Tsankawi Ruins Hike & Jemez Scenic Drive

On the road again doing a hike and taking a scenic drive.  We discovered why we could spend a month or so in Santa Fe.  It's the outstanding recreational opportunities which are all around the town.  We've seen the Georgia O'Keefe Musem, The Folkart Museum, and The Palace in the square of downtown Santa Fe.  This time we wanted to do something different.

Perusing All Trails, a great computer program/application which shares hiking and biking trail information from all over the country, I found a short (1.7 miles), easy (how it's rated) trail just outside of Santa Fe.  It's called the Tsankawa Ruins hike and is part of Bandolier National Park which preserves excavations of Ancient Pueblan ruins.  The hike we chose is actually on the outskirts of the park - a good thing on the 4th of July weekend - and explores unexcavated ruins.  We arrived early, and at 7000 feet, the 70 degree temp felt like heaven after the hell of a 117 degree day in Sun City.

The reason the hike was so interesting was it was laid out along the same route the Ancient Pueblans walked to get up and down the mesa.  Their 'cavates' (rooms dug out of the compressed volcanic ash, called tuff,) were hundreds of feet above the floor of the valley where their crops were planted.  People went up and down all day long tending the crops, hunting, carrying water from the water source to the cavates.

We walked in trenches - literally - which were the paths worn down by thousands of years of Pueblan feet.  We used ladders to ascend in place of the foot and hand holds going up toward the top of the mesa.

After the hike, we took the Jemez Scenic Drive, a loop roughly between Santa Fe and Albuquerque.  On this drive, we discovered the Valles Caldera, a nascent National Park,

preserving a unique geological formation.  This is a beautiful place which was completely uncrowded because no one really knows about it, and it has developed almost no facilities.  The park's electric shuttle van took us to a wonderful picnic table back into the interior of the park.  What a great lunch with a breathtaking view, and then we got picked up and returned to the visitor's center.

The Jemez Scenic Drive was breathtaking and totally full of wonderful scenery

As always, the pictures tell the whole story.  I will say that walking in the trenches and climbing up using those little foot holes have made my quads bark like dogs.  However, the view from the top of the mesa was worth it.

https://goo.gl/photos/8p54AoxS7crRiefR9