Category: Albuquerque & New Mexico

Today’s Photos

Yesterday Donna and I took a little day road-trip (in the Z, of course). First stop was the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos. This fine museum is a must for anyone with an interest in science or history. We stayed about an hour, but promised each other to return soon for a more in-depth look. If you’ve never been, go. It’s free. And watch the short film.

Next we went over the pass west of Los Alamos, shaking our head at the bald hills, forested before the 2000 Cerro Grande fire, and at the newly burned trees, dead and dying, from this summer’s Las Conchas fire. Destruction as far as the eye can see in some cases. (156,000 acres burned this summer.) We saw where the fire had crossed Highway 501 onto Los Alamos National Laboratory property. (Where they keep the plutonium!)

Though encircled on the east and south by burnt, brown trees, and not as green as usual due to the drought, the Valles Caldera is still one Earth’s sublime sights. And the National Preserve was open to visit. We drove down the 2-mile gravel road to the visitor center, expecting just to enjoy the view from inside the valley, rather than only along the ridge from Highway 4 as usual. To our delight, we were offered a shuttle ride back into the Preserve to pick up some hikers (for $8 apiece, senior rate). We let them twist our arms.

It was wonderful to see — mostly in isolation as personal vehicles are not allowed — some of the other valleys and ridges in the Preserve, the original ranch buildings and old movie sets. Most exciting was seeing scores of elk enjoying the single-bar action of their fall rut (and if you’ve never heard a bull elk bugling, it is one of the great natural sounds — here’s a short Elk Call video from Yellowstone, if you can get by the people talking and the camera sounds. Why must people always talk?).

Alas I had forgotten my Nikon at home, so was forced to rely on the iPhone. Click any image for a version twice as large.

Looking south across the Valle Grande. That's the visitor center that appears as a white speck in the center. Highway 4 is on the distant ridge. The hills in the distance were all burned.
This bull had a large harem, apparently all to himself. One bull often controls a large number of females during the fall but exhausts himself in the process. It's not unusual for the dominant bull to die during the winter, so run-down he is from the effort.
Elk, including several bulls, bugling and challenging each other and trying to assure immortality for their DNA.
Looking east. A third of the Preserve's 89,000 acres was burned during this summer's Las Conchas Wildfire.

We ended the day at the Los Ojos Saloon in Jemez Springs in beautiful Jemez Canyon with green chile (fresh!) cheeseburgers, God’s personal gift to New Mexico.

Valles Caldera National Preserve

The Valles Caldera is one of the most beautiful places in America. For 10 years however, the administration of the National Preserve has become one of continually unfulfilled expectations. Two weeks ago, Joey Peters of Santa Fe Reporter had an excellent report on the political morass that binds this extraordinary piece of land, Burned Ambition. I highly recommend the article, but here’s a brief excerpt:

The Valles Caldera National Preserve was established in 2000 in a class of its own; no other wilderness area in the United States is run like it. Created as an experiment, it’s essentially a public park operated with a private mentality. A presidentially appointed board of trustees operates the land. The trustees work closely with the US Forest Service, which also manages the nearby Santa Fe National Forest. The board’s goal is to make the caldera financially self-sustainable without excluding the public from the wilderness area.

But in its 11 years as a public park, Valles Caldera is nowhere near on track to meet its 2015 deadline of financial self-sustainability. In fiscal year 2010—one of the trust’s better years to date—the caldera recovered just over $700,000 of its $3.5 million in operating costs. 

For the public, accessing the caldera has proven restrictive and costly, prompting nearby residents and interest groups to push for a change in management. But the aftermath of the Las Conchas fire, which charred 30,000 acres of the preserve—along with several square miles of the surrounding land—now further complicates the caldera’s already uncertain future.

Five years ago the Preserve had a rare public day, and even that mixed disaster and joy. I posted this at the time.

NewMexiKen has written about the Valles Caldera previously. The Valle Grande alone, just the one-fourth of the Preserve that’s visible from New Mexico Highway 4, is magnificent.

As Scott Momaday wrote in House Made of Dawn:

Of all the places that he knew, this valley alone could reflect the great spatial majesty of the sky. It scooped out of the dark peaks like the well of a great, gathering storm, deep umber and blue and smoke-colored. The view across the diameter was magnificent; it was an unbelievably great expanse. As many times as he had been there in the past, each new sight of it always brought him up short, and he had to catch his breath. Just there, it seemed, a strange and brilliant light lay upon the world, and all the objects in the landscape were washed clean and set away in the distance.

Saturday [August 26, 2006], the Trust that has managed the Preserve since it came into federal ownership in 2000, opened the property to all comers. Normally access is tightly restricted, so it was a big event for many of us — a chance to see the back country, if only from the window of a car. According to local news reports, about 1500 vehicles showed up, more than expected and more than could be accommodated. Rains had washed out parts of the planned tour route and the result was congestion unfitting for such a beautiful place.

Still, we were glad we went. Even driving just a few miles across Valle Grande changed perceptions and made it seem beautiful all over again.

Photos rarely serve the Valle Grande well. For one, its almost too big for the human eye, let alone the two-dimensional reproduction. That said, here a few photos taken Saturday, including some of the traffic. You may click on any image for a larger version.

Traffic Lined Up Sign

Traffic backed up in both directions on Hwy 4 waiting to turn in.

Traffic Going In Get a Horse

View showing the road into Valle Grande, and a way of travel many of us envied.

Flowers in the Breeze East Fork Jemez River

Some of the beauty found, especially in our verdant summer of 2006.
That’s the East Fork of the Jemez River.

A Vista Tree Framed Vista

Too beautiful for words. Too beautiful for photos.

Too Many Cars

Too many car-bound nature lovers snake along at a few miles an hour.

Handsome Eye Contact

Would you like a rider, good lookin’? How about you? Hmm, maybe not.

New Mexico

New Mexico officially became part of the United States 165 years ago today when 1,600 troops under General Stephen Watts Kearny raised the American flag over the plaza in the Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis (Santa Fe), reportedly as the sun broke through the overcast sky. There had been little or no resistance. (It came at Taos the following January.)

August 18. Gen. Kearney proceeded through the pass and at 5 pm reached hill that overlooks Santa Fe.

Major Clark’s artillery was put into line, and the mounted troops and infantry were marched through town to the Palace (as it is called) and his staff dismounted and were received by the acting governor and other dignitaries and conducted to a large room. The general gave the assurance of safety and protection to all unoffending citizens. The stars and stripes were hoisted on the staff which is attached to the Palace by Major Swords. As soon as it was seen to wave above the buildings, it was hailed by a national salute from the battery of Captains Fischer and Weightman, under the command of Major Clark. While the general was proclaiming the conquest of New Mexico as a part of the United States, the first gun was heard. “There,” said he, “my guns proclaim that the flag of the United States floats over this capitol.” The people appeared satisfied. The general slept in the palace. (we democrats must call it the governor’s house.) One company of dragoons ws kept in the city as a guard and the business of the day was ended.

As reported in Niles’ National Register

Today’s Graphic

THE NOAA NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER REPORTS THAT THE FIRST SEVEN MONTHS OF 2011 HAD BEEN THE DRIEST START TO ANY YEAR ON RECORD FOR NEW MEXICO. THROUGH JULY OF 2011…STATEWIDE PRECIPITATION WAS ONLY 42 PERCENT OF NORMAL.

AS OF EARLY AUGUST 2011…47 PERCENT OF NEW MEXICO WAS IN EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT…THE WORST DROUGHT CATEGORY POSSIBLE. EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT IS ESSENTIALLY A 50 YEAR RECURRENCE EVENT. ABOUT 93 PERCENT OF NEW MEXICO WAS IN SEVERE TO EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT AS SPOTTY SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS HAD YET TO RESULT IN WIDESPREAD SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS.

National Weather Service Watch Warning Advisory Summary

Cougar on the Rise

NewWest has a story about mountain lions. It begins:

In rural New Mexico, trailheads leading into cougar country often are posted with signs that explain what a hiker should do in case of an encounter.

Maybe Robert Giannini had read such advice, because he did the right thing—eventually.

In June, Giannini and Parker Smith, 23, of Georgia were cycling at night in the New Mexico backcountry for a fundraiser when they encountered two lions. Smith tried to pedal faster to get away, and then realized he’d made a mistake when one lion gave chase.

“I knew we couldn’t outrun it,” Smith told the Athens Banner-Herald, “so I jumped off the bike and held it up between me and the mountain lion. Then I just started jumping around, yelling and screaming at the top of my lungs and trying to make myself as big and scary as possible.

“It was growling. I was screaming. It was intense. It probably only lasted about 20 seconds. But it felt like forever.”

Note: Author seems to have confused the two riders, but whatever, it’s an interesting article.

Today’s Photo Album

Five photos from a weekend in Santa Fe. You may click each image for a larger version.

I love Santa Fe. I go there frequently, sometimes just for dinner and a stroll. Indeed, proximity to Santa Fe is one of the best things about living in Albuquerque.

But I’ve been to European cities too. C’mon Santa Fe. Palace? Cathedral?

Building shown (in part) in background is the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. Photo taken yesterday, noonish.

The song goes, “If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.”

Well, the song for Santa Fe might be, “If you’re going to Santa Fe, be sure to wear a hard hat on your head.”

Photo is of the Palace Street façade of Sena Plaza. The patio is wonderful, and brunch at La Casa Sena restaurant lovely. And, being as it’s Santa Fe, perhaps the deterioration is fake.

Flowers hanging from lamppost in Santa Fe Plaza.

You know you are in the right spot in any city in the world when you are walking among the wedding parties and their photographers.

iPhone photo.

Another hanging basket in the Plaza.

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680

On the Feast Day of San Lorenzo, August 10, 1680, the Franciscan priest Fray Juan Pío left early from Santa Fe to say Mass in the nearby pueblo of Tesuque. A Spanish settler living in Tesuque had been murdered the day before and Pío was preoccupied with reports of an imminent Indian uprising.

Before the day was over, Pío would disappear, his bloodstained shield found, and four hundred Spaniards, among them twenty other Franciscan priests, would be killed. After more than 140 years of submission to Spanish colonial rule, the Pueblos had united with other Indian tribes to revolt against their colonizers. Led by a medicine man known as Popé, they plundered homes and demolished churches and other signs of the Spanish empire, including government documents. The Pueblo Revolt had begun.

Spanish survivors were driven as far south as present-day El Paso. For the next twelve years, New Mexico would remain free of Spanish rule.

From Trouble for the Spanish: The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Humanities, Volume 23/Number 6, November/December 2002

Popé, or Po’pay, is one of two New Mexicans depicted in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall.

In 1675 Po’pay and 46 other Pueblo leaders were convicted of sorcery; he was among those flogged, while others were executed. In 1680 Po’pay organized the Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish. According to legend, to coordinate the timing of the uprising, he and his followers sent runners to each pueblo with knotted deerskin strips. One knot was to be untied each day, and the revolt would begin on the day the last one was untied. However, the Spaniards arrested two of the runners, and the pueblos were quickly notified to accelerate the revolt. The attacks began on August 10, two days before the last knot would have been untied. The Spaniards took refuge at Santa Fe; the besieging Indians cut off their water supply but soon permitted them to leave the area. The Pueblo Revolt helped to ensure the survival of the Pueblo culture and shaped the history of the American Southwest.

Abo Canyon

Longtime reader and commenter Mi3ke took a train ride and came back with a fascinating photo essay. Here’s his introduction, but as his blog’s title says, it’s Things My Camera Sees and the photos tell the story.

BNSF Railroad runs a transcontinental mainline from west coast ports to Chicago.  With all but 32 miles of the track being double track, one of the biggest bottlenecks was a 5 mile stretch of single track in Abo Canyon, just east of Belen, New Mexico.  The track runs 80 to 90 trains a day, about one every 15 minutes. They go through 400 to 500 foot high bluffs, cuts 100 to 150 feet deep and over 9 bridges over 80 feet high and up to 500 feet long. In the train industry, time is money.  This stretch could stop a train for up to 3 hours.  Time to blow stuff up!

Continue at Things My Camera Sees

Albuquerque

It’s been six years today since I first posted this:

The Rio Grande is (Sandia Crest notwithstanding) simply the best thing about the Duke City. America’s third longest river passes through the entire length of the city from north to south. And yet, at no place along the river can one stroll at the river’s edge. Yes, there are paths parallel to the river through the bosque (groove) that borders the river, and one can occasionally push aside the bushes and bugs and find the river’s edge. But nowhere can one stroll, or paddle, or stop and drink some wine or enjoy some New Mexican cuisine and watch the river roll by. With lesser rivers, San Antonio and even Oklahoma City have made attractive river walks. Why not here?

If I were emperor I would … re-zone a few appropriate areas of the Rio Grande waterfront for commercial development. Inviting developers to such an area would, I believe, be so attractive that no public funding would be needed and safeguards to protect the natural beauty of the riverfront could be easily enforced.

There is much to love about living in Albuquerque — a climate with seasons, yet none of them extreme; affordable real estate and manageable traffic; a simple, yet attractive airport; a fine zoo; red and green chiles. And yet, as with all places, there are things worth lamenting — more than our share of violence; a police force that fails to police itself; an awful newspaper (despite some good writers); failing schools; no Crate and Barrel.

And no tasteful development of the Great River of the North.

The fire

Haven’t mentioned the Las Conchas wildfire in several days. That is the fire that threatened Los Alamos the last week of June.

The fire is three weeks old today. It has burned 156,245 acres (244 square miles) in the Jemez Mountains. It is 65% contained. Great plumes of smoke are visible still; driving across Sandia Pueblo last night I could see the fire, orange glow on the mountains 35-40 miles north. Quite a site.

Dangerousmeta had some wonderful photos of sunset from Santa Fe Friday evening.

Most descriptive line of the day

“Nearby, litter on the forest floor in the woods that ring the Valles Caldera at its driest had just 1 percent fuel moisture.

“For comparison, the kiln-dried two-by-fours you buy at Home Depot measure 12 percent.”

Bob Parmenter, chief scientist at the Valles Caldera National Preserve, in an article on the drought by the Albuquerque Journal‘s John Fleck, Driest Season Recorded Stokes Fire Conditions [subscription or watching ad required].

Wildfires and Skiing — Another Holiday Weekend in the West

The Las Conchas wildfire in the Jemez Mountains has grown to over 120,000 acres and is just 11% contained but the residents of Los Alamos are being allowed to return home. There are nearly 2,000 firefighters working this fire. 63 residences have been destroyed.

The Donaldson fire in south central New Mexico is about 50% contained. It has burned over 96,000 acres since it began Tuesday.

The Pacheco fire nine miles north of Santa Fe is 55% contained. It has remained at about 10,000 acres for some time now.

The weather has changed as the monsoon season approaches. Humidity here had been in single digits many days by mid-morning. Today at 9:15 the humidity is 29%. No measurable rain fell in Albuquerque officially yesterday, but there was a trace.

Meanwhile ski resorts in the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies are open this weekend, there is that much snow remaining from the record snow pack.

According to the AP: “The weather allowed some of the more adventurous skiers at Arapahoe to try ‘pond skimming,’ a blend of snow skiing and waterskiing in which an individual picks up as much speed as possible going downhill and then attempts to coast over the top of a mid-mountain lake.”

I’d as soon be fighting a fire.