Southwest Roadtrip - Day 6

Our actual plan for Day 6 was to get to the Petrified National Forest and spend most of the day there hiking and seeing the various scenic spots in the park. But we decided to change plans and visit the Bandelier National Monument one hour north of Santa Fe first and cover Petrified Forest later if time permits. And we were so glad we decided to visit Bandelier, It was like no other place we have seen and gave first hand experience to see how people lived in cave dwellings.

On reaching Bandelier, we got the national parks annual pass which gives free entry to all the national parks/monuments through out U.S for one full calendar year. I think it is a great buy if you are into outdoors and it helps that the funds are used to maintain the parks. We took a map from the visitor's center and started on the main trail. There were many marked spots along the main trail and the map gave more information about each spot. This place was inhabited many hundreds of years ago and the people who lived here made use of the natural cave like structures in the rocks to create homes for their family. They also built a round atrium with numerous small rooms for storing their harvest and as a shelter for their animals.
They had shallow well like structures called "Kivas" which were considered spiritual places. People used them to make decisions, pass on wisdom etc.

As we proceeded further, we came across some cave dwellings that were open to visitors. You could go up the cave on a ladder and see how the dwellings were like. It was a nice experience to sit inside those caves and see the outside world from there. You can imagine how hard it must have been for the people that lived here especially in winters. The average life span for people who lived here was very less because of the hardships they went through.


After finishing the main loop we got back to the visitor center and stopped by the gift shop. I got a few post cards and also a beautiful turquoise pendant.

We left Bandelier around midday, had Indian buffet lunch and said good bye to New Mexico. We were staying in Holbrook, AZ for the night and Petrified National Forest was very close to that. We decided to skip Petrified and visit another place called El Malpais National Monument. This place is famous for its natural arch formations and hiking trails.


After we took the exit to El Malpais, we saw this small plane that had made an emergency landing on our road and realized we had missed the landing by few minutes. After feeling glad for the people inside we continued to the visitor center. There was a friendly forest ranger who advised us not to go on trails as they were fully covered with snow. He asked us where we were from and told us that he had run San Francisco marathon early in his life.


After leaving the visitor's center, we stopped at the parking lot and took some pictures of the arch. And then we started towards our hotel for night.

Southwest Roadtrip - Day 5

We had planned a trip to Taos which is about 70 miles north east of Santa Fe, specifically to visit the Taos Pueblo. This is one of the many native villages which is still in use and they continue to live without electricity and plumbing like they have for all these years, so it is pretty amazing. On reaching, we took a 30-minute guided tour which was really informative and gave good insights into the everyday lives of the residents. Today, only few families live here but people associated with the pueblo visit on special occasions and celebrations.


The mountains that form the backdrop of this picturesque village are considered sacred by residents of this community and public access to them is not allowed. There were some shops selling native art and jewelry, and then there were couple of bakeries selling Fry Bread and cookies. There is a stream coming from the mountains that runs in the middle of the village and is the main source of water for the residents. The stream also divides the village into the north and the south sides. The buildings were constructed Adobe style using mud and straw, and later using mud based bricks. Also the doors to the buildings were added much later in time. In their original form, ladders were used to climb to the roof and enter the rooms from top.


We got back to Santa Fe at about 4PM. After freshening up and some snacks, we headed up to the Cross of the Martyrs which was a 2 min walk from the hotel. The cross which is on a hill top is in memory of the Spanish priests killed during the Pueblo Revolt. The hilltop is also a good place to watch the sunset and take in the city views.

We met another couple in the place we were staying and happened to have a common friend... yes it is a small world. We decided to go for dinner together and went to Mexican restaurant called Tomasitas. The restaurant had some live music and we enjoyed some good food and nice Margaritas.


After dinner, we took the shuttle service offered by the hotel and got down at the downtown plaza which is a 10 min walk from the hotel. We walked around and took some photos of the decorations and lights, and then got back to the hotel. Tomorrow it is good bye to New Mexico and hello to Arizona which was our next destination.

Southwest Roadtrip - Day 4

On Day 4, we got a relatively early start as we planned to do many things for the day. We started by visiting the Petroglyph National Monument and went on 3 short trails where you can look at Petroglyphs created by ancient pueblo people many many years ago. It was amazing, walking through those trails and imagining how those people used to carve these images using stone tools. One of the trails involved going up a small mountain, the views from top were pretty cool.


Our next stop was at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center & Museum. We decided to have lunch there before going to the exhibits, the museum had a pretty good cafe where we got to try the famous New Mexico style green and red chili sauce. If you go to any restaurant in New Mexico, you will always get this question - Red or Green Chili? I opted the easy way and went for the X-mas chili that lets you sample both.


The museum was not too huge but had some nice exhibits showing the life and traditions of the Native Americans and their communities. There was a lot to learn about the history and culture, but since we had limited time we tried best to cover as much as we could. In weekends, they also have Native American dances which would have been cool to see.

After the museum, we decided to take the Turquoise Trail from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. The trail is called so because it passes through the prominent mining towns where Turquoise was and is still mined. Most of the towns are deserted now and have little going on, but the route was scenic and gives you lots of opportunities to stop and take pictures or explore these towns. We stopped at a small town called Madrid, there was one main street with few shops and a couple of cafes. I went to few shops and bought a handmade wooden toy and a Turquoise earring.


There is an interesting story behind these earrings. I wore these earrings as soon as I bought them, but because of the design I felt they could fall and get lost easily. And it did happen, when we reached the hotel room I realized I lost one of them. I went and looked everywhere including the parking lot, car, hotel lobby but couldn't find it. Later that night, we were walking back after dinner and for some reason I decided to go look on the street outside the hotel and there was my lost earring.. go figure.


We reached our hotel in Santa Fe around 6.30PM and freshened up and went to the downtown/Plaza area which was a 10 min walk. The Plaza area has a park and shops, art galleries and restaurants surrounding the park. The whole area was decorated for the holidays and looked very festive. There was a beautiful church close by. Things close pretty early (7 - 8PM) in Santa Fe, so we walked around just window shopping and had dinner at a Pizzeria. By the time we finished dinner and got out, the temperature had dropped and it was very cold. But since we were staying pretty close by, we got back to the hotel in 10 minutes and decided to call it a day.

Southwest Roadtrip - Day 3

After yesterday's long drive and today being Christmas day, we were pretty laid back. And this was the way most of Albuquerque was today, most things were closed and some neighborhoods seemed like the sets in Universal Studios. Apparently we missed a famous New Mexico tradition of lighting the Luminarias on christmas eve. The luminarias are like paper lanterns and they are lit up everywhere in the city after sunset and look beautiful.


We left our hotel around noon and went to the Old Town neighborhood. It has one of the oldest churches in US and is famous for its adobe style architecture, nice little boutiques and museums. There are museums of arts, culture, science and there are some more unique ones like the Turquoise museum and rattlesnake museum that has one of the largest collection of rattlesnakes. We walked around and took some photos.




There was a single souvenir shop open that had lot of things, even things from different places in Asia. I bought a dream catcher, an artifact the native americans believed gets rid of bad dreams. It is believed that the dream catcher when hung above the bed catches all the dreams. The bad dreams would stay in the net disappearing with the light of day, good dreams would pass through and slide down the feathers to the sleeper.


Our next destination was the Sandia mountains where we planned to take the famous aerial tramway. Before going up the mountains, we went to a Mediterranean place for lunch. It was a pretty small place attached to a middle eastern grocery shop, but the food was excellent. I even bought a small one gram box of spanish saffron there for $6, which seemed like a good deal to me.



The tram at Sandia peak takes you 10,378 feet above in a 2.7 mile ride. The tour guide told us that Sandia means "water melon" in Spanish and he also gave some facts about the tramway. There is a visitors center at the top with information about the mountains. There is also an observatory deck and a restaurant. We spent about an hour at the top and took the tram back during the time of sunset. The ride back was beautiful, the sun's golden rays falling on the mountains turn them into a subtle color of pink. The color is mainly attributed to the granite which makes up most of the rocks.

By the time we got back to our car, it was freezing cold and it didn't help that we didn't take enough cold weather accessories. Next we made a quick stop at the Old Town again to see if the shops and restaurants opened. We didn't find anything open, so we decided to try another neighborhood called Nob Hill which is supposed to be known for nightlife. But it was pretty much the same story there.. most places were closed. We got back our hotel and were happy to find some appetizers & drinks served for guests. Dinner was at a vegan Thai restaurant, one of the very few open today. Great food and service that deserves a review in Yelp, which probably I will write when I get back home. We are planning to get an early start tomorrow so that we can cover few places in Albuquerque before heading to Santa Fe which is our next destination.

Southwest Roadtrip - Days 1& 2

The great road trip of 2011 started from Bay area on Friday afternoon. We drove 400 miles from home to Barstow in Southern CA where we spent the night. We did stop at Moos creamery in Bakersfield for dinner and some ice cream.

Day 2 started with a grand breakfast in Country Inn & Suites where we stayed. Very impressed with the variety in breakfast and the hotel in general, all in all a nice and comfortable stay. The lady at the counter was thrilled that we were driving to New Mexico and gave us some travel tips.We got ready and started around 10.30AM for a 10 hour drive to Albuquerque in New Mexico. For the most part, our route was through I-40E for about 650 miles and we got to experience different landscapes as we passed from California to Arizona to New Mexico.You can click on the photos for an enlarged view.


The route started with mountains on both sides, with little greenery, possibly because of the winter and the area being desert like in general. In a short time, we saw signs for Mojave national preserve. As much as I would have liked to visit the preserve we didn't want to lengthen our already long day, so had to leave Mojave for another weekend. One thing we didn't account for is the time change traveling from CA to AZ, we lost one hour as AZ is on mountain time.



After couple of more hours of driving, we entered Arizona with newly laid roads greeting us. An hour or so into Arizona, the landscape was changing slowly. We saw ranches, cows grazing, some greenery and then snow.. lots of snow.
We stopped at a small town called Kingman in AZ for a break and coffee. Even though it was a small town, it had a main street with all possible shops include couple of car dealers.


We passed Flagstaff and saw signs for Grand Canyon. Also, saw this beautiful mountain peak covered with snow. We stopped at a town called Winslow for Gas and were thrilled to see the gas price of $2.97/gallon, too good to pass. We also saw lot of bill boards and signs advertizing Native American arts and jewelry. The sun started to set around 6pm Mountain time. The sunset was beautiful with the sky turning into a shade of golden pink and the rays shining across the red rock mountains. I tried to take some photos from the car, but they don't do justice to the fast changing colors of the sky.


As we entered New Mexico, we saw more snow and ice on both sides. Luckily the roads were clear and the traffic was light as it was christmas eve, so we didn't have any big issues while driving. We could say we reached Albuquerque from a far distance, the city was widespread and well lit. We spent the last few miles of the trip picking a name for this blog :). We reached our destination around 10 and were excited when the receptionist at Sheraton upgraded our room and added free breakfast at no charge. Now, this is a perfect ending to an interesting day!