10-14-07 Sunday

Can't believe the week has gone so fast! This is the day that seemed so far away just 9 days ago. At the same time, our trip to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert seems eons ago as well. Funny how time does that. Of course we crammed so much into this trip and stayed so busy that I know that is part of the reason as well. Had decided to leave for the airport about 7:00 so we were downstairs again for breakfast about 6:15. Carol and Annie checked out and we loaded their luggage and headed for the airport. Jerry and I will be staying another night as our flight to CA is not until tomorrow and we could not get it changed.

We were able to get Carol checked in on line but for some reason, Annie had to go through check in. They opted to do that outside and with Southwest, it is pretty painless. We did even get a glimpse of the balloons from the parking lot while we were waiting for them to get checked in. There was one last farewell mass ascension this a.m. We said our good byes and they made it through security so we headed out to do our thing today. We had checked maps to see if there was someplace new we could go but did not want to drive 4-5 hours to get there so we decided to return to Bandelier. Jerry had looked at a map and found an alternate route over a dirt/gravel road through some back country and....you know us...that always seems like a good idea so we went for it.

That is when the adventures began!!!! We had done 2 other gravel/dirt roads that I think I mentioned earlier in the blog and they were pretty good roads, especially since we were able to avoid rain on the one we were really concerned about. Well, what is that saying about "third time's a charm???" This road.......well, it was an adventure to say the least! As we started out we noticed another national monument - Tent Rocks to be exact that was just off the hightway we were taking so we kind of detoured there for a bit. It was interesting rock formations that were cone shaped and many of them still had boulders on top of them. The geology here owes it uniqueness to volcanoes and erosion. There was a HUGE volcanic eruption millions of years ago that spewed ash as much as 1000' thick over a very large area. Through time this ash has eroded and the erosion patterns here have created these unique tent shaped spires. They are know also as white rocks because of the color of the rock...they are not the red rock that is so common out west. Very interesting shapes indeed. We walked on a trail for a short while and saw some of the formations and I thought it was very interesting. Jerry did not want to spend much time here as he wanted get on to Bandelier so it was a quick visit.

After Tent Rocks we got back on the road and missed the turn for the road that would take us up to Hwy. 4 and Bandelier. After we backtracked a bit, we got on the road and this is where things began to get interesting. It was very rough. Fortunately we were driving a Toyota Highlander SUV and it had 4 wheel drive. As we bounced down the road, we met a truck coming in the opposite direction. Jerry flagged him down and he assured us we could get through in our vehicle. The scenery was spectacular and the fall colors were gorgeous. There were bright yellows of aspen and cottonwoods, rusts, reds and russets of oaks and the green of the junipers and pines. The guy in the truck said that this first 2-3 miles of the road was the roughest and then it improved. Well, it did for a while, then we found ourselves driving over solid rock which was VERY rough and Jerry was getting a bit worried I think. But we took it slow and there were other cars on the road so we did not feel alone. At one point we pulled off at a place where there was a gorgeous view and obviously a popular place for campfires, camping, etc. (I will post a picture taken from there as well as one from the road...just to give you an idea). We FINALLY made it to HWY 4 and then on to Bandelier.

Since we had seen the first cluster of cliff dwellings on our earlier visit with Annie and Carol, we walked on the trail past those and on to Long House. Bandelier is a very interesting place to visit. Consulting our trail map there was another ceremonial house 1/2 mile down a trail that followed the creek. We had seen signs at the ranger station/visitor center warning of a bear in the area. As we walked down the trail, everyone coming the other way told us the bear was very visible and close to the trail and to be on the lookout. As we continued down the trail, we kind of caught up with a younger couple who were celebrating their anniversary by coming to Santa Fe. About that time we spotted the bear in the distance off to the side of the trail. The guy was ready to turn and run and was not going to continue on to Alcove House. I was ready to return with him because according to the trail info, Alcove House is a bit difficult to get to - not recommended for those leery of heights....ME!!!! His wife was ready to continue as was Jerry of course, but for the moment we decided to see what the bear was doing. He started lumbering down the trail towards us and we had to really persuade the guy with us not to take off and run which is the worst thing you can do....don't want to look like prey! We convinced him that we needed to stay together and look REALLY BIG! At this time he (was about 150' from us and went to the left of the trail and climbed a tree and was out of sight - but that did not last long. He came down out of that tree, crossed the trail and wandered through the bushes looking for something to eat. The only problem with this was that he was still coming in our direction and decided the trail was the easiest route to get to us so here he is loping down the trail right at us. I got a picture of that, but as my heart was pounding that is the only picture I got of him. We were sort of frozen in place. He got to a stand of pine trees just ahead of us on the trail and proceeded to climb them. At this point he was maybe 20 feet from us. I had a good look at him through the trunks of the trees, but as I was focusing my camera he started down the tree and I reminded everyone that this would probably be a good time to SCREAM!!!!! Those were the instructions posted all over AK and Canada this summer....make yourself look big and make lots of noise to let the bear know where you are so you don't surprise him. Well, as we are still around to tell the tale, the screaming worked. We made all sorts of loud noises and yelling, etc. and he took off through the bushes. We stood and watched him to be sure he stayed on the other side of the stream and he did. A couple of guys from some foreign country said they had seen him but did not know what to do and then they heard us making noise. Close encounter of the scary kind. A very obvious way to get your heart rate up!!!! It worked - mine was pounding!

Thrills and chills of a different sort awaited us when we arrived at Alcove House (the end of the trail). You access this site by climbing pole ladders that are anchored to the cliff face. Well, Alcove House is 140' almost straight up. There are 5 ladders! The first ladder had 35-40 rungs and it looked like it went forever. There were three more like that and then one shorter one. I made all of them and when we got to the top, there was a kiva type place with a pole ladder descending into the kiva. Fortunately this ladder was only about 8 rungs so I went down into that and it was kind of cool. The hard part was going back down. Getting started was the WORST!!!! Until you got down about 2-3 rungs, there was nothing to really grip...you had to hang on to the large upright poles and they were too large to grip your hands around so it was a bit insecure. Of course you kind of had to look down as well to see where to position your feet.....yuck! However, I made it and my arms were trembling when it was over. Back down the trail we went, keeping a sharp eye out for the bear, but he was nowhere to be seen on the return trip fortunately. He was a rather large bear...Jerry was guessing 300-400 lbs. - he looked bigger than that when he was coming at us on the trail. When I told the rangers about him they did not seem too concerned and they did remind me that he is fattening himself up for a long winter's nap. After all that excitement, I was glad to get inside the car and get back on the road. The road back was highway all the way....no backroads back to Albuquerque this afternoon!!!! We had dinner reservations at High Finance Restaurant on top of Sandia Peak at 6:30. We made a quick trip back by the hotel to get out of our dusty trail jeans and then headed to catch the tram up the mountain. We had a good evening sky - very windy and cold on top....we were there early so we kind of walked through the museum part where you catch the tram to go back down and then went for a drink at the bar while we waited for our table and missed the actual sunset. I did get a good pix of the evening sky with the sun behind some clouds. Also got some pix of Albuquerque at night. Back down and back to the tram for our last night in ALB.
Since our flight out is in the morning, we spent the rest of the evening back at the hotel packing and going through all the stuff we had accumulated after 10 days of travel.