours to paint something for the auction. We saw some amazing art on display. I actually wanted one of the pieces but the price quickly was bid out of my range. I did score two free glasses of a very nice Pinot Noir out of the event, though.
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| The auctioneer and artist Barbara Meikle before starting bids on the piece I was interested in buying. |
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| We were both very enamored with the whirligig field seen here. |
Tent Rocks National Monument: Today we visited two National Parks. First we went to
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and hiked both the whole canyon trail and the cave loop trail. See amazing photos below and above. We knew the windy weather was on its way so we got up at the crack of dawn and we were the first visitors to the park this morning. In fact, the gatekeeper was just getting there when we arrived. The hike was spectacular but arduous. A few points along the trail we had to squeeze through the rock formations. We gained over 650 feet in elevation on the second half of the hike but the views from the summit were worth the work to get up top. Put this place on your bucket list. WOW!
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| I am contemplating the beauty and majesty of the tent rocks. |
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| Don is between a rock and a hard place, literally. Believe it or not, he is actually on the trail here. |
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| They are called tent rocks because of the funny little tents atop many of the formations. |
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| The color of the sky and the formation of the rocks = spectacular. |
Bandelier National Monument: After leaving Tent Rocks, we drove to
Bandelier National Monument on the other side of Santa Fe. In addition to more fabulous rock formations this park is spectacular for another reason: the archaeological significance. It has old cliff dwellings and caves created by the Pueblo people over hundreds/thousands of years ago.
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| Some of the caves made by the Pueblo people in the tuff rocks which are relatively soft. |
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| Don explored this little cave. |
How Great Thou Art: At one point during the day we were both just overcome by the sheer beauty and majesty of what we were seeing. As an act of worship to our creator we sang together, as best we could, an old timey hymn
How Great Thou Art. I will leave you with this musical selection of the week: The Piano Guys playing their version of this hymn in a beautiful mash-up with another song.
Time for bed: I'm tired.
Bandelier! I love Bandelier. I have family out near there. If you're ever in the area again, try to get up into the Jemez Mountains and visit the Valles Caldera National Preserve. It's beautiful, and there are some nice trails.
ReplyDeleteI love Santa Fe. I went there a few years ago and explored everywhere!! So fun and just rich in culture.
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