Day 111: Santa Fe to Jemez, NM

The most remarkable thing about today was the wonderful temperature outside - it was 18 degrees Celsius. Heavenly. It is beautiful in this mountainous part of New Mexico - coniferous forests, mist floating at the tree tops, and ample shade.

Our morning started with a visit to Los Alamos. We stopped to see a reconstruction of the famous entrance gate and snapped a family photo. 

We then spent several hours exploring the Bradbury Science Museum. We learned a bunch about the Manhattan Project, as well as what the Los Alamos Laboratory is up to these days, from nanotechnology to genetic research on ribosomes to breeding petroleum producing algae. Some interesting tidbits we learned at the museum included that Nagasaki was actually the back up target for the second nuclear bomb hit on Japan. Weather required a pivot after three flyovers of the desired target of Kokura indicated that pilots wouldn’t be able to make a clear drop. We also learned that the Fat Man atomic bomb was dropped from a plane called Bock’s Car but that this plane wasn’t flown by the pilot it was named after. Bock actually flew the third plane involved in the Nagasaki mission instead. The plane flown by Bock was responsible for photography, not dropping the bomb. It was never explained why Bock wasn’t piloting his namesake plane during the bombing run.

Ian’s interesting tidbit was that a Canadian nuclear physicist was involved in the Manhattan Project but later died in an accident with a plutonium experiment while teaching a class. 

The kids thought that the museum’s kid zone was amazing. They spent a bunch of time building a block world inspired by Minecraft.

We then walked to the Los Alamos Visitors Centre to pick up some maps and our Junior Ranger books. We used these to explore the houses that were associated with the Manhattan Project that are still standing. We saw the Ranch House building that housed visiting researchers, Bethe and Oppenheimer’s houses, and Ashley Pond. We also saw Hans Bethe’s Nobel Prize medal on display in his house.

Ranch House.

Bethe’s House from the back.

Bethe’s Nobel Prize.

Oppenheimer’s House.

Bethe’s House from the front.

Ashley Pond. There were loads of fish in here!

By this time we were nuclear tourismed out, so we packed it up and headed out. On the way out of town, we had to go through a security checkpoint in order to drive through the top secret Los Alamos Laboratory. We had to show ID and promise to drive only straight and take no photos on route. Crazy.

We arrived at San Antonio Campground near Jemez around 1pm. Our campsite was overrun by hornets. After Ali got stung within the first five minutes of our arrival, we decamped to inside the trailer for lunch. 

We then headed off to explore the nearby San Antonio Hot Springs. We had to drive up a 4x4 windy mountain road to get to the trailhead but we made it in one piece just in time for an epic monsoon rain and thunderstorm to hit. From the safety of the truck, we watched more rain come down in an hour than we have seen in over a month. It poured.

Once the rain abated, we hiked up to the hot springs with the encouragement of some friendly cows along the trail. The natural hot springs were amazing. There were only a few others there, the water was hot but not uncomfortably so, and the mountain view was gorgeous. I think I might be at my happiest sitting in volcanic hot springs. 

This place was so beautiful it is hard to believe that it is real.

When we were thoroughly soaked and pruney, we headed back down the mountain and back to our campsite for supper. Dinner was roasted pork on the BBQ with zucchini and cherry tomatoes. We cracked open a bottle of wine (using a multitool since we don’t have a corkscrew), listened to the Blue Jays game on the radio, and had a relaxing evening sitting outside (except for dodging hornets that are still harassing us).

Day 110: Albuquerque to Santa Fe, NM

My goodness. Today was a very big, very good day.

We woke to air balloons floating all around us. It was magical. Speaking of magical, the tooth fairy came! And boy, is the American tooth fairy generous - Ali got two American dollars and two Canadian dollars! He is covered on both sides of the border.

After everyone was awake, we started today’s adventures in Albuquerque at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. Here we saw some amazing things, such as the massive B-29 planes that carried the Fat Man and Little Boy nuclear bombs to Japan to end WWII. We also saw a Minute Man long range ballistic missile as well as the heat scarred missile cone from one that had re-entered the atmosphere. We saw yellow cake uranium, a replica tower from Los Alamos that held “gadget” (the first nuclear bomb) to be tested by Oppenheimer and his team, and a board game from the 1950s that actually provided kids with their own real samples of uranium ore (yikes!). The kids loved the Einstein Learning Lab and were fully immersed in several of his popular experiments and machines.

Yellow cake uranium.

Jacob’s ladder.

This wrapped our time in Albuquerque and we headed North along the Scenic Turquoise Highway to Santa Fe. First stop was Tinker Town in Sandia Park. The museum here was a labour of love project by the late Ross Ward. It was incredible. The attention to detail, creativity, and uniqueness were amazing. This was such a cool stop. The boys slotted in quarters to make the figures dance and sing. It was entertaining for the whole family.

Seamus had his fortune told.

This ship sailed its captain around the world for over a decade. What an incredible journey.

We finished up our journey to Santa Fe without incident and found ourselves at Meow Wolf House of Eternal Return, an interactive art installation, for the afternoon. We weren’t sure what exactly to expect here. Turns out that it was the equivalent of a nuclear bomb to the senses. It blew our minds. It was an interactive maze of sorts but honestly, it defies description. We have never in our lives seen anything like it. We walked through a fridge, found several secret passages behind bookshelves and in closets, travelled to space and underground, passed through Chinatown and Candyland. It was extremely weird but beyond cool.

Going through a portal in the dryer.

Exiting a spaceship.

Ali walking through the refrigerator to another dimension. So weird.

Meow Wolf was such an overload on the senses that as soon as we exited the building, Alistair - who had had an incredible time up to this point - burst into tears in the parking lot. He could hardly form coherent words, he was so overstimulated. It passed after he sat quietly in the car for a few minutes to regroup but it was an intense and overwhelming experience. We loved it.

Our next stop was more normal - we visited downtown Santa Fe to check out the tourist shops and galleries. We loved the dried pepper garlands and all the colour and smells of the different wares for sale in the markets. We also marvelled at the beauty of the Santa Fe architecture.

We ate delicious New Mexican cuisine again, for supper this time, at the Shed - a popular tourist restaurant. The food was exceptional. After supper we attended a free, outdoor concert in the town plaza as part of the Lensic 360 Santa Fe Summer Scene featuring Latin Grammy-winning headliner Monsieur Periné and opening act Christina Gomez y Los Cuates. It was relaxing to sit in the park, enjoy the music and watch people salsa dancing to the catchy tunes.

Enchiladas with pinto beans and pozole (hominy stew). Yum!

What a full day! We saw and did so much and made so many great memories. This was one of the best days of our trip, for sure. We are bedded down in the parking lot of the Tesuque Casino just outside of Santa Fe. It is very smoky here. We are keeping an eye on the large forest fire to the North East of us but it is far enough away that this is a safe place to sleep tonight. We don’t mind that the wind smells like campfire smoke.

We passed a massive military cemetery on the drive to the casino.