DFT24 - Days 12, 13, and 14

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 On Thursday morning before we left the Grand Canyon we had a few things to finish up. We started with breakfast at the Harvey House Cafe and breakfast is much better than their lunch. Then we went to the visitors center so EG could be sworn in a junior ranger (she is really racking up the Jr Ranger badges on this trip). And then we made a few purchase and most importantly we mailed a few postcards 😉

As we left the Grand Canyon we did a scenic drive for 34 miles that took us around two other National Mounments - Watputki and Sunset Crater. Both were really cool to see but Sunset Crater was incredible with all the lava fields. 


However because we chose to do that it put us super behind on getting to Santa Fe. We ate dinner on the road all day including a stop at EG’s favorite McDonalds 🤦🏻‍♀️ and it cost us $42 to eat there 😳

We finally made it our campsite at 9:30 that night. And it was so weird to arrive in the dark. Honestly in the dark Santa Fe seemed a little questionable. And the landscape from downtown Santa Fe to the campsite changed drastically in 8 miles. We were staying at 8000 ft and it was pretty chilly up there. 

Friday morning after cooking breakfast at the campsite we headed out for more NPS geek things. We went to Los Alamos to visit the second site that is dedicated to the Manhattan Project. It was a cute little walking tour around town - which reminded me a lot of Oak Ridge. We did get to go in the Bethue House and see Fredrick Reiner’s Noble Peace Prize. And we were able to look in the windows of the cottage that Oppenheimer lived in. The Fuller Lodge was really cool. It use to be a school for boys until the government took over the area and then it became a lodge for visitors to Los Alamos to stay. 


The town did have a free science museum that we took the girls to. After our lunch of Chipotle leftovers from the night before we headed over to Bandelier National Monument. Which is a beautiful canyon with cliff dwellings and petroglyphs. The trail around the majority of the sites was 1.4 miles and it included stairs and a ladder that allowed you to do into one of the dwellings. However EG and I were sad because the other dwelling was closed due to vandalism. I just don’t understand why people vandalize things 🤷🏻‍♀️


Once we finally made it back to Santa Fe we ran the store to pick up some supplies and headed back to camp to cook dinner. 

Initially we wanted to spend most of Saturday around camp and do some hiking but the two NPS sites took longer than expected on Friday. So we ended up going into town Saturday. We started with a trip to the artists market and farmers market. While we were there we had craft ice cream. I had coconut sorbet, Daniel had Cinnamon Chili, and EG had strawberry lemonade sorbet - and I think it was the best! 


Then we headed down to the park plaza to walk around old town. We had lunch at the Coyote Cantina. It wasn’t exactly what we wanted but we waited too late to eat and a lot of things were closed 🤦🏻‍♀️But the food was pretty good. Daniel and EG’s tacos were the best. And our Guac was fantastic. But my frito pie was kinda bland. It needed some salt or something. 

Saturday evening they were calling for storms so we headed back up to the campsite to get the tent set up for the night before it started storming. Daniel was hoping they would miss the forecast but….they did not. I swear it was one of the worst storms I’ve ever been in. And of course I’m sure it felt worse because we were in a tent. But it would lightning and then thunder and the thunder would roar for almost two minutes before it quit.  We survived….I didn’t sleep very much…but we survived.

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