Texas to Santa Fe

Today we continued to drive westward from Elk City, OK on Route 40. As we passed through Oklahoma, intoTexas
it definitely got flatter and then a even a little more flat.  We got to New Mexico and then the mesas start popping up. The further we got into New Mexico the more beautiful the colors and striations in the Rock patterns. The elevation continues to climb to more than 7,000 ft above sea level and then we began to see some snow topped mountains.  Absolutely beautiful drive! 

When we arrived at Santa Fe, we drove through the City and went straight to Los Alamos. Grant really wanted to check out the area and see what the town was like. Was actually pretty cool! They have a neat science museum and a lot of good history on the Manhattan Project and other current research going on at the lab (at least what they can tell us about).

From Los Alamos, we drove down the road to Bandelier National Monument. When we got there, we hiked and climbed ladders up into the Pueblo ruins. It was really, really neat to see these old dwellings that were built into the cliffs. They let you climb a few short ladders, but if you're willing to hike a little further there is a multi-tiered, one hundred and forty foot cliff which you can scale using long sets of ladders and some cement steps. I will say it was really fun going up, but it was hard for me to come back down. Big ladders hanging on the side of a cliff are thrilling but a little scary as well. The boys did great with the climbing though, and we even saw some local wildlife. A nice variety of birds, and a bullnose snake all crossed our paths. We just missed a Western Diamondback Rattler on the trail.  The people in heading down the trail warned us to look out for him, but he had already moved on. This has been a really good day and the first of many national park visits on our journey.

As of this evening, we have covered 1900+ miles and everyone is still pleasant!  The next two nights are camping with no shower access.  Hopefully the attitudes will remain pleasant because the smells may not :)

On to Colorado and Great Sand Dunes tomorrow!