Pueblos and Project Y

Today's route: 140 miles

We didn't have to drive very far today, but it was probably the least efficient route that we will take this entire trip. It kills me to backtrack, but we didn't have enough time to visit Pecos National Historical Park on our way up to Santa Fe yesterday.

So, as soon as we finished breakfast, we loaded up the van and headed east on I-25 for a short 30-minute drive. 

Pecos NHP is located in the Pecos Valley between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Glorieta Pass. Because of its location, this area saw the influence of the Pueblo and Plains Indians, Spanish conquistadors and missionaries, as well as those traveling along the Santa Fe Trail. The park also manages the site of an important Civil War engagement, the Battle of Glorieta Pass in March 1862.

After going through the exhibits at the visitor center and watching the park film, we went outside to walk on the Pecos Pueblo Ruins Trail. 

Remnants of the mission church

After we finished our visit here, we drove back to Santa Fe and stopped at the Bureau of Land Management office to get passport stamps (4!) for me. Then we headed up to Los Alamos to see our 135th NPS unit, Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The park is comprised of three units involved in the development of the world's first atomic weapons: Site X at Oak Ridge, TN, housed the facilities which enriched uranium and produced experimental plutonium; Site W at Hanford, WA, was built to create large quantities of plutonium; and Project Y at Los Alamos, NM included more than 6000 scientists and support personnel who worked to design and build the atomic bombs.

Oppenheimer and Groves

During our spring break trip back in April, we went to the Trinity Site Open House (here's the link to that blog post), so it was pretty cool to close the loop and come to the place where the components of the Trinity device were designed and assembled. Brigadier General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, appointed J. Robert Oppenheimer to lead the project's secret weapons laboratory. They chose to locate it on a remote mesa near Santa Fe which housed a private boys' school, Los Alamos Ranch School.

We stopped by the visitor contact station to get our bearings and then headed across the street to grab lunch at Ruby K's Bagel Cafe. We joked that it would be fitting if it was called Café Diem instead, after the place in one of our favorite Syfy TV shows, "Eureka." That fictional small town was populated with scientific geniuses who worked for Global Dynamics, an advanced research facility. Hmmm, sounds like Los Alamos!

Because this unit was recently designated in November 2015, it is still a work in progress. Several historic locations are not accessible to the public because they are contained within Los Alamos National Laboratory or are privately owned. But we were able to walk around and get a glimpse of the townsite properties.

Bethe House, where Nobel Prize winners Edwin McMillan (chemistry)
and Han Bethe (physics) resided.

Our last stop in town was the Bradbury Science Museum, which is operated by the Laboratory's Community Programs Office. It had many interesting exhibits, but I was especially fascinated by the profiles of the people who worked on Project Y.

Then we headed out to Bandelier National Monument. Due to limited parking and high visitation in the summer, a shuttle is required to access the monument, except before 9:00AM or after 3:00PM. Guess what time we arrived? Yep, exactly in time to drive ourselves straight down to the visitor center!

It was hot down in Frijoles Canyon, but that's nothing new for us this trip. We hiked the Main Loop Trail (1.25 miles roundtrip) out to the pueblo and the cliff dwellings.

Many cave rooms (cavates) are visible from the trail

J climbing in to see one of the dwellings

View of Tyuonyi pueblo from the cliff

At this point, M and his gimpy leg were done hiking, so he and J turned back to the visitor center. But R and I continued on to Long House.

Multi-story dwellings

We hiked back to the visitor center along the nature trail in order to stay in the shade, and spotted a couple deer along the way. And the last order of business after collecting the boys' Jr. Ranger badges/patches... getting ice cream!

Our hotel for the night was the Holiday Inn Express in Los Alamos - a nice, big suite with enough beds to make everyone happy and a thermostat that could be set to frigid temperatures. After we checked in, cooled off, and cleaned up, we got ready to meet a fellow member from the National Park Travelers Club. I had never met her before in person, but she had given me very helpful advice when planning the New Mexico portion of our trip. The boys were a little concerned about "meeting someone from the internet," but we had a nice time together over dinner! Such a great club for national park fans just like me!