10 Jan Karma Trip #2, Part III: Santa Fe, Bandolier National Monument

Sunday Dec 19

We woke up early for our last morning at the hot springs – wanting a final soak before we left the hot springs. We had a whole day to get down from Gila National Wilderness area and towards Albuquerque. The drive out from the mountains was a different route than the way up, but equally windy, remote and fun to drive. We chose to spend the bulk of our day in Truth or Consequences, checking out their local Truth or Consequences brewery and the only spot in town to watch the Packer game: Raymond’s Bar. Raymond’s was peppered with the local elders – all of them greeted by name with their regular order appearing in front of them before their butts touch the stool. We were also treated with free finger sandwiches, made & brought in by the bar maiden herself. What a great afternoon!

We parked that night a little farther north, outside Socorro, on the banks of the Rio Grande. It was dead quiet and we had Island Park all to ourselves!

Monday Dec 20

Monday was essentially a commuting & work day. We got into Albuquerque by mid morning and found a nice coffee shop with locally made burritos (can’t get enough green chile!) and of course ample wifi / work space. We stayed for several hours, and hit the road to Santa Fe by late afternoon. We made plans to meet up with my good friend Hannah and her husband Dan who were also driving from Southern California back to Wisconsin for the holidays, and coincidentally we were all going to be in Santa Fe the same night!

We took the scenic byway between ABQ and Santa Fe, and were not disappointed. We made mental notes of the Emerald Trail and the town of Madrid as definite places to explore next time!

We found a casual Mexican restaurant open near the downtown Santa Fe Plaza – which was all decorated with lights for the holidays. We wolfed down some amazing guac, chimichangas, burritos, tacos, taquitos, beans and rice before saying goodnight and finding our local parking spot for the night, just outside the city on national forest land.

Tuesday Dec 21

We met up with Hannah and Dan one final time at a local coffee shop the next morning, they were continuing on their road trip north to Wisconsin, and we decided to take another work day and parked ourselves at the coffee shop for several hours, closing up our work for the week before the holiday weekend.

We ventured out and about in Santa Fe all afternoon and evening, visiting Santa Fe Brewing (Brakeroom location), Santa Fe Spirits, Matador (dive bar) and Tonic (cocktail bar). We really loved every place we checked out, with the exception of Santa Fe Spirits (not a great tasting room experience, luckily we only got a single tasting of 5 spirits to share, and left quickly). We finished the night early with some takeout, excited to get up and go the next day for a full day of hiking!

Wednesday Dec 22

We got up early and made the 90 min drive to Bandelier National Monument. The area is a maze of canyons, all tributaries eventually flowing into the Rio Grande. The canyons are also loaded with ancient cliff dwellings from various Anasazi tribes that flourished in the area around 1000 A.D. We chose one of the longer hikes – the Yapashi Pueblo / Stone Lions trail – to avoid any crowds, and were not disappointed! The trail left the visitor’s center from the far side of Frijoles Canyon and immediately climbed up a few hundred feet, giving us great views of Long House — a series of cliff dwellings, multiple stories high, and over a mile long.

We knew we wouldn’t be able to finish the entirety of the 11 mile out and back (nor the 14 mile loop version), but we chose the trail because I read a trip report that included some notes about petroglyphs found along the trail that weren’t marked or noted on the map. So we hiked on, enjoying the sun while on top of the canyons, and getting a great, varied workout in going up and down a total of 5 canyons – before turning around at the bottom of the biggest canyon – Alamo around the 4 mile mark.

Following the directions of the trip report, we easily found several walls at the top of Alamo canyon loaded with petroglyphs! So many spirals and shapes and even a hand print!

We finished hiking around 3:30p, checked out the visitor’s shop and museum to learn a little more about the ancient tribes that once inhabited this region. On our way out of the park, we spotted another pueblo site from the side of the road as we drove by, and we are excited to hopefully return someday to Bandelier and hike or backpack even more!

We drove north, choosing another parking spot along the Rio Grande just outside Taos and parking by 7p that evening. 8 miles of hiking really wore us out and we had an early night! We loved our time in and around Santa Fe and can’t wait to explore this area more.