Bandolier National Monument

I started my day by heading north on 84 out of Santa Fe NM. After arriving at 502 I took it west towards Los Alamos National Lab. The road was nice and scenic and since I decided to take it easy today I cruised along at the speed limits. BTW if you go the speed limit on the major roads you are blown away by the speed of the other drivers. I wonder where all of us Americans are going in such a hurry? Just before Los Alamos I hopped on 4S. It was twisty and steep, but very scenic. Lots of trees and mountains. I made my way over to Bandelier Nat. Monument and used my National Parks Annual Pass for the 4th time since May. The park was formed by a gigantic volcano more than 1000 times stronger the last volcano to go off in the US this past century. With erosion and other natural events thru the years you now have many canyons. The terrain was rugged. In Frijoles Canyon some of the rock formations were very soft and caves formed. The Ancestral Pueblo Indians used these caves to live in. The valley provided most of the things they needed to survive. Numerous Indian tribes used the caves to live in. I walked the main trail which is only 1.2 miles and looked at the caves and other structures that were built. There must have been a very old car rally to the park because I saw about 10 old but in very good shape vehicles. On the return trip I walked on the nature trail and came upon a very large female mule deer. I took some pictures, we talked for a while and then I let her rest in the shade. They have very big ears. Back on the bike I continued on 4W thru the Jemez Mountains. The road narrowed and became more steep and curvy. It was good riding but I didn't get much of a chance to look around except for the short straight stretches. Before I got to 550S I came upon the Soda Dam. The Jemez River flows thru and under and eventually over an area where the calcium deposits have built up over thousands of years. It is now 300' long by 30' thick. People were swimming in the river where the water flows thru the rocks into a pool. After 550 ended I turned north on 25 back to Santa Fe. Today was a no worries day for the t-shirt and AMU. I rode 172 miles today. By wearing the t-shirt every day I have quite a nice biker's tan. If I took off the t-shirt it would look like I still had one on only it would look white. I ate dinner at the Cowgirl Bar and listened to a country western band. Tomorrow I start the long haul to San Diego across a lot of hot road. I can't go the way I wanted to because of the large wild fire that is burning up NE Arizona. The t- shirt sez Hey! To all it's fans.