Nancy Cycles!

Nancy Cycles!
"You got to be careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there." ... Yogi Berra

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Bandelier National Monument

Wednesday 9/30/2015 -- no bike ride ;'-(

I was unhappy to not get in a ride today. Our itinerary had said (in two or three places) That we would "shuttle to Los Alomos , ... get on our bikes to ride to Bandelier National Monument". It would only be about a 16 mile ride, then "a quick walk brings us to striking cliff dwellings ... of the ancient Pueblo people". Our leaders discourged us from ridng because it was not very scenic, there was a lot of traffic with little shoulder, a steep hill down to the monument grounds and back out again, there was a lot of burned out area that was unattractive, and we would see a lot of unfriendly signs in Los Alomos telling us to "keep out" "no tresspassing" etc.. So none of us got to ride today.

The walk through the grounds was nice enough and I am not sorry I did it, but I have been to several cliff dwellings and ruins. I feel I would not have missed much if I had skipped this and done a bike ride -- even someplace else. If we were not to do this (advertised) ride, I feel it should have been taken off the itinerary. I will stop my rant now.

 

 

 

How the village looked thousands of years ago

 

The ruins now

 

The "big" picture of the ruins

 

Walking the trail by the cliff dwellings

 

 

WiFi here will not let me download the few more photos I have. I will post what I have now, and try later or tomorrow to complete it. We will be driving home now and I don't know if there will be anything to post about. If there is, I will.

Our drive to home has been very beautiful, but I did not feel that photos would do it justice. Majestic, overwhelming rugged and craggy mountains surrounded us as we drove through them on the "red" road (as opposed to the Interstate) through Utah. As well, we had beautiful, colorful mountains to view on our drive through New Mexico.

Here are the other photos from Bandelier:

 

Ladders lead up to some of the swellings

 

Jeanie walking some of the trail

 

Bette-Ann, Jeanie and me sniffing the cinnamon scent of the Ponderosa Pine.

This will be my last post unitl my trip in Michigan in a couple of weeks.

2 comments:

  1. That ancient city was very interesting to me. Curious as to how it was built in a circle like that.
    They used ladders to get to the next level of the buildings.
    It also seems like the entrances were through the roof.
    I will have to look that up on a website.
    Thanks for posting Nancy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know how they did it back that long ago! So glad you find it of interest to research.

      Delete