After we departed Telluride, we spent some time in Canyon of the Ancients near Cortez, CO. We visited the Lowry Pueblo ruins and hiked the Sand Canyon Trail. Sand Canyon had many dwellings beautifully blended into the cliffs. This was the origin area for many of the native groups that spread though the SW. Many dwellings were over 700 years old.
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Lowry Ruins
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Sand Canyon Trail
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From there we travelled to Pagosa Springs and visited some friends. Elena also floated down the river in a tube.
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Bebop spots Elena tubing past us
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We headed into New Mexico and stopped at Echo Amphitheater and one of our favorite roadside stops near Ghost Ranch. We camped for the night at Riana Campground at Abiquiu Lake.
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Echo Amphitheater and a roadside stop near Ghost Ranch
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Abiquiu Lake
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We then drove into the big city of Santa Fe. Elena spent a few hours in Meow Wolf, while Paul went to the local high school track to get in some track practice. The air at 7,000 foot elevation was nearly lung collapsing. We climbed high into the mountains to camp at Hyde Memorial Park well above Santa Fe.
The following day we visited Valles Caldera. This in a large caldera that last exploded and collapsed about 1.2 million years ago. It ejected tremendous amounts of material across a wide area. The magma chamber is slowly building mountains again in the caldera, but it's not likely to erupt again in the near future. They've had good monsoon rains and the valley was green and lovely. We also hiked along the East Jemez River. We spent the night at the Redondo Campground.
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Valles Caldera and East Jemez River
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The next morning we hiked to Spencer Hot Springs and had a little soak. We then passed through Jemez Springs and drove up to the Gilman Tunnels. These tunnels were drilled through solid rock to facilitate a train track to move felled trees down from the higher elevations. There is now a paved road through the tunnels. The geology of the area is incredible. On the west are uplifted 1.6 billion year-old granitic gneiss. The Guadalupe River cascades down beside the road and tunnels. On the eastern side of the river, there is great contrast from the Permian era red sandstone.
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Spencer hot springs and the Gilman Tunnels
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We visited the Jemez Publo Walatowa Museum, which had an excellent history of the Jemez people. They were a thriving tribe until the conquistadors arrived in the late 1500's. Read about their history here: https://www.jemezpueblo.org/about/history-and-culture/.
- Paul
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