our first stop for the morning was in a cemetery we noticed the night before. there were beautiful flowers growing all around, and there were some beautiful mausoleums...
our first NP stop today was at bandelier np... they had a wonderful visitor center as well as a paved trail (even though we did not use the stroller). inside the visitor center, they had a station where you could "touch and feel" some of the pottery. kendal enjoyed that stop...
nathaniel dropped kendal off with me at a shady bench where i fed him applesauce. nathaniel went ahead on a spur of the main trail to climb up into a cave. he took this neat shot out of the door.
these were some of the beautiful flowers blooming at bandelier.
some of the neat windows in the walls of bandelier... all the holes are where wood beams used to be.
kendal got sleepy along this trail. apparently his dad (the mule) has just the right pace of walk that rocked him to sleep.
when we got back to the visitors center, kendal REALLY was asleep...
after finishing the trail at bandelier, we stopped in their picnic area to have lunch. PB&Raisins for us, spinach ravioli and peaches for kendal.
on the way to chaco canyon, we drove up through jemez springs to find soda dam (a NM state historic park). i've been here twice before, but i was still blown away by the beauty (and the smell... sulfer)! kendal was not so impressed, i think it may have been too loud for him.
but we did find a small cavern-like spot where he could touch the cool, wet rocks!
after leaving soda dam, we traveled for probably 60 miles on curvy, back country roads through jemez forest and the jemez caldera. still, driving forward, we finally got to the turn off to go to chaco canyon NP which was 5 miles of paved road and 16 miles of dirt road off the "main" road.
this road was very bumpy and we couldn't drive over 35 or 40 mph. the visitor center closed at 5pm, so we were KINDA in a rush (the scenic drive in the park, however, closed at sunset, but we wanted to get kendal's NP passport book stamped)! so we got there with 5 minutes to spare. we got a park map, paid our fees, and drove on to one of the trail heads.
kendal in stroller, we headed up the trail. THIS PLACE WAS AMAZING. kendal loved it, he loved the echos in the little rooms, the small doors, the cool air (by this time it wasn't so hot outside). here is our shadow in a kiva:
here is kendal digging the short people doors!
here is a series of rooms... well, the doors to the rooms anyway!
and this is what they look like in a video...
here is nathaniel peering over the wall of one of the outside rooms:
after we finished at the largest buildings, nathaniel ran up to a different one while i loaded k in the car. he got 2 really cool photos... this one has the buildings in the front with fajada butte in the background...
and this one where you can see the visitor center in the mid-ground (fajada butte in the background again)!
he also got to see this cool horny toad!
and these cool petroglyphs (which were on another trail at the visitor center, i took k for a diaper change and a bottle, N ran up this trail (which was not stroller friendly)).
our first NP stop today was at bandelier np... they had a wonderful visitor center as well as a paved trail (even though we did not use the stroller). inside the visitor center, they had a station where you could "touch and feel" some of the pottery. kendal enjoyed that stop...
nathaniel dropped kendal off with me at a shady bench where i fed him applesauce. nathaniel went ahead on a spur of the main trail to climb up into a cave. he took this neat shot out of the door.
these were some of the beautiful flowers blooming at bandelier.
some of the neat windows in the walls of bandelier... all the holes are where wood beams used to be.
kendal got sleepy along this trail. apparently his dad (the mule) has just the right pace of walk that rocked him to sleep.
when we got back to the visitors center, kendal REALLY was asleep...
after finishing the trail at bandelier, we stopped in their picnic area to have lunch. PB&Raisins for us, spinach ravioli and peaches for kendal.
on the way to chaco canyon, we drove up through jemez springs to find soda dam (a NM state historic park). i've been here twice before, but i was still blown away by the beauty (and the smell... sulfer)! kendal was not so impressed, i think it may have been too loud for him.
but we did find a small cavern-like spot where he could touch the cool, wet rocks!
after leaving soda dam, we traveled for probably 60 miles on curvy, back country roads through jemez forest and the jemez caldera. still, driving forward, we finally got to the turn off to go to chaco canyon NP which was 5 miles of paved road and 16 miles of dirt road off the "main" road.
this road was very bumpy and we couldn't drive over 35 or 40 mph. the visitor center closed at 5pm, so we were KINDA in a rush (the scenic drive in the park, however, closed at sunset, but we wanted to get kendal's NP passport book stamped)! so we got there with 5 minutes to spare. we got a park map, paid our fees, and drove on to one of the trail heads.
kendal in stroller, we headed up the trail. THIS PLACE WAS AMAZING. kendal loved it, he loved the echos in the little rooms, the small doors, the cool air (by this time it wasn't so hot outside). here is our shadow in a kiva:
here is kendal digging the short people doors!
here is a series of rooms... well, the doors to the rooms anyway!
and this is what they look like in a video...
here is nathaniel peering over the wall of one of the outside rooms:
after we finished at the largest buildings, nathaniel ran up to a different one while i loaded k in the car. he got 2 really cool photos... this one has the buildings in the front with fajada butte in the background...
and this one where you can see the visitor center in the mid-ground (fajada butte in the background again)!
he also got to see this cool horny toad!
and these cool petroglyphs (which were on another trail at the visitor center, i took k for a diaper change and a bottle, N ran up this trail (which was not stroller friendly)).
Love it. Give me MORE!
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