Category Archives: Historic Landmark

Historic Landmark

June 16, 2015 Rapid City and Custer S.P. South Dakota

While staying at Mount Rushmore we drove to Rapid City, population 70,000, the second largest city in South Dakota. The town was founded in 1876 by a group of prospectors who had come to the Black Hills in search of gold and named the town after a spring fed creek which passes through it. We took a 90 minute trolley ride tour which included a visit to Dinosaur Park on a hill overlooking the city. The park has seven life size concrete dinosaur replicas as well as a spectacular view of Rapid City.

Rapid City is known as the “City of Presidents” because of its proximity to Mount Rushmore but also because of a public art project that resulted in 43 life size bronze presidential statues of all past presidents which are located on street corners downtown. Using a map to guide us we enjoyed finding the statues. The figures are displayed in different poses and tries to emphasize a unique part of their personality such as Ronald Reagan wearing a cowboy hat. Rapid City was another small western town we have enjoyed on our travels this year.

Another day we wanted to drive back to Custer State Park to continue exploring the rest of the park. At 71,000 acres, it is one of the nation’s largest state parks. We drove towards the park on the Needles Highway through pine and spruce forests with meadows surrounded by rugged granite mountains. The road gets its name from the many needle like granite formations along the highway. The roadway was planned by former South Dakota governor Peter Norbeck who marked the entire course on foot and horseback. With the aid of 150,000 pounds of dynamite, construction was completed in 1922. We passed through three very narrow tunnels.

The State Game Lodge in Custer State Park was the summer White House for President Calvin Coolidge and was visited by Dwight Eisenhower. A really neat time to visit the park would be the last Friday in September when they do the bison roundup. Some of these bison are auctioned off in November with the money going towards operating costs of the park.

Next we drove to Wind Cave National Park. We had driven through a small section of the park on our way to Mount Rushmore and we wanted to continue to explore more of the park and stop by the Visitors Center.

Wind Cave National Park was established in 1903 and is the eighth national park created. It was the first national park set aside to protect a cave. Wind Cave is one of the world’s longest and most complex caves. Currently there are over 143 miles of twisting passageways under only 1.2 square miles of surface area. Close your eyes and visualize what a maze of tunnels that creates deep below the surface of the land! Portions of Wind Cave are believed to be over 300 million years old, making it one of the oldest caves in the world. Barometric wind studies estimate that only five percent of the total cave has been discovered.

Wind Cave is considered sacred and culturally significant to Native Americans who roamed the area for centuries. You could say it was rediscovered in 1881 by Tom and Jesse Bingham when they heard whistling noises coming from the small entrance to the cave.

We enjoyed touring the Visitors Center where they had a movie and many interesting exhibits about the cave.

As we drove around the park we continued to see buffalo and a lot of prairie dogs. We stopped to watch them and take pictures as they played a game with us of now you see us, now you don’t. The prairie dogs live in large social groups called towns. The round mound of dirt that surrounds the prairie dog hole keeps rain water from running into the burrow and serves as an observation post to watch for danger.

Tomorrow we leave Mount Rushmore for the Badlands of South Dakota.

June 12, 2015 Mount Rushmore NP, South Dakota

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Bill and I had both waited a long time to see Mount Rushmore so the next morning we eagerly made the drive to Mount Rushmore National Park. While there is no charge to get in, you have to pay $11 to park with the money going to pay for the large parking garage built to accommodate all the tourists. No federal money was used to pay for the garage. The parking pass is good for a year. We were told that the garage will be paid off in 2016 and the trustees will give the garage to the park service.

Mount Rushmore is an amazing place with an Information Center, Visitors Center, three bookstores, a gift shop, sculptor’s studio, two theaters with movies, nature trails and an amphitheater. A Grand View Terrace to view Mount Rushmore is at the end of the Avenue of Flags where flags from all fifty states are displayed. We enjoyed the exhibits and movie and spent time just looking at the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. We had lunch at the cafe there and Bill tried the buffalo chili which he said was good.

Between 1927 and 1941, sculptor Gutzon Borglum carved the memorial with the help of over 400 workers. When Borglum died his son Lincoln Borglum supervised the completion. Work stopped in October, 1941 near the beginning of World War II. It was interesting to read that Gutzon Borglum wanted to build a special place to share important pieces of American history so he planned to build a large room which would be carved into the vertical wall of the canyon behind the faces. This room would be called the Hall of Records and would store important documents like the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Work on the Hall of Records began in 1938 but the U.S. government would not approve funding for the addition and workers were only able to carve a doorway and small hallway before Congress stopped the Hall of Records project.

After leaving Mount Rushmore we drove through part of Black Hills National Forest and Custer State Park along the Iron Mountain Road and the Wildlife Loop Road where we encountered “pigtail curves”. Back in Denver we were excited to see buffalo in the distance behind a fence. Little did we know we would see herds of buffalo here. We saw a lot of buffalo and calves. The buffalo were right by the side of the road and a couple times we had to stop and wait while they crossed the road. The buffalo were shedding their winter coats so they looked especially scruffy.

Today the park is home to as many as 1,450 head of North American bison, also known as buffalo. There were once millions of bison, but by 1900 fewer than 1,000 bison remained on the entire continent. Peter Norbeck, known as the “Father of Custer State Park”, decided to take action to preserve the bison. In 1914 the park purchased thirty-six bison which grew to 2,500 by the 1940’s. The bison numbers are great enough today to have a roundup each year and some of the bison are auctioned off.

We came across prairie dogs chattering as they popped up from their holes in the ground, deer and a lazy burro.

Later that evening we returned to the Mount Rushmore Amphitheater for the Evening Lighting Ceremony. After watching a patriotic movie the faces on Mount Rushmore were lighted, we sang the National Anthem and the flag was then lowered. They invited all past and current members of the military service to come down to the stage. The stage was full and each person was asked to give their name and rank. Several of them participated in the folding of the flag.

Some facts about Mount Rushmore:

Each face is 60 feet tall. Each eye is 11 feet wide.
Washington’s nose is 21 feet long. All the other noses are 20 feet long.
Washington’s mouth is 18 feet wide.
Washington’s head is as tall as a six story building.
Total cost was $989,992.32
Main tool was dynamite and the drill was the jackhammer.
The rock is Harney Peak Granite.

June 10, 2015 Cheyenne, Wyoming & Wind Cave NP, South Dakota

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We left Denver and continued to head toward South Dakota. Cheyenne, Wyoming was a convenient place for a stopover on the way. We stayed two nights which gave us a full day to explore Wyoming’s state capitol.

Having just been to Denver, Colorado’s state capitol, we were really struck by the difference. Downtown Cheyenne was quiet with little traffic and few people milling around. Finding a parking place or slowing down to take pictures was not a problem. It looked like any small western city. We noticed several statues of eight foot tall boots located around the city. Our favorite boot was one with the capitol painted on it. The boots were created for a fundraiser for the Cheyenne Depot Museum in 2004. Nineteen boots were painted and decorated by local artists and auctioned off. We enjoyed finding them as we toured the town.

We had planned on taking the route through Lusk, Wyoming to cross over into South Dakota. All the rain and flooding changed our plans. The major bridge in Lusk had been washed out and roads were closed with flash flood warnings still in effect so we took a route across the plains of Nebraska. We crossed mile after mile of farmland and open plains. As we neared the South Dakota line we began to see some interesting rock formations in Nebraska and the weather deteriorated with rain and fog quickly moving in making visibility poor. I wasn’t able to get a picture of the South Dakota welcome sign because of the rain and fog. Rats!! It was a nice one with a picture of Mount Rushmore.

Once in South Dakota we traveled through a part of Wind Cave National Park. We stopped along the side of the road to look at some buffalo right by the car. Some were busy drinking from a small mud puddle. With the windows open we could hear them slurping and snorting as they drank.

After a long seven and a half hour drive we arrived at a campground in Hill City, about fifteen minutes from Mount Rushmore. We stayed at a nice private campground and enjoyed watching the birds who often gathered at the bird feeder outside our door.

Some facts about Cheyenne:

With a population of 62,400, it is still the most populous city in Wyoming.
It is named for the Cheyenne nation, one of the Great Plains Tribes.
It began in 1867 during the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad and as a headquarters for cavalry troops protecting pioneers and railroad workers. Originally called Fort Russell and later renamed F. E. Warren Air Force Base, it is one of the nation’s oldest continually active installations.
Back in the mid 19th century it was overrun with gamblers, cowboys and speculators, earning it the name “Hell on Wheels”. By 1869 it had been cleaned up and became the capitol in 1890 when Wyoming became the 44th state.
Nellie Tayloe Ross, the first woman governor in the country is from Cheyenne.
Wild Bill Hickok and sportscaster Curt Gowdy are from Cheyenne. We were unable to get a reservation at Curt Gowdy State Park because it was full.

June 5, 2015 Denver, Colorado

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Bill and I calculated that since we were at the Grand Canyon the beginning of May we have had rain everyday. What a crazy spring this has been weather wise and the crazy weather continued to follow us through Colorado.
We drove from Colorado Springs north to a state park campground just outside of Denver. We have been very happy with the Colorado state parks, and this campground, Cherry Creek State Park, was another winner. We had a large pull through site with full hookup and a lot of green space between each site. Everyday we had rabbits playing around the RV.
The first day the weather service was calling for severe weather so we decided to stay home. The day was spent listening to tornado sirens and the sound of heavy rain and thunder. The tornado siren would sound and after the storm passed the all clear siren would sound. In a matter of minutes another storm would roll in and the tornado siren would sound again. This cycle was repeated several times throughout the day. We listened to continuous coverage on the local TV station and Bill listened to ham radio operators helping the sheriff departments on his ham radio. We never had to evacuate the RV, but we were ready just in case.
The next day brought sunny blue skies in the morning but the forecast called for severe storms during the afternoon. We made a quick drive on the Lariat Loop Scenic and Historic Byway. Due to the weather forecast we did not drive the entire loop but we saw some beautiful views of snow capped mountains and stopped by to visit the gravesite of William F. Cody, known as Buffalo Bill. The museum and gravesite is located in Lookout Mountain Park. The area has great views of the plains and Rockies, however our view was limited due to the clouds quickly rolling in. As we made the short walk to the gravesite, thunder rumbled in the distance. Buffalo Bill earned his nickname because of his skill as a buffalo hunter and he traveled the world with his Buffalo Bill Wild West shows.
On the way home we passed through some charming little western towns with tall tree covered rock cliff walls and streams with rushing water from recent rains along the roadway. We noticed a Buffalo Overlook area on the map and were surprised when the overlook was nothing more than a pull over on busy Interstate 70. It seemed like a pretty dangerous area to encourage people to stop, but we pulled over and got out and were rewarded with a herd of buffalo (American Bison), including some babies nuzzling their mothers.
The next day we took advantage of it being a Sunday with less traffic and drove into downtown Denver. We had originally planned to go on Monday so we could tour the U.S. Mint in Denver. When we went online Friday to reserve a tour, we found out all tours were full for at least the next 30 days. Since they give six tours a day Monday thru Thursday, that is pretty amazing. We put the Mint tour on our list to do on our next visit to Denver.
While downtown we drove by the Mint and the capitol building. We spent some time driving around just getting a feel for the city. We ended with a stop at the Sports Authority Field at Mile High, home of the Denver Broncos. We made it home before the first of two thunderstorms rolled through the area.
We saved Rocky Mountain National Park for Monday, our last day in the area, when the weather forecast called for the best weather. The day turned out to be beautiful with no afternoon thunderstorms, the first day without rain in a long time! This park was created in 1915, the nation’s 10th national park, and they are celebrating their centennial this year. The park is so large there are several visitors centers and we stopped by three of them. We drove the Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitors Center, at one point the road took us atop the alpine tundra to an elevation of 12,183 feet. The road is the highest continuous paved highway in the U.S. Because the deepest, wettest snow occurs in the spring, snow plow operators work hard to have the road open each year by Memorial Day. Tall poles along the side of the road is the only way the snow plow operators know where the edges of the road are. Even in June the road can occasionally be closed due to snow or ice. The views of the Rocky Mountains along the Trail Ridge Road were breathtaking!
We really enjoyed our time in Denver. The area is prettier than Colorado Springs due to more beautiful views of snow capped mountains. Huge pot holes continued to be a problem. Colorado definitely has more pot holes than any other state! Denver traffic can be challenging. They do not have HOV lanes so the morning and afternoon commuter traffic is pretty bad! Regardless of the traffic and bad roads, we will add Denver to our list of places we would like to visit again.

June 1, 2015 Colorado Springs, Colorado

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We continued our time in Colorado with a four night stop in Colorado Springs. At first the weather continued to be cool with gusty winds and afternoon thunderstorms. After a couple days we had temperatures in the 90’s and the mosquitoes came out in force at dusk. We had very gusty winds in New Mexico and the winds followed us to Colorado. We camped at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Colorado’s newest state park. It is a very nice park with terraced campsites and full hookups. Our campsite had a view of Colorado Springs which was especially pretty at night with the twinkling lights of the city shining below us. Nearby is Fort Carson and in the evenings we could hear the sound of bugles as the flag was lowered.

We camped at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain, a very foreboding looking mountain. Perhaps the history of the mountain makes it more mysterious. The underground operations center for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was built in the early 1960’s during the Cold War to monitor the North American airspace for missile launches and Soviet military aircraft. The command center is buried 2,000 feet underground in the granite mountain on five acres and was designed with a bunker to withstand bombing and fallout from a nuclear bomb. Today it is still off limits but many of its functions were transfered in 2006 to Peterson Air Force Base nearby. On top of Cheyenne Mountain is an antennae farm visible for miles around with transmitters for cell phones, radio, television and law enforcement.

We wanted to tour the Peterson Air and Space Museum located on the Peterson Air Force Base. We read that for security reasons you had to go onto their website at least 24 hours in advance to request a visitor pass. When we went online it said they were not accepting visitors at this time due to security precautions.

On our last day we rode the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, the longest and highest cog railway in the world. The trip began in Manitou Springs (elevation 6,320) for an 8.9 mile, hour and a half ride through high plains with aspen groves and dense pine forests to an alpine tundra. As we neared the top the snow was piled high along the tracks, higher than the windows. When we reached the summit of Pike’s Peak we were at an elevation of 14,110 ft. The snow was ten feet high and the temperature was 36 degrees with a wind chill of 28 degrees. We had read that at 14,000 feet you may experience breathing problems and nausea. The air at Pike’s Peak has 50% of the oxygen pressure compared to sea level. Since we had both been suffering quite a bit with allergy problems this spring we invested in a little spray bottle of oxygen at the gift shop before getting on the train. Bill used it a few times. I didn’t have any problems until we reached the summit. When I stood and walked off the train I suddenly felt very lightheaded and dizzy. After several sprays of oxygen I felt better. They do have Medic services at the summit for people who experience serious problems.

Bill had to climb over some slippery snow drifts to get some pictures, including a memorial to Katharine Lee Bates. Her visit to Pike’s Peak in 1893 inspired her to write a poem which later became the lyrics of “America the Beautiful”. Pike’s Peak is nicknamed ” America’s Mountain”.

We lucked out on the right time to visit Pike’s Peak. Less than a week earlier the train had not yet been able to reach the summit of the mountain due to ice and snow on the tracks. Besides taking the train you can reach the summit by car and hiking. The driving road has still not yet opened for the season. Pike’s Peak has the possibility of snow any day of the year!

Pike’s Peak is named after Lieutenant Zebulon Pike, an American explorer who was sent to the southwest in 1806 to explore the source of the Arkansas River. He attempted, but never reached the summit, but they named the mountain after him anyway.

After grabbing a late lunch we drove to the nearby Garden of the God’s Park, a National Natural Landmark. This beautiful city park was once owned by railroad magnate Charles Eliot Perkins. In 1909 he bequeathed the land to the city of Colorado Springs with the stipulation that it remain open and free to the public. It is obvious people love this park. One of the nicest and most elaborate Visitors Centers we have visited is in the park, staffed by volunteers. It has a first class nature center as well as over 30 interactive exhibits on the geology, ecology and history of the area. It has the world’s only Theiophytalia kerri dinosaur fossil replica. The dinosaur skull was discovered in the park in 1886. The park has nature talks, guided walks and guided rock climbing opportunities. There are beautiful views of Pike’s Peak from the observation deck of the visitors center. There is a nice loop drive around the park which we decided to do since it was late in the day. The red sandstone formations were beautiful.

We had mixed feelings about Colorado Springs. I expected more breathtaking views of snow capped mountains and a funky, quirky little town with boutiques and an active downtown area with restaurants. Instead the town came across as old and tired. The roads were terrible with constant potholes which made driving around town feel like driving an obstacle course. On the positive side I saw my first revolving McDonald’s sign!

May 29, 2015 Trinidad Lake State Park, Colorado

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Driving from the Albuquerque area we made the short drive to Springer, New Mexico for a one night stay. Before heading to Colorado the next morning we drove to the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico. Bill had been looking forward to visiting Philmont for a long time. In 1938, an oil magnate who was very impressed with boy scouts who visited his ranch, donated 35,857 acres of land to the Boy Scouts of America. Today the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, whose name is derived from Waite Phillips who gave them the land, is a National High Adventure Base where Boy Scouts take part in backpacking expeditions and other outdoor activities. It is one of the largest youth camps in the world in land with over 23,000 Scouts and adults leaders visiting each summer between the beginning of June and middle of August. While we were there Bill toured their Philmont Museum and Seton Memorial Library. The only documented Tyrannosaurus Rex track in the world was discovered within the camp’s boundaries in 1993. We noticed that the Santa Fe Trail ran thru the ranch.

On the way to Colorado we stopped in Raton, New Mexico at the NRA Whittington Center, the largest and most complete shooting and hunting complex in the United States. Bill was able to spend some time doing some pistol shooting practice.

As we passed through the end of the dusty plains of New Mexico into Colorado we were met with the green mountains to our west and the sight of even more snow capped mountains. We climbed and dropped in elevation until arriving at Trinidad Lake State Park (elevation 6300 ft) outside of Trinidad, Colorado. The 800 acre Trinidad Lake was created in 1978 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a dam. The Trinidad Lake State Park is a very popular area for fishermen.

While there we drove into the small town of Trinidad and did a bit of sightseeing. We visited a statue of Christopher (Kit) Carson an American frontiersman and found a geocache nearby. We drove a dirt road to the top of Simpson’s Rest, a sandstone bluff on a mountain with great views of Trinidad, Purgatoire Valley and the Sangre De Cristo Mountain Range, part of the Rocky Mountains. It was amazing to see the combination of rolling prairies, hills and mountains. Across those prairies the pioneers and traders traveled along the Santa Fe Trail. This trail wound through what is now downtown Trinidad and across the mountainous Raton Pass which we crossed over on the way to Trinidad. On the top is a Trinidad sign which lights up at night as well as the grave marker of George S. Simpson. Simpson was a famous trail blazer, scout, trader and explorer in the area. Legend says that in 1867 Simpson was confronted by warring Ute Indians. He fled up the sandstone bluff and hid for three days. He was thankful for the sandstone bluff that saved his life and requested to be buried there. Simpson is credited with the first discovery of gold in Colorado which led to the famous 1859 Rush to the Rockies.

We stopped by the town’s Mount San Rafael Hospital to see a 28 by 12 foot ceramic mural designed and created by a nun, Sister Augusta Zimmer. The history of Trinidad is depicted in the beautiful mural.

We enjoyed our time in Trinidad and it is always fascinating to see the history found in these small towns in America!

May 24, 2015 Albuquerque, New Mexico

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Sunday we made the short drive to Old Town Albuquerque. This area was not as large as Old Town Santa Fe and was mainly restaurants and souvenir shops. Both Old Towns had a central Plaza where tourists seemed to gather to listen to live music or magic shows. In both Old Town Santa Fe and Old Town Albuquerque we saw chilies hanging to dry. Chilies are a staple in

: Chilies hanging everywhere

San Felipe De Neri, oldest church in Albuquerque, serving since 1706

almost every southwest dish. Bill enjoyed chatting with two men who served in World War II as Navajo Code Talkers. They were signing copies of their book. During World War II the Japanese were able to intercept radio military communications so Navajos spoke their own code in the Navajo language and the Japanese were unable to break the code.

Saturday while on the way to Santa Fe we stopped by the Sandia Peaks Aerial Tram. Since it was a Saturday and a holiday weekend there was a three hour wait to ride the tram so we decided to return Tuesday. On Tuesday there was barely a line and we were able to get on the next tram. We don’t know why they call this a tram since it seems much more like a gondola to us. It is advertised as the world’s longest single span aerial tramway. We rode 2.7 miles across deep canyons with rocky walls to the top of the Sandia Peak at an elevation of 10,400 feet. It was much colder at that elevation and we had a view of 11,000 square miles, including Albuquerque in the distance. This is a double reversible passenger aerial tramway so we passed another tram both going up and coming down.

Also on Tuesday we drove to Petroglyph National Monument. Here they have the world’s largest accessible collection of prehistoric rock art. There are more than 17,000 ancient petroglyphs carved into the remnants of boulders of dormant volcanoes by Native American and Spanish settlers 400 to 700 years ago. The monument was established in 1990 to protect the petroglyphs and surrounding area. No, we did not find all 17,000 petroglyphs, but Bill did take pictures of a few.

May 23, 2015 Santa Fe, New Mexico

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We made the short drive from Los Alamos to our campground in Bernalillo right outside of Albuquerque. We had a nice long pull through site with our own ramada. We noticed in the southwest and Mexico it is quite common to have these ramadas, but it is not everyday each campsite gets their own. We planned on staying here five nights to explore the Albuquerque and Santa Fe area.

One day we drove into Santa Fe, which is the oldest capital city in the country (1610) and also the capital city with the highest elevation (6,989 ft). Santa Fe has the nickname “The City Different” and it truly looks very different from any other city in the country. Thousands of years ago the Pueblo Indians used adobe, a mixture of earth, straw and water which was shaped into bricks and dried in the sun. In 1912 a code was passed requiring the use of a style called Spanish Pueblo Revival which meant an architecture of earth-toned, flat topped buildings, wood beamed ceilings and doors and window frames painted white or turquoise. Most of the buildings are stucco that resemble adobe called non-authentic adobe. Consequently everything in Santa Fe looks adobe, including McDonald’s! They also have a regulation that no building can be taller than three stories, or the height of the cathedral.

We concentrated our time in the Old Town section of Santa Fe. We began by taking a 90 minute trolley tour that gave us a nice history of the town and took us to some areas we may not have found on our own. We rode past a statue of Sacagawea, some interesting art and metal work, and ended up at a huge bronze replica of a stagecoach on the Santa Fe Trail. This section of New Mexico is full of information on the Santa Fe Trail and there are signs everywhere showing where the trail came through. Likewise there are signs denoting Historic Route 66 along the roadways.

The Palace of the Governors was built in 1610 and is considered one of the oldest public buildings in the U.S. Along the sidewalks around the building you find many Native Americans selling handmade items. Our tour guide said they have to show up very early in the morning to participate in a lottery system to get a spot on the sidewalk amid the tourists.

The San Miguel Mission Church, constructed in 1610, is thought to be the country’s oldest active church.

The beautiful Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi is one of the few buildings in the city that is not adobe. Since it was a Saturday the church bells were frequently ringing as one wedding ended and immediately limousine doors would open and another bride emerged to enter the church.

Santa Fe was a very unique town and we really enjoyed our time there.

May 20, 2015 Los Alamos, New Mexico

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We left Mancos, Colorado and drove five hours to White Rock, New Mexico just outside of Los Alamos. There is plenty of nothing between Mancos and White Rock in the way of towns, but the scenery was beautiful. Southwest Colorado looks very much like New Mexico. The snow capped Jemez Mountains provided a gorgeous backdrop to the towering red rock formations in northern New Mexico.

We arrived at the White Rock RV Park which is located next to the White Rock Visitors Center. The park only provides electrical hookups, but since we had originally planned on dry camping in the area and the nights were cold, we were very thankful for the electricity.

We had two main reasons for visiting this area. One reason was to visit Bandelier National Monument. Established in 1916, this park is one of the National Park Service’s oldest sites. Evidence of Ancestral Pueblo people is shown by petroglyphs, multi-story adobe dwellings and dwellings in the rock cliffs going back over 11,000 years. The park is made up of over 33,000 acres of canyons and mesas. The Rio Grande River, a mere trickle now, flowed nearby. To reach the park entrance you have to drive up an elevation change of 1,000 feet and then down 800 feet to the visitor center.

We first stopped by the Visitors Center in Frijoles Canyon to see a movie about the park. They had a large area of exhibits about the Pueblo people. We noticed on the time lines they had BCE or CE after the dates. I walked over and asked one of the rangers about the initials. He told us the initials BCE stood for Before Common Era and CE stood for Common Era and those initials now took the place of BC and AD. Bill and I both found that troubling and will make a point from now on to see what appears on other park displays around the country.

We walked the main loop trail that took us past the remains of ancient homes called the Tyuonyi Village. Starting in approximately 1150 AD, the Ancestral Pueblo people began to build homes in this area, the Pajarito Plateau. The interesting walk included walking up and down stone steps through narrow passages which led us to cliff homes built into the rock face. We could climb ladders into the homes like the Pueblo did thousands of years ago. By the mid 1500’s the Ancestral Pueblo deserted these homes and moved further south along the Rio Grande. One thing we especially noticed was the pumice appearance of the rocks in the cliff face.

This is a back wall of a three story high adobe dwelling

By the way, the park is named for Adolph Bandelier, an anthropologist who studied and explored much of the southwest.

Our second reason for visiting the area was to learn more about the Manhattan Project. It was in Los Alamos that some top scientists and engineers, led by J. Robert Oppenheimer, perfected new nuclear technologies in World War II that led to the world’s first atomic bombs.

Formerly the Los Alamos Ranch School, established in 1917 and closed in 1943, the buildings and roads from the school were just the right remote location for the United States Government’s Project Y of the top secret Manhattan Project. “One way the Los Alamos school differed from other health schools at the time was its integration with Boy Scouts. Boys in the school belonged to Los Alamos Troop 22, the first mounted scout troop in the country and now one of the nation’s oldest continuous troops.” see History of the Los Alamos Ranch School

We made the short drive from our campsite at White Rock up another 1,000 feet in elevation to the mesas of Los Alamos and first toured the Los Alamos Historical Museum with several rooms of exhibits and artifacts of Los Alamos from the times of the Ancestral Pueblo to the Manhattan Project, with emphasis on the latter. We then drove to the nearby Bradbury Science Museum, a magnificent and impressive museum with movies and over 40 interactive exhibits on the Manhattan Project and the ongoing science and research of Los Alamos National Laboratory. There were three main galleries focusing on Defense, Research and History. In the Defense gallery they had models of Little Boy and Fat Man, the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan that ended World War II. A movie told us about the Los Alamos National Laboratory and its current mission to maintain the country’s aging weapons without nuclear testing. In the History section of the museum we saw an excellent movie about the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos from 1942 to 1945 that showed us what life was like back then.

We have visited many museums over the years and almost all of them have charged an admission. Both the Los Alamos Historical Museum and the Bradbury Science Museum were free of charge. The Bradbury Science Museum is funded by the Department of Energy, so I guess we are paying admission in a round about way!

Located today in Los Alamos is the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The facility is called one of the premier scientific institutions in the world. It has an annual budget exceeding $2 billion, has 2,100 individual facilities across 38 square miles of Los Alamos, and employs 11,000 people. The Lab is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Los Alamos National Security. The core mission of the Laboratory is national security in regard to ensuring the safety and reliability of nuclear deterrent, reduce the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and to counter terrorism.

There are no tours of the Laboratory and security around the facility is tight. When we were driving from Bandelier National Monument back to our campsite the road took us through land owned by the Lab. As we were exiting the area we had to go through a checkpoint where Bill had to show his driver’s license and explain where we were going. The guard then said, “Do you vouch?” Bill said, “What?????” The guard then said, “Do you vouch for your passenger?” Strange. Why didn’t he just ask for my driver’s license too!

We enjoyed our time in the White Rock/Los Alamos area. We found the drivers to be especially courteous and the people friendly. We loved our campsite where we could look out the windows at snow capped mountains. The weather was chilly during the day and cold at night. During our time there we had some very heavy rain and a few thunderstorms, one of which presented us with a gorgeous rainbow.

May 14, 2015 Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

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We left Gallup and made the long drive to Mancos, passing from New Mexico into Arizona and then into Colorado. We stopped at the Four Corners Monument which is owned and managed by Native Americans since it is on their land. They charge a $5.00 fee per person to enter the area.

Four Corners is the only place in the United States where four states meet; Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. There is a concrete memorial at the site, provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with the seal of each of the four states as well as their state flags. This site is also the boundary between two Native American governments, the Navajo Nation and the Mountain Ute Tribe Reservation. Navajo and Ute artists have items on display.

One interesting plaque states that the first surveyor determined the location of the four corners. Later a second surveyor determined the location was over 1800 feet off and wanted to change the four corners location. A joint resolution by Congress in 1908 to move the monument was vetoed by President Theodore Roosevelt and a lawsuit filed in 1919 also failed. “In surveying, monuments rule”. (Quote from National Geodetic Survey organization). The monument disc has been at that location for a century and a quarter and all parties have accepted it.

We left Four Corners Monument and headed to our campground at Mancos. The campground was fairly deserted and not long after we arrived it began to rain. For the next two days we had rain, thunder, lightning and hail. We used the time to make some summer reservations and work on the blog. We did have a nice view out our front window of Point Lookout located in the national park.

La Planta Mountains, Colorado

Our last day in Mancos the sun was shining and we were able to visit Mesa Verde National Park, our main reason for coming to Mancos. Our campground was conveniently located across from to the entrance to the park.

After stopping by the Visitors Center we began the 20 mile drive into the park. This national park was created in 1906 for the purpose of preserving the archaeological heritage of the Ancestral Pueblo people and is the only national park with such a purpose. The park includes over 4,500 archaeological sites of which 600 are cliff dwellings and is a World Heritage Site.

Cliff Palace

Spruce Tree House

The Ancestral Pueblo people made this area their home for over 700 years from 550 AD to 1300 AD. From 1200 to 1300 AD the Pueblo people began to build their villages beneath overhanging cliffs. Their main construction material was sandstone that they shaped into rectangular blocks about the size of a loaf of bread. Mortar between the blocks was a mixture of dirt and water. Around 1300 AD they abandoned this area. The reason is a mystery though historians suspect a severe prolonged drought forced them to leave. We are fortunate to be able to see the remains of these cliff dwellings today.

The park has an excellent movie about the Pueblo people and many rooms of exhibits, displays and artifacts.

Through the Eyes of the Selphs

Bill and Diane's travel notes and pictures

Category Archives: Historic Landmark

June 16, 2015 Rapid City and Custer S.P. South Dakota

June 12, 2015 Mount Rushmore NP, South Dakota

June 10, 2015 Cheyenne, Wyoming & Wind Cave NP, South Dakota

June 5, 2015 Denver, Colorado

June 1, 2015 Colorado Springs, Colorado

May 29, 2015 Trinidad Lake State Park, Colorado

May 24, 2015 Albuquerque, New Mexico

May 23, 2015 Santa Fe, New Mexico

May 20, 2015 Los Alamos, New Mexico

May 14, 2015 Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado