Santa Fe: Land of Enchantment

No question - Santa Fe is one of my favorite places in the world - if not my absolute favorite. I'm pretty convinced that I want to retire here. So, it was with great pleasure that we settled in for a long 2-week stay in this desert paradise. And, to make things even better, we're going to be spending our second week here with the Michelyras, our "Covid bubble family" from back in Long Beach. They're making the 12-hour trek from California to spend a week hanging with us before we start the long push east.

Other than Boise, this was the first stop on our trip that didn't feature a big marquee National Park as its centerpiece. That said, we quickly came to appreciate that the National Park opportunities here were actually quite amazing.

On Saturday, we visited the Pecos National Historic Site, the location of both a thriving Pueblo community, as well as a Spanish mission. Much to our surprise, it was also the site of one of the Civil War's westernmost battles - the battle of Glorieta Pass.

 Sunday we trekked into the mountains north of Santa Fe to visit two more unsung gems of the National Park system: Bandelier National Monument and Valles Caldera National Preserve. 

Bandelier was like a living history lesson, we hiked through the golden-leafed forest in Frijoles Canyon to ancient cliff dwellings. Unlike Mesa Verde, these dwellings were still open to the public, so we had a great opportunity to get up close and personal with these ancient homes.

After making it through the main pueblo area, we started the trail to Alcove House, the "main attraction" of the park, and, apparently, a pretty adventurous place to visit!

Feeling fully warned, we set off down the trail and eventually arrived at Alcove House and made the 140-foot climb to the top. Not for the faint of heart!

Valles Caldera couldn't have been more different. Bandelier is one of the classics ... and old school park - small, established, well-trodden, and with a focused collection of key sights to see. Valles Caldera was wild. The newest National Preserve in the Park System, it has few established trails, little in the way of visitor services, and nothing but one dirt road in and out of the park. This is the kind of place where, when I asked the ranger for a hike recommendation, she suggest a walk that wasn't even on the map.

At the start of the "trail," we investigated a small "abandoned" ranch building that we later learned was actually a filming set, used most recently for the Netflix show "Longmire."

What next was amazing. As you can see from the pictures above, at first look, this park is a giant flat plain surrounded by mountains - not surprising, as this is the caldera of a giant, long-dormant volcano. However, we followed the Jemez river behind a small hill, and the scene we found looked straight from a movie. It was incredible, and about as different from the flat, grassy caldera floor as you could imagine.

Two parks in one day! It doesn't get any better than that. After we finished up at Valles Caldera we dragged our weary bones into the car and headed for home. What a day!