Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, NM and Cochiti Recreation Area, NM

I find it amazing how many national monuments (like Bandelier) I've never heard of... So now we're leaving Bandelier to head to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.

We were going to pass on this one, but my friend, Karen, told me it was worth staying an extra day to visit... Tent Rocks is almost directly south of Bandelier, but to get there, we have to make an almost complete circle back through Santa Fe.

Tent Rocks does not have a campground, but we are lucky to find the Buffalo Grove Loop in the Cochiti Recreation Area nearby. It's an Army Corps of Engineers campground. The lower campground is on a hill overlooking the reservoir. The campsites there are paved and very spacious with a really nice shelter over the picnic table. They also have water and electric and the cell tower is just on the other side of the hill. They don't take reservations, so we were lucky that at this time of year there's plenty of  space available.

We arrive on Oct. 31 and plan to visit Tent Rocks on Nov. 1. On the 1st, we drive to the Monument and find it is closed for a native ceremonial celebration.

So I console myself by making Tom take me to dinner in Santa Fe at the Paper Dosa. This is another restaurant that I saw on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Once again, I'm excited to go and hopeful that the food will be amazing...

We decide to do their tasting menu. Starters are Chile and Onion Pakora (hot chiles and red onions battered in spiced rice flour, flash fried, and served with eggplant chutney) and Chennai Chicken (fried chicken marinated in yogurt and spices served with raitha--spiced yogurt).


The second course were dosas also served with sambar and coconut and tomato chutneys. The menu description of a dosa is: A thin South Indian crepe made from a fermented rice and lentil batter. I gotta admit, I don't remember what kind I had. Tom may have even had an Uttapam: A South Indian “pancake” made from a fermented rice and lentil dosa batter—thicker and smaller than dosas with the ingredients cooked into the batter.

The last course is a curry. I have the Chettinad Lamb Curry, lamb slow cooked with dry-roasted garam masala and finished with freshly ground peppercorns. Tom had the Karaikudi Chicken Curry, Chettinad-style curry with plenty of flavor from garam masala, red chile, fennel and cumin.

All in all, dinner was an interesting experience. We'd probably need to go back and explore other dishes, as this go round did not provide any outstanding dishes.

The next day when we head out to Tent Rocks is another beautiful fall day. It's Saturday, and we head out moderately early. We don't expect to see any crowds, but the day will probably be hot enough that we don't want to be out late in the afternoon. We do have to wait a little while at the entrance. The Monument is small and has limited parking, so one car has to come out of the park for each car that goes in.

There are two trails, we start out on the slot canyon trail that takes you to the mesa above the formations. It starts out as an easy trail with some narrow spots and becomes more moderately difficult--especially if you've got old, sore knees. However, Karen was right, the trail is just challenging enough and makes the scenery seem even more special.

The beginning of the trail

More wildlife

Wildlife along the way

Yes, this is the trail

Tom at his usual photography spot (the edge of a precipice)

Once you wind your way up through the slot canyons, you'll find yourself up on top of the mesa with a commanding view of the surroundings.

 Then its time to head back down to the valley below.

A tough hike for me, but oh so satisfying. Certainly worth the extra couple of days...thanks Karen!

Bandelier National Monument - NM

While we are in Santa Fe, we are surprised to learn of national monument called Bandelier that is a mere hour away. There's a campground, Juniper, that has walk-up campsites, and, based on the time of year, we figure we should have no problems finding a spot. As we drive up there, we pass through a thriving little town, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It turns out to be the home of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Anyway...

We get to Bandelier and drive through all the campground loops, and they are all virtually deserted. That's actually fortunate for us because there were only about 3-4 sites that were actually large enough to fit our rig. We opt for one in the first loop with paved sites.

Bandelier has a trail that takes you through a canyon surrounded by mesas. You pass by cave dwellings carved into the side of the mountain by the Ancestral Pueblos as well as old ruin buildings from their civilization. There are even a few of the caves that you're allowed to climb into and "explore."

Self guided tour handout depicting Ancestral Pueblo life

The ruins of the gathering area as seen from some of the cliff houses

Once you've completed the trail along the mesa (about halfway through), you have a choice to turn back to the visitor's center or to go on to the Alcove House. The Alcove House sits about 140 feet above the canyon floor. Climbing up to the Alcove House involves climbing 4 wooden ladders and a number of stone stairs.




I didn't make it to the top of Alcove House. At the top of the first ladder, I discovered that my hands were too small to hold on to the vertical poles to get off the ladder, and I had to wrap my whole body around the top of the ladder to get on and off.




















Since I was carrying things, the transitions was very difficult, so I opted not to go on. Tom did continue on to the top.

Santa Fe, NM

We're going south again to Santa Fe. Surprisingly, Santa Fe is at an even higher elevation (7,100') than Taos. We're at Santa Fe Skies RV Park, where we plan to stay for awhile to receive mail and do another couple of fixes to the RV (installing a new window blind for the entry door and replacing a faulty manifold switch on the hydraulic system).

One of the first orders of business is to check out the food scene, and I'm wanting to try Dr. Field Goods Kitchen. It's one I saw on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, and the food on the show always looks good. I have the New Mexican, a pulled pork sandwich topped with cheddar cheese, green chile, and apple-jicama slaw, and Tom has the Bad Ass BLT, a bacon patty (instead of strips) cooked in a wood fired oven with lettuce and tomato. Hate to say it, but mine was "Meh." 

One of the fixes during this stopover was the window blind on the entry door. The old pull shade gave out and had been banging around for awhile. So, we checked out Lowe's then Home Depot to see if we could find a replacement. Finding one small enough for the door was a challenge. We finally settled on an accordion style one. Tom did a great job getting it cut down to size and installing it.

Santa Fe has a farmer's market at the Railyard downtown, and it's always fun to see what the local products are. This time of year though, it is predominantly root vegetables and dried chiles.   

Last day in Santa Fe...yeah...so much for warm...

...and one last dinner (and a couple of drinks) at a quirky fun little restaurant in old town Santa Fe called the Shed...

Taos, NM

Change of direction...

Hey, it's cold here in Colorado. We'll save Colorado Springs for another time. Let's head south into New Mexico...maybe it will be warmer. Nope...we start out in Taos, which is in the high dessert at around 7,000' elevation, and it's still cold.

In Taos, we stay at the Taos Monte Bello RV Park. We were the last newbies (folks who hadn't stayed at the park before) that John, the owner, was taking in for the winter, so it was very quiet while we were there.







We venture out our first evening to find some Southwestern Mexican food. What we find is Orlando's, a very quaint yet colorful place.

Food's spicier than we're used to but still good.

One of Tom's first orders of business while we are here is to fix the water leak! So, he's back to crawling around under the coach trying to track down that pesky leak. Success! What he found was The Beast was plumbed from the factory with an ice maker hose. It was terminated with a plastic cap, which developed a hairline crack over the years. It finally cracked open in Gunnison Colorado (about a week prior to these pictures) resulting in a puzzling leak that started behind the refrigerator and worked its way down the undercarriage, where it was very hard to track down.

After fixing the leak, Tom cleans up, and we attend a lecture on "The Role of Forest Management in an Era of Climate Change." The lecturer is Jens Stevens a UC Davis grad (wouldn't yah know).

The next day, we're off to drive the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway. While there we stop to hike along the Elliot Barker Trail.

We cut the hike short when it starts to hail because we didn't exactly dress for the weather.

Just outside of Taos is the Earthship Biotecture community. Earthships are passive solar homes that are built of car tires filled with earth and covered with adobe. The front facing of the houses are greenhouses that provide food as well as heat for the house and use grey water to irrigate the plants before being returned to the earth. Very interesting structures...