Kicked Out of New Mexico!

HI all,
After spending Monday kicking around Albuquerque waiting for Kelli's flight to arrive, we immediately headed north only to spend Mon. night in a Wal-Mart parking lot. But it was OK because the all night parking lot security guard welcomed us, showed us the best place to park, and told us he would check on us all night. It was close to midnight and all the campgrounds were closed due to fire hazard.
Tues. to Chimayo, then Santa Fe,   then Taos for lunch. After that we headed west into Carson National forest to do some rock climbing at El Rito.
El Rito turned out to be an awesome climbing area, we had a great day! When we got back to the car there was a notice on the car stating that the Natnl. Forest would be closed and must be evacuated by 6am the next morning because of the approaching wild fires! We had be traveling and climbing in heavy smoke all day, so this was not too much of a surprise to us.
Since most of our plans in NM involved activities in the national forest we decided to head north into Colorado, eventually leaving the smoke and ending up at Penitente Canyon.
Spent the morning climbing at Penitente, and are now in South Fork CO waiting for some light rain to stop (the first I've seen in 8 days!), so we can go bouldering nearby.
Sorry for the run-on.
So, now pictures from most of the above days.

Nuclear Science Museum, Albuquerque.

Sant Fe

Albuquerque

OK, that's a lot. I've not loaded the pics of the smoke in the sky as we were driven from NM. Hopefully tonight.
All for now.
Cheers, Mark

Albuquerque

Today I drove through Santa Fe (seems lovely), right to Albuquerque. The ultimate in urban sprawl! Really, don't bother, not when there are so many other cool places to visit. Plus, this is real desert country, so it's hotter.
It was 98f here today. Unfortunately the smoke from the fires in AZ started drifting over this area again, so it's smokey too. I did manage to visit Petroglyph National Monument. I went around 2:00, so very hot and horrible light for finding the petroglyphs and for photo's. But, here's some of what I got.

I spent a good portion of the day driving around looking for a place to camp. All of the places where I had planned to camp in the mountains are closed because of fear of wild fire. So here I am at a KOA campground right next to the freeway.
Gotta go, battery dead.
Cheers!

Pics For Last Night

OK, so here are the photo's that go with the last post. Basically the drive from Taos to Los Alamos.
Enjoy please.

 I wish I had my motorcycle!

Sanctuary de Chimayo

 Black Mesa w/ wild fire in the distance.

Atomic bombs at the Bradbury Museum. No, not Ray.

 Mushroom cloud viewed from Los Alamos. Ironic huh!  (wild fire)

Ashley Pond Park, Los Alamos

This pond is a natural spring fed pond (not the cement bit), and is the reason the original settelment was established here in the first place. Ashley Pond is the person the pond was named after, so technically it is Ashley Pond pond. Funny
I'm off to Santa Fe now

All the best,
Mark

BOOM!

Hi all,
I am in Los Alamos, NM. I've already seen "The Bomb". Well, not THE bomb. Another one that was not dropped on anyone. I really like this town, definitely would live here. The labs still employ 12,000 people I am told. Very calm and cool here. I'm going to go explore a bit, I'll try not to pick up any radiation while I'm here.

Mark

Valle Vidal

Here are some pictures of the Valle Vidal which I told you about. Also some pictures of some other places.

 This brook "Rio Costilla" is supposed to be one of the best fly fishing streams in the country. It is so beautiful that I would stand in it all day even if I wasn't fishing!

 Elk

 Adobe house. Collapsed and abandoned.

Today I will leave Taos and begin to travel south toward Albuquerque. I pick up Kelli Monday night!
All for now,
Mark

Dusty day.

I spent last night at a campground right on the edge or the Rio Grande gorge. That made for some good sunset shots.

I got up very early (my body is still on east cost time), and headed for the Valle Vidal (Google It, it's a long story). The Valle Vidal may be the most beautiful place I have ever been. And I was the only person other than ranchers in the whole place, really. I spent 6 hours making my way through the whole width of the Valle and so no other tourists. That alone makes it a wonderful place. I should have pictures in the next post, although I know that they won't do it justice. The only bad part (this is where the dust comes in), is that all 6 hours were driven on  continually washboarded , dry, dirt roads. Needless to say, it has been hard keeping everything clean.

In the mean time, here are some pictures.

 These two shots are in a little cemetary in Amalia, the Village right near our land. I think the population is 30 something! The village, not the cemetary.

So that's all for now,
Mark