June 2, 2016

June 2, 2016

The President has been busy signing new units into the National Park System faster than we have been visiting them, so we have some catching up to do. Two new ones are nearby. From Santa Fe we drove to the town of Los Alamos located atop a nearby finger mesa.  Los Alamos, Hanford Reach and Oak Ridge have recently been formed into the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.  Los Alamos was the brains of the operation where the technology of the atomic bomb was developed  We have been here before so we just stopped at the Visitor Center to look at the new exhibits.  At some point in the near future they will conduct tours of the currently off-limits historic research facilities. Before leaving we took our photo in front of the new statues of the leaders of this successful Herculean effort, Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves.

The second new park is just west and high above Los Alamos.  We drive through the laboratory grounds and up into the Jemez Mountains. After cresting at 9000 foot elevation, we see Valles Caldera National Preserve spread out below us. The Caldera is the remnant of a super-volcano that blew its top a million years ago and left this 14-mile wide crater.  It mostly consists of a large grassland surrounded by pine forested hills.

After checking into the guard station for a permit we drive ten miles across the caldera, along a very rutted road looking for a spot to hike.  Despite being wide open, the Preserve severely limits parking.  We also find the terrain a little boring and the trailheads unmarked so we opt to turn around and head back to Santa Fe.

In  downtown Santa Fe, I accompany Aimee as she visits the many artsy shops.  She is in need of some retail therapy.  Our path took us from the central plaza along the original path of the Santa Fe trail, passing the oldest church and building in the US.